The family on the cover: the heirs of famous dynasties in the American Forbes. du Pont dynasty

Death merchants

This is the richest family in America. DuPont is a US family financial and industrial group, their main enterprise, the DuPont de Nemours concern, produces synthetic fibers, plastics, chemicals, oil and gas products, and mines coal.

Du Ponts control the largest industrial corporations and a number of credit and financial institutions.

The du Ponts are descended from the French Huguenots, and the ancestor of the dynasty is Pierre Samuel Dupont, who founded the "Dupont de Nemours" in 1803. To date, there are about two thousand of his descendants, all of them are far from poor people. But this family also has its own financial elite, numbering up to three hundred people.

The descendants of the Du Ponts are undoubtedly more educated than their parents and grandparents. They look at the world much more broadly and relate to the vicissitudes of fate more easily.

By the way, the fate of the Du Ponts refutes the popular belief that after three generations the rich poor return to poverty. To date, at least the ninth generation of DuPonts is bathing in gold, and they are not going to go bankrupt at all.

The largest Dupont company is the oldest of them - "Dupon de Nemours", but among the Duponts there are many smaller entrepreneurs. Together they make up great power. Unlike other families in which cooperation most often develops between siblings (like the Rockefellers, for example), the Du Ponts have well-developed coordination between cousins ​​and even between more distant relatives.

The du Pont cousins ​​are united by a network of family holding companies and trust funds, which ensures uniformity in the management of family businesses.

"Dupont de Nemours", having overcome the first difficulties of development, began to develop rapidly. Its owners, who were educated in France, produced high-quality gunpowder. The flourishing of the company was facilitated both by the war with England in 1812 and (in more) Civil War.

After the end of the war, when the country was overflowing with surpluses of gunpowder, the DuPonts, together with the owners of other gunpowder factories, organized the Gunpowder Trade Association, known as the "Gunpowder Trust", which completely controlled the market for gunpowder and explosives and dictated their prices. They sold their products for less than their competitors until they liquidated their businesses and then raised their prices again.

Various companies ruined by the trust were bought or taken over by the DuPonts. In 1912, the Du Ponts were prosecuted on charges of creating a monopoly. The generals and admirals who spoke at the trial showed that the Du Pont monopoly on the production of smokeless military powder must not only be preserved, but also supported in the interests of national security. The court agreed with the opinion of the military.

During the First World War, Dupont de Nemours became the flagship of American industry: 40% of the shells produced by the Allies were ejected from guns by the power of Dupont explosives, the company met 50% of the country's domestic needs for dynamite and black powder.

With the money earned during this war, the DuPonts bought a stake in the General Motors Corporation, formed as a result of the merger of 21 independent automobile companies, and soon acquired a controlling stake in this company.

In addition to the automotive industry, after the First World War DuPonts were able to penetrate into the chemical, oil and rubber industries. They also have solid portfolios of shares in other large companies: the United States Rubber Company, the Wilmington Trust Company, the American Sugar Refining Company, the MidContinent Petroleum Corporation, the Philips Petroleum Company, and the United Fruit Company. In addition, the Du Ponts created the Bredin, Carpenter, Good Samaritan, Kremer, Sharp, Teano and many others funds.

In the mid-thirties, the Du Ponts were again prosecuted on charges of creating a monopoly. Newspapers branded them as "merchants of death". But this trial also generally ended in favor of the industrialists.

During the Second World War, the government invited Dupont de Nemours to develop atomic weapons, because it was the only company that had the necessary equipment and specialists capable of performing such a task.

After lengthy negotiations, the Du Ponts agreed, stipulating that their profit would be one dollar. It was a political move made in order not to spoil his reputation. Indeed, otherwise the newspapermen could accuse the Du Ponts of profiting from the deaths of millions of people.

After World War II, the du Ponts turned to the production of peaceful products, the advertisement of which reads: "better things for a better life through chemistry."

According to their religion, Du Ponts are Protestants, and according to their worldview, they are Republicans. They have always been the mainstay and support of the Republican Party. Particularly significant was the participation of the du Ponts in the fight against the Democratic Party in the 1930s. If they themselves are not kings, then at least they nominate and confirm kings.

The Du Pont fortune, measured in hundreds of millions, is of truly aristocratic origin. Its history dates back to 1802, when Elefer Irene Dupop de Nemours, the offspring of a French family that fled the Directory after the revolution, built on the river. Brandywipe in Delaware is a small powder mill. Before emigrating to the United States, his family played a prominent role in the political life of France. Victor, Irene's brother, was an emissary of Talleyrap, the cunning minister of foreign affairs under the Directory. The founder of the family, Pierre Samuel Dupont, distinguished by charm and intelligence, even before the revolution, managed to go from a petty bourgeois to a member of the upper strata of French society. Pierre Samuel was a close friend of Ken and the economists who were part of his circle, he even came up with a name for them - the Physiocrats, a nickname that has been preserved for them forever. He wrote essays on rural life and praised agriculture as the main area of ​​application of human labor.
When the revolution took place, Pierre Samuel was elected as a delegate to the Constituent Assembly. He welcomed the fall of the Bastille, but committed the unforgivable political act of joining the club of 89, and thus classifying himself as a moderate; for the Jacobins, this was tantamount to giving support and aid to the enemy. In 1791, he was removed from participation in political activities and opened a printing house. A year later, the revolutionaries blacklisted his name, and when he joined the ranks of the Swiss guard that defended the king, he was already among those doomed to liquidation. In the shop of 1794 he was arrested, and if the advancing Thermidor had not released him from prison, he would undoubtedly have lost his head on the guillotine. But the political unrest continued, and the Du Pont family, numbering thirteen people, decided to move to America; in 1799 they arrived in Newport, Rhode Island. There Dupont, father, always overwhelmed by grandiose plans, set out to carry out a plan to create a land and settlement company. However, his attempt to sell shares in the projected company failed completely. In addition, in a number of states foreigners were not allowed to own land. Despite his excellent connections with luminaries such as Jefferson, DuPont's future looked bleak. But happiness smiled at this family. Once, while hunting, Irene Dupont had the idea that a gunpowder factory would have come in handy here. In France, he worked as a chemist in the manufacture of gunpowder not for anyone, but for Lavoisier himself; here in America he was led by the poor quality of gunpowder. A visit to a local gunpowder factory convinced him that the American gunpowder manufacturers were clearly incompetent and that he was quite capable of surpassing them. Op calculated that by spending $30,000 on the plant, he could produce 160,000 pounds of gunpowder a year and make at least $10,000 in profit. At first, Dupont Father was by no means inspired by this idea, but when it became clear that the project would guarantee success, he gave him his blessing, and Irepe and Victor went to France to get equipment and technical specialists.
By this time, Napoleon came to power, who had nothing against allowing the Du Ponts to carry out their plans, if only because it competed with the British - the main suppliers of high-quality gunpowder for the United States. A family company was quickly established with $36,000 capital to cover 18 founders' shares of $2,000 each. The du Ponts retained 12 shares, allowing only a few American and foreign investors to participate in the firm. The DuPonts also retained the right to appoint the director of the enterprise, and Irene immediately took up this post with an annual salary of $ 1,800. A farm in Delaware was chosen as the site for the construction of the plant. The manufacture of gunpowder was planned to be deployed in a number of brick buildings, the walls of which were supposed to protect against the consequences of accidental explosions. Jefferson soon gave the company the first government order.
In 1802 the firm was reorganized. Its properties in Alexandria, Virginia, and in New Jersey were concentrated in the hands of the New York branch; there was an office in Paris; the main enterprise of the company, the gunpowder factory, was in charge of the Wilmington Powder Company. The New York and Paris branches soon went bankrupt, and Victor returned to Delaware to work with his brother in the gunpowder industry. In order to increase the capital, a partner was attracted, but the family did not take out strangers, and soon he was removed. Things were going uphill: from 1804 to 1805, sales increased from $15,000 to $97,000. Seeing the success of Pierre's sons, Samuel became more and more enthusiastic. In 1811, he founded a wool factory, the raw material for which was the wool of a specially bred merino sheep. The war of 1812 demanded not only gunpowder, but also fabrics for soldiers' uniforms. True, a few years later the wool factory was closed, but gunpowder continued to be the main product of Du Pont. The grade of gunpowder they produced provided longest range flight of a bullet or core; DuPont's high-quality products were in great demand. The well-timed formation of a stock of saltpeter just on the eve of the war created excellent conditions for the company to fulfill government orders in 1812 for the supply of 200 thousand pounds of gunpowder; a year later, government orders reached £500,000. Now it was possible to start expanding the case,. acquiring neighboring land.
The du Ponts doubled the production capacity of their enterprise: they took the leading place among the manufacturers of gunpowder in America, although the company experienced unfavorable periods from time to time. They have already adjusted well to American life; Victor was elected to the Delaware State Legislature. But, despite the high demand for gunpowder, there was often a lack of capital. Yet the need for gunpowder continued to be great, as expansion to the West replaced war as the source of such demand. An explosion in 1815 that killed 9 workers caused $20,000 worth of damage. Fortunately, the family was able to raise the $30,000 needed to keep the business going. Another, even more serious explosion occurred in 1818, when 40 people were killed and property damage amounted to $ 120 thousand, but this time the financial tension was not so strong; it became apparent that the company was capable of overcoming its initial adversities.
Victor died in 1827, Irene - seven years later. Control of the firm passed to Alfred, son of Irene. The family lived and worked together in the form of a kind of closed community, located on the territory around the plant. The company owned all the land, houses and property, providing family members with everything they needed. No one received a salary: cash was given to any member of the family as needed. The war with Mexico in 1848 increased the profits of the company: the government purchased one million pounds of gunpowder in connection with this campaign. The management of the firm then passed from Alfred to his brother Henry, who graduated from West Point and served in the army. Nicknamed "the general", Henry managed the affairs of the company in a way that only a military man could do, demanding obedience in everything to the smallest detail.
Having learned that his competitors were making cheap gunpowder for mining and explosive and industrial purposes, the “general” surreptitiously found out his production recipe, and then gathered his rivals and informed them that he was ready to unleash a flail war, unless they went with him. for a deal. As a result, an agreement was signed, including the regulation of flails and other cartel-type conditions, and the Du Ponts continued to safely supply gunpowder for the Crimean and other wars. Although the "general" was a master at using economic levers, he was less successful in the field of technology. If not for his nephew Lamothe, who insisted on the use of the latest technology for the production of explosives, the company would have been in the tail. technical progress in this industry. Lamothe created pyroxylin gunpowder with greater explosive power than black powder produced by traditional technology, and convinced the "general" that the product he proposed could be used at least for industrial purposes.
Once again, the war gave a boost to the Du Pont business: during the Civil War, they sold an estimated 4 million pounds of gunpowder to the federal government. However, although military supplies were very profitable, they led to a reduction in the sale of Du Pont products for civilian purposes, and their competitors took advantage of this. Meanwhile, nitroglycerin was invented, and Alfred Nobel managed to stabilize this dangerous compound with diatomaceous earth and use mercury fulminate as a detonator. By 1866, dynamite had been invented - the most powerful of the explosives created by that time by human genius. But the "general" paid little attention to these achievements: he preferred to create a stable market for his products, using a method suitable for this purpose to intimidate competitors. In April 1872, the “general”, using his inimitable tricks, persuaded all the main firms to unite in the US Gunpowder Manufacturers Association, in which the three largest companies, including Du Pont, each had ten votes, and fourteen votes were distributed among three smaller firms. The Gunpowder Trust, as the association was soon dubbed, survived all other such associations, with the exception of the Rockefeller empire. The "big three" dominated the trust, and the Du Ponts dominated this three. All members of the trust sold gunpowder at the same price and divided the country among themselves into regions assigned to each of them for monopoly use. The DuPonts then acquired California Powder Works with the goal of turning it into their stronghold on the US West Coast; this purchase was followed by a secret purchase of shares in Hazard Company, one of the trust's Big Three. In the gunpowder concern, the Du Ponts no longer simply dominated, they established their absolute control over it. The California acquisition gave DuPont access to the dynamite market as well.
By 1880, Geperal had taken over eleven more companies, leaving Laughlin and Rand, one of the original Big Three, as its only clear competitor. The three main members of the Gunpowder Trust then organized the Repauno Chemicals Company to manufacture dynamite, but since the shares of the "Hazard Company" were secretly bought up by the DuPonts, this firm also had to follow the directives of the "General". While all these cunning commercial frauds were being committed, Nobel did not receive deductions due to him, since a court case was brought against him, calling into question his patent rights. Subsequently, several factories in eastern California were included in Repauno Chemicals and as a result a new company was formed - the Hercules Powder Company. The acquisition of another powder company, which Nobel contracted to manufacture his detonator cap, completed the concentration of all the latest innovations in the production of explosives in the hands of Du Pont.
Around this time, there is a sharp fight between the Du Pont family and the Rockefellers. The latter established their control over almost two-thirds of the market for nitric acid and other materials used in the cracking of gasoline, as well as in the manufacture of dynamite. It occurred to the people of Standard Oil that they might as well include the manufacture of explosives in their domain; as a result, one day a delegation from 26 Broadway showed up at the Du Pont headquarters in Delaware and demanded that the Rockefellers transfer a significant share of the dynamite market. Needless to say, the Du Ponts opposed this; when Standard Oil began building several dynamite plants in New Jersey, a real industrial war broke out. Independent chemical firms came to the rescue of the Du Ponts, but the fight only ended when Standard Oil found itself bound by government antitrust prosecutions and forced to retreat from the Du Ponts, who breathed a sigh of relief.
The rough old "general" who ruled the empire with an iron fist died in 1889, and his nephew Eugene, who served as a chemical engineer in the company, became the head of the business. As soon as he was elevated to the rank of chief arbiter of the du Ponts, Eugene began constructing a new building with electricity and even a telephone. His cousin, Alfred I. Dupont, demanded more rights to run the company, although the rest of the family doubted Alfred's abilities, since he had once failed to ferret out the French secrets of smokeless powder production. Such a failure was not easily forgotten in the family; in 1897, they had to pay $81,600 for Hudson Maxim's smokeless powder patent. In any case, it was decided to abandon the family partnership and form the Yu. I. Dupont de Nemours and Company ”, in which Eugene received the presidency, other family members took various leadership positions, and Alfred turned out to be a simple director.
The crisis came with the death of Eugene in 1902. Feeling that the family could no longer cope with the business, the du Ponts decided to sell him to Laflip and Rand for $ 12 million. However, Alfred vigorously objected to this and demanded that the firm be kept in the hands of his families. Moreover, he stated that for such a sum he himself was ready to acquire the company and that he needed only a week to get the money. Two other cousins ​​[fata, Colemap and Pierre, who had not previously been associated with the firm, were involved in the case. This operation turned out to be the greatest deal of the century. This triumvirate offered to pay the above sum of $12,000,000 plus interest on income over a long period, and in cash only $2,100. A new Du Pont firm was established, with Colemain as president, Alfred as vice president, and Pierre as treasurer. When the trio took a breath and calculated the assets of the gunpowder company, it turned out that they amounted to at least $24 million. The new owners generously increased the purchase price to $15,360,000, paying $12 million in bonds, and the rest in shares. The cash contribution of $2,100 was increased. The happy trio gave themselves 85,800 preferred shares as a reward for their commercial savvy.
Among the three cousins, Alfred was the only one with some direct experience in the affairs of the company. Coleman labored in mining and was distinguished by such volitional qualities which instilled in him the confidence of even the old owners of the firm. Coleman found that the DuPonts accounted for only 40% of the total assets of the company. The DuPont concern, as well as several of its subsidiaries, was in fact a holding company that controlled a number of firms that were formally considered competitors. Of the twenty-two explosives firms in the United States, fifteen were subsidiaries of either the DuPonts or Lflyn Epd Rand, and the interests of the two giants were so intertwined that it was literally impossible to tell who was who. If it happened that Laughlin & Rand, which was still officially an independent concern, decided to buy the Du Ponts, the Du Ponts' position would be hopeless: the Du Ponts had only one option - to buy Laughlin & Rand. Coleman did just that, agreeing on a price of $4 million. The terms of the deal here were the same as in the acquisition of the old Du Pont firm: the cash contribution was a mere trifle - $ 2,000, and the principal amount - bonds. Delaware Securities was established to sell the bonds on the stock exchanges; in fact, it was not the DuPonts who paid for Laughlin and Rand, but the buyers of the bonds. When all the companies involved in the manufacture of explosives were so closely connected with each other, there was no longer a need for the Gunpowder Trust. Coleman promptly dismissed it, deeming it imprudent to maintain an institution that might attract the attention of a vigilant government. Being as skilled a financial manipulator as Jay Gould or J.P. Morgan, although he managed not so big things, Coleman managed to control 60% of American explosives production within six months.
The "Young Turks" of the Du Pont company realized that gunpowder could open them access to the world of chemistry. They set up several research laboratories and purchased their first paint factory. The organizational structure of the company's management was improved, the newly established executive committee was headed by Coleman. The "general's" one-man stingy administrative methods were no longer good enough. It was necessary to know exactly how each product is produced and what its actual cost is. Supply and marketing should be organized at the maximum possible scientific basis. A confederation of loosely connected small units had to be transformed into a centralized enterprise. In fact, what had already been done at Carpegui and at General Electric was to be done at the Du Ponts. In 1905, a new reorganization was carried out, and capitalization increased to 59,500 thousand dollars. The sale of products went well enough, allowing periodic redemption of issued bonds and generous dividends to shareholders; the bulk of the income went, of course, to family members.
In the company itself, a merger of production enterprises was carried out, administrative departments were created, and a sales group was organized. The Du Pont firm was reshaped - mainly by Pierre, a quiet man with an accounting mindset - in the image of a corporate hierarchy. Departments were created on a functional basis: production, sales, supply, equipment and technology, research and implementation. In its organizational structure, the company became indistinguishable from any other large corporation.
Yet not everything went smoothly: friction within the triumvirate threatened a new crisis. Alfred's absurd actions were very disapprovingly regarded in the family - his divorce and immediately after this new marriage caused condemnation. It was believed that Alfred was too extravagant, and his adventures were too often reported in the press. A significant part of the family simply ostracized him and his new wife. In addition, the company was embroiled in yet another antitrust lawsuit launched by the government in 1907, and Alfred's attitude to this was considered not serious enough in the family. In general, he was a threat, and he was gradually removed from the duties that were assigned to him in the firm. Stung by the machinations of his cousins ​​and considering himself fired, he moved to Paris in 1911 and began to live there on an annual income of $400,000.
The antitrust case was taking a bad turn for the DuPonts: all the evidence and testimonies were in favor of the government. In all, since 1902, when Coleman entered the scene, the Du Pont company has taken over sixty-four firms and taken control of another sixty-nine. It is noteworthy that, fortunately for the Du Ponts, representatives of the army and navy who insisted on maintaining the monopoly in the interests of national security. As a result, twelve factories remained behind the Dupont company, eleven smaller factories passed to the newly created company, which was given the name Hercules Powder, which had already appeared before, and ten more formed the Atlas Powder Company. Of course, the position of the giant was retained by the DuPont company.
Coleman, despite his poor health, continued to participate in the management of the company, although Pierre was now its main leader. The firm was doing well: from 1804 to 1910, dividends rose by almost 12%. In addition, Coleman was engaged in other enterprises that took up most of his time; his favorite creations were the McAlpin Hotel and the Equitable Building in New York. War was again on the horizon, and the Du Pont company was already preparing to again supply huge quantities of gunpowder, pyroxylin and trinitrotoluene. But Coleman's health continued to deteriorate, and with Pierre he had disagreements on some issues in the direction of the company's activities. In addition, Pierre began to recruit from among persons who are not family members. Needing cash for his own speculative operations, Colemain raised the question of selling his stake in the company. In order to avoid new intra-family quarrels, he proposed that persons acting as "certain employees" of the company should purchase 20,000 shares at $160 per share. Alfred, who was still a member of the board of the firm, objected to such a deal, stating that employees should not pay more than $125 per share. The Allied Powers in Europe were also alarmed, they feared that German capital might acquire a stake in the Du Pont company. However, it was clear that the buyer of these shares had already been decided and it was supposed to be someone like Pierre.
Indeed, a syndicate consisting of family members and their relatives had already been formed to purchase shares. The operation was financed by the ubiquitous J.P. Morgan, who received: $500,000 in commission for placing a loan of $8,500,000. Alfred argued that the success of the loan was ensured not by Pierre's personal authority, but by the prestige of the company. Therefore, he declared, the shares should become the property of the company. * Pierre and his associates not only slammed the door in front of Alfred, but also locked it with a key. To control enterprises:
Du Pont established a $240 million holding company, and Christiana Securities Corporation was formed to finance the acquisition of Coleman's stake. Alfred's indignation knew no bounds. In retaliation, he set up a bank to rival the Du Pont financial business in Wilmington, and built for it a building taller than the Du Pont office.
But all these were only detours, and the direction of the main blow was a lawsuit that relatives, who sympathized with Alfred, filed against Pierre and his companions in order to force them to return Colemain's shares to the company. A family member who said he would testify for the plaintiffs was promptly fired from the firm. Alfred bought a newspaper in which he pilloryed his hated relatives. Interestingly, when the case went to federal court in 1916, the value of the disputed shareholding had risen to $60 million. During the course of the judicial investigation, it was discovered that all members of the Morgan banking consortium were Du Pont depositors. The day after the loan deal was closed at eleven of these banks, the amount of Du Pont's deposits suddenly tripled.
Pierre declared all this to be a coincidence, he swore that he did not know which banks had joined the Morgan syndicate. The bankers, in turn, vigorously swore in court that the loan was granted against the personal obligations of Pierre, and the latter argued that the position taken by Alfred could damage the company. All the accusations and counter-accusations convinced the judge that Alfred was the victim here, but instead of making a clear decision, he decided to hold a meeting of shareholders for the election of the company's management without the participation of Coleman's shareholders. In the ensuing battle over the quantitative distribution of voting rights, Pierre intimidated all shareholders, most of them members of his family, with the danger of "serious economic consequences" and thus managed to win with a score of 3: 1. Enraged, Alfred took the case to the Supreme Court, where his claim was rejected in 1919.
Alfred by no means fell into poverty. A decade later, he unmistakably anticipated the onset of the stock market crash by selling $2 million worth of securities in time. Profits were high. His real estate speculation and banking activities in Florida increased his wealth. When he died in 1935, his fortune was as solid as that of any of the Du Ponts. The value of the property left after Alfred by 1962 reached 300 million dollars, and the annual income from it exceeded 8 million dollars, and most of it went to the widow. Alfred's legacy included large deposits in about thirty banks, a large paper company, extensive forest land, several railroads, an independent telephone company, over 700,000 shares of Yu. I. Dupont de Nemours, 400 thousand shares of General Motors and significant real estate holdings in Florida and Delaware.
The Du Pont company also prospered, especially on military orders. During the First World War, the Allied Powers were told that their needs could be met if they paid 50% of the cost of supplies in cash and if they agreed to a price level that would allow the Du Pont firm to quickly amortize the increased production capacity. To satisfy these conditions, one dollar had to be paid for a pound of explosives. By the end of 1916, the DuPont company was producing 100,000 tons of trinitrotoluene per month for the allied armies. It can be considered that 40% of the firepower of the allies had their source of supply from the company. When the United States entered the war, the price of smokeless powder was reduced to 47.5 cents a pound because Congress refused to pay more. This is not to say that DuPont suffered greatly as a result, although the company did not always achieve what it wanted. The government was adamant, and to some government officials, the Du Pont firm was presented as a bunch of "violators of the law." The Allies, in any case, were grateful to the US government, since they, too, were now paying more low price for explosives.
New factories, such as Old Hickory in Tennessee, were built by the company at government expense. The plant in question cost $85 million. When the war ended, Washington naturally canceled the contracts. Old Hickory was sold to the Nashville Industrial Corporation, which then immediately ceded a large part of the enterprise to the Du Ponts for $800,000. In the end, the government, which invested $85 million in the business, returned only a tiny amount in 3.5 mln. From 1914 to 1919, the annual profit of the Du Pont firm approached 60 million dollars, while in 1913 it amounted to only 5 million dollars. The main beneficiaries of this were the shareholders, that is, the Du Pont family. The company acquired new paint and varnish enterprises. She bought military surpluses on the cheap. But there was still $0 million left in the liquidity account, and it would be a sin to waste so much money. As one writer remarked, the hen had to be forced to bring out the chicks.
The cunning John Raskob, one of Pierre Dupont's closest associates, came up with the idea of ​​buying more shares of General Motors. As early as 1915, a Du Pont relative was on the board of directors of Chevrolet, Durant's new company, and the Du Pont firm took the bait at General Motors by buying three thousand shares. Shortly thereafter, Durant got into a titanic battle with the bankers over control of General Motors, and as a result of the ensuing compromise, four representatives of the Du Pont firm were on the board of directors of the automobile company * Moreover, Pierre himself became chairman of the board, and Du Pont investments in " General Motors increased. Raskob quickly realized that the car company could become a major buyer of paints and varnishes; as a result, the DuPonts invested $25 million in General Motors in 1918, and another $24 million the following year. assets, and with the help of Alfred Sloan, they reorganized the faltering firm according to their own ideas. Sloan broke, reshaped and restructured the car company; it was a tedious job, but in the end it turned General Motors into an industry leader.
The government did not take kindly to the "marriage" between General Motors and the Du Pont firm: in 1927 it took official steps to achieve a divorce of the two giants, but Washington's antitrust attempts were in vain. Then, in 1934, senators attacked the DuPont company as a "dealer in death" and accused it of supporting fascist and anti-Semitic groups while nurturing a monstrous international munitions cartel. In 1949, another antitrust case was filed against the DuPonts, but a federal court judge found that the government had failed to prove that the DuPonts controlled General Motors, even though at times they owned a 51% stake in the automobile company. Finally, in 1957, the Supreme Court determined that although the DuPonts actually held enough shares in Diasoperal Motor to create the possibility of a monopoly, they had no real desire to break the law; so the DuPonts were given a ten-year time limit to get rid of the shares of General Motors. By that time, 63 million of these shares were worth over a billion dollars. Throwing them into the stock market would have created a panic on the stock exchanges, it was even scary to think about it. On the other hand, distributing them among the shareholders of the DuPont firm itself would mean having to pay a tax on the increased capital, which also did not suit them. A good-natured senator from Delaware found a way out, introducing a special bill amending the tax laws to allow for such an "orderly" disposal of stocks in which no one would suffer. And the fact that the Internal Revenue Service does not receive substantial sums will not cause much harm.
By this time, the activities of the Dupopov company were no longer limited to the production of gunpowder. Back in 1915, the company began to experiment with chemicals, and a year later began to study the prospects for the production of dyes. When the government seized enemy property in 1918, the Du Ponts received their rightful share, chiefly in the form of German dye patents. Invented in 1868, cellophane came under the control of the Du Ponts in the 1920s. The patent for the manufacture of kozhemite fell into the hands of the firm when it acquired the Fabricoid Company in 1910. Next, the Dupops bought an enterprise for the production of viscaloid, synthetics from the celluloid family. The $60 million acquisition of Grashelly Chemicals in 1928 heralded the entry of the DuPonts into the plastics industry. By 1958, their company could already boast of producing 1,200 different types of products.
Perhaps the most notable development was the invention of peylon in 1934 by Du Pont chief chemist Wallace Carruthers. Nylon is a synthetic fiber that looks like silk and has the same properties. At first, nylon thread was very strong, but as it became thinner, as fashionistas demanded more and more transparent fabric, it wore out faster.
From time to time, the antitrust hydra hid its venomous sting: in 1952, DuPont was ordered to take orders for the supply of polyethylene - another synthetic product - from everyone. The company has spread its activities throughout the globe, it has settled in England, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Holland, Canada. Du Pont is the fifteenth largest corporation in the United States, according to the latest figures in an economics journal, with annual sales of almost $3.5 billion and a very respectable return on investment of $13. %.
The family still maintains a dominant position in the corporation and leads a lifestyle befitting such great wealth. Quite in the spirit of the old aristocracy, one of the Du Ponts keeps a musician on his salary for organ concerts. Measures have been taken to prevent the erosion of the family's fortunes under the influence of taxes. Over the years, some 18 foundations have been established, few of them with genuine philanthropic functions. The two largest of them - "Longwood" and "Winterthur" - own assets of $ 122 million intended for the maintenance of the du Pont princely estates as public museums and botanical gardens. The total net worth of the Du Ponts is now estimated to be over $7 billion, although this figure may be a little too high.
The Mellon fortune, obviously not as large as that of the DuPonts - its visible part is approaching $ 3 billion - is rooted in a number of heterogeneous enterprises, controlled by banking houses, including the main among them - Mellon National Bank of Pittsburgh. The Mellons' holdings represent the first of America's vast conglomerates - combined firms operating simultaneously in a wide variety of industries. Put together by Andrew Mellon, his brother Richard, and the latter's sprinkling William Larimer, this oldest conglomerate now controls the Aluminum Corporation of America, Coppers Company, Carborundum Company, First Boston Corporation, General Rainsurance, and occupies important albeit not dominant positions in Westinghouse, Bethlehem Steel, Pittsburgh Cole, Pittsburgh Plate Glass, and several public utilities. Residents of Western Pennsylvania and other areas also invariably use coal, coke, gas, and aluminum cookware from the Mellons. Their empire also includes the extraction of oil, the production of railroad cars and resin products.
Andrew W. Mellon, the man most responsible for the creation of this prosperous industrial empire, was once famous for his qualities as Secretary of the Treasury, second only to the skill of Alexander Hamilton. Such an assessment depended, of course, on which section of society expressed its views. As a cabinet member - and he served in three Republican governments in the 1920s - he was hardly more talkative than Calvin Coolidge. One Washington commentator remarked that when Coolidge and Mellon met to discuss matters relating to the activities of the Treasury Department, their conversation consisted of continuous pauses.
The Mellon family did not have that aristocratic style that distinguished the Du Ponts; she was more like the Rockefellers and Harrimans who had risen to the status of leaders of industry in the turbulent post-Civil War years. Andrew himself was rather silent, led a reclusive lifestyle, preferring to collect art rather than spend time with members of his circle in social entertainment.
The Mellons are descended from Scotch-Irish immigrants who first settled in Pennsylvania in 1808. Ten years later Thomas Mellop, Epdrew's father, was born. A capable and ambitious man, he became a lawyer and moneylender, and later a judge and a banker. For many years after he left the judge's chair, he continued to wear a frock coat with a high standing collar and a white shirt. His passion was the accumulation of money, and he did it exclusively by legal, if not humane methods. By the time he was 30, he had saved $12,000 and was ready to take advantage of the opportunities that Pittsburgh's booming growth presented. He was helped to some extent by a "strategic" marriage to the daughter of a large landowner.
tsa, which disposed, however, of small cash. As a lawyer, Thomas Mellon understood that mortgage and real estate transactions provided a sure path to wealth. He was constantly on the lookout for property under arrest; his adherence to the law in general served as a basis for him to demand, in case of non-payment on time, the appropriate amount of forfeiture of the right to redeem the mortgage. He insisted that the borrower must comply with the terms of the contract he signed. Quick action was facilitated by the guarantee that came with every mortgage; foreclosure was carried out immediately and automatically. The county council mortgage books were full of entries mentioning the name of Thomas Mellon.
In 1859, Mellon was elected Judge of Allegheny County and served his ten-year term, always paying tribute to scrupulous observance of the law. Having completed his duties as a judge, he again turned to business, opening a private bank on Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh. It was a time when the demand for loans was especially high and the interest on them reached 12. With a modest capital, it was not difficult to move along the road to wealth.
Andrew Mellon was so eager to follow in his father's footsteps that at the age of fifteen he independently carried out a land deal, thereby demonstrating his abilities. A few years later, a judge loaned Andrew and his brother $40,000 so they could go into the timber trade. Their operation lasted only eighteen months, but Andrew found a commercial sense in doing so, as he was able to sense that crisis clouds were gathering over the country, and he liquidated the business just on the eve of the collapse. A year later, he joined his father's bank.
321
11 B. Seligman
The Panic of 1873 took Thomas Mellon, like many others, by surprise. His deposits amounted to 600 thousand dollars, he had only 60 thousand in cash. In addition, the withdrawal of deposits from the bank assumed formidable proportions. Somehow, Mellon had weathered the storm, and now vowed never again to allow unforeseen circumstances to drive him into a trap. However, the economic crisis also had some advantages, because Mellon was able to buy up a wide variety of types of real estate at bargain prices under these conditions. Deprivation of rights to redeem mortgages was strictly carried out according to the letter of the law - business is business. Mellon's main principle was that "honesty is the best policy," and this aphorism was put into practice, regardless of any relationship of kinship, acquaintance, etc. The Ligonier Valley Railroad fell under Mellon's control, and it was destined for her for many years to remain the property of a family that had a sentimental attachment to it. The judge lived to a respectable age -
ninety years; even before his death in 1908, he could be glad that his sons, Richard and Andrew, firmly took matters into their own hands.
By the last quarter of the 19th century, the economy was booming, with many entrepreneurs reaping a bountiful harvest, but others only seeing it as a fleeting whirlwind. One of the most aggressive businessmen of the time was Henry Clay Frick. One day, needing money to expand his coking business, he visited a judge to borrow $10,000 from him. The judge knew the West Pennsylvania coal industry—he owned thousands of acres of coalfield land—and the ambitious Frick saw a good client. With Mellon's help, Frick quickly became the coke king of Pennsylvania, at the age of thirty he was already a millionaire, surpassing the success of the judge himself at the same age. A useful consequence of all this was a long friendship between Andrew Mellon and Henry Clay Frick, who soon became partners, first in real estate, and then in more promising operations.
In 1882, Andrew took over the management of the bank, and then all the rest Mellon enterprises - real estate, urban railroads, coal mines. Together with Frick, they acquired the Pittsburgh National Bank of Commerce; in 1883 he founded the Union Insurance Company; in 1886, in company with Frick and several other businessmen, they formed the Fidelity Title Company to manage the land holdings, then the Union Transfer and Trust Company arose, later transformed into the Union Trust Company. Meanwhile, Frick demonstrated to Andrew how an industrialist should treat unruly workers by crushing their unions at the coke plants. The young, prosperous magnate was not at all worried that the workers he imported from Europe had to live in dirty shacks along the banks of the Monongahila, devoid of all the sanitary and other benefits of civilized life. It was enough that they dared to protest against the working conditions he established. The answer to these protests was the creation of the "coal police".
Mellon decided that he should not be limited to just lending money. Like the New York financiers, he had to demand a share in every new enterprise. When Alfred Hunt and George Clapp approached him in 1889 to support Hall's electrolytic aluminum smelting process, Mellon saw a tempting prospect and offered them $25,000 in exchange for a block of shares. This was undoubtedly one of the many important commercial decisions he had to make; it resulted in the creation of the Aluminum Corporation of America. In 1901, Colonel James M. Guffey asked for
financial support for the exploitation of an oil field discovered in Texas, and this led to the founding of the Gulf Oil Company. In 1905, the gifted inventor J. J. Acheson appeared with a grinding stone fused in an electric furnace from a mixture of salt, sand and coke. E. W., as Mellon was now briefly mentioned, lent Acheson $50,000 to organize the Carborundum Company, with a significant share of the company's shares going to Mellon's bank. The volume of sales of abrasive products to various industries has become an important economic indicator extremely useful in banking. Mellon's conglomerate grew, it covered the Pittsburgh streetcar, coal mines, steel mills, railroad cars, shipyards, metalworking enterprises. The takeover principle was simple - to lend money to a potentially profitable company in exchange for a share in its share capital, preferably a majority share. When the loan was repaid, the shares could be kept, and the money could be used again to acquire another firm. Real success came from dominance and control in this market.
AND*
323
The operation of the principle of absolute control was demonstrated in the coal mines of Mellon. Having capitalized the Monongahila River Consolidated Coal and Cook Company, or Rivercole as it was known, with $30 million, Mellon sent his agents out into the fields to take over the coal mines. Most owners were not discouraged as Mellon offered good prices. In addition, he was the owner of most of the coal barges on the river and, in fact, put the mine owners before a choice: either sell him the mines, or lose the opportunity to ship coal. After a highly diluted capitalization by Mellon's Union Trust, the shares were traded on the stock exchange, but Mellon retained the bonds. The second syndicate - "Pittsburgh Cole", which took over the entire area around this city of steel - was also financed by Mellon. When both concerns had difficulties, they were simply merged and the monopoly turned out to be complete. The merger seemed very reasonable, since the boards of directors actually included the same people. The $25 million bond issue paid off the Pittsburgh Cole's debt to Mellon, and although the whole city was pleased that the banker had taken the first piece of meat for himself, he still remained immune to criticism. Revenues came in the form of nearly $6 million a year in coal mining profits, miners' rents, and profits from the company's retail stores. In the meantime, the Government Commission on Industrial Affairs has made the accusation that half of the amount of new capitalization is one water.
One of the problems of the coke industry was that it could not use by-products of production. If American coal coking methods had not been so wasteful, the industry could have saved at least $20 million a year in the 1980s. The Germans, for example, turned out to be more thrifty, releasing tar, benzene, dyes and explosives as by-products. It was all about the design of the stoves: American cellular stoves simply emitted volatile gases into the atmosphere, while German stoves allowed the use of gas and chemical waste.
In the first decade of this century, a certain Dr. Heinrich Koppers came to the United States to build new kilns in Illinois. Seeing this as yet another profitable venture, Mellon in 1914 bought Coppers' property for $300,000, paying him with shares in the newly formed firm. Poor Coppers! When the United States entered the war, Coppers' shares in the new company were confiscated by Enemy Property Commissioner A. Mitchell Palmer, who was informed by Mellon's agent that a large stake in the Coppers Company was owned by a German. The confiscated shares were sold at a public auction, with the Coppers Company itself acting as the sole buyer, which paid a little over $300,000 for them, although they were already worth $15 million at the time. Old Thomas Mellon would have been delighted with this transaction.
Under Mellon's tutelage, the Coppers Company expanded to include public utilities while operating as a holding company. The placement of shares and bonds was carried out by the Union Trust. From time to time working arrangements were made with public utilities within Mellon's sphere of influence. The company's subsidiaries were penetrating the New York market and doing some fancy business in Boston, evading Massachusetts' strict public utility laws. The practice was very simple: gas plants were built for public utilities, and shares were accepted as payment. These shares could then be multiplied and built into a multi-layer structure in the form of a holding company.
Mellon extended the scope of his activities to the steel industry. Together with Henry Clay Frick, the Pittsburgh banker started an operation to acquire an option on the Carnegie enterprises, and when the deal fell through, the cunning Scot managed to keep the option fee in excess of a million dollars. (He insisted on returning his deposit in cash or bonds, a demand that only Morgan could satisfy.) As if to annoy Carnegie, Frick and Mellon then founded the Union Steel Company, a wire and nail manufacturer. Since the prospects for the sale of steel and ships seemed favorable, they also established the New York Shipbuilding Company. They then acquired a 60% stake in the McClintic Marshall Construction Company, a firm that supplied construction companies with structural steel. Then the set of industrial enterprises was supplemented by the Standard Steel Car Company. After that, the process went in the opposite direction. The Union Steel company created a complete cycle production and has already become such a dangerous competitor that the United States Steel considered it expedient to buy it out for $ 75 million. In 1916, New York Shipbuilding was sold to a large shipowner, Robert Dollar for $ 11.5 million. In 1930, the Standard Steel Car was taken over by Pullman, which paid $ 38.7 million for it, and a year later, Bethlehem Steel acquired McClintic Marshall Construction for 70 million dollars. The last two transactions took place in the midst of the most severe crisis in the history of the country.
But Mellon's main achievement was the Aluminum Corporation. This absolute monopoly came under his wing by accident. When the authors of the electrolytic process were looking for someone to borrow from, Mellon took advantage of the greatest opportunity he ever had, setting up patent controls and protective tariffs to create a completely monopoly market for the then rare metal. C. M. Hall, the inventor of the electrolytic method of metal reduction, realized that he would need a large amount of electricity; his first attempt at a loan from Coles Brothers failed. Anyway, this company was interested in another technology. When Mellon infiltrated Hall's firm, Pittsburgh Reduction, he immediately increased the amount of capitalization, retaining 40%. A vigorously pursued court case against Coles Brothers for patent infringement ended competition from that company; the decision was rendered by Judge William Howard Taft. At first, after Hall's invention, the price of aluminum fell sharply, but now it has begun to rise. This was largely facilitated by the introduction of the tariff. Although the cost of the metal was about 50 cents per pound, consumers were charged 80 cents. Energy from the new hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls increased the daily production of aluminum to 4 tons. Agreements with foreign firms followed, and the monopoly was firmly established.
In 1907, Pittsburgh Ridation became the Aluminum Corporation of America ("AJIKOA"). New factories were also built. Now it was already a large industry. Just before the outbreak of World War I in 1914, a French firm attempted to build an aluminum smelter in North Carolina. However, after the French had invested all their capital in the business, they suddenly found that it was impossible to find the creditors they needed in the United States; the New York bankers told them that the Union Trust in Pittsburgh might respond to their request. This bank rejoiced at the opportunity to purchase French property in the Carolinas, the price he offered meant a loss for them of no more than $ 1 million.
When the government ordered the Aluminum Corporation in 1912 to stop its monopolistic practices that violated antitrust laws, the order was easily ignored. If the right to use patents expired, the preservation of tariff barriers helped. On main view raw materials - bauxites - control was established simply by buying up the largest possible number of supplier enterprises; by 1906 the Aluminum Corporation had captured most of the best bauxite deposits. She also took over the scrap market, as recycled aluminum was considered more valuable than primary. Potential competitors were put in a difficult position by delaying the supply of raw materials, shipping poor quality raw materials to them, charging excessive prices for them, or refusing to supply raw materials at all. The boom in demand for aluminum alloys during the First World War ensured a huge replenishment of the contents of the company's safes. By this time, the two millionth fortune had turned into at least eighty millionth.
Finally, in 1924, the Federal Trade Commission accused the company of violating a 1912 government order and recommended prosecution. However, there have been no visible changes in the company's practices for 12 years. Another attack was made by the Bausch Machine Tool Company, an old aluminum competitor. She accused Aluminum Corporation of fraud, and the evidence was strong enough to recover $ 8 million from Bausch. As it happened, George Haskell of Bausch approached James Duke with an offer to buy his registered in Canada patent for aluminum smelting technology. An interim arrangement had already been made, but one of Duke's employees was in close contact with Arthur Davis of the Aluminum Corporation, and Haskell soon found all doors closed to him. Davis advised Duke not to pursue aluminum at all. Haskell went to court, and his case looked win-win. When Mellon was asked to testify in court, he suddenly lost his memory *
He was saved only by the Court of Appeal, which successfully overturned the sentence originally passed in Haskell's favor.
The Aluminum Corporation seemed to lead a serene life. When Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone thought he could sue the company for violating antitrust laws, he was quickly nominated to the Supreme Court. Nine months later, the Justice Department declared that Pevin's corporation was like a lamb and that Mellon's one-third of its assets did not signify control on his part. The investigation, on behalf of the Ministry, was conducted by an auditor who was neither a lawyer, nor an accountant, nor an economist! Prior to joining the ministry, he served as a simple clerk. After a cursory review that took only ten days, he publicly acquitted the corporation. The senator who was interrogating the auditor flared up: "I would not trust him to investigate even the case of bootlegging." It wasn't until World War II that major competitors were able to take positions in the aluminum industry.
Long before the formation of the Gulf Oil Company, the Mellons had done little bit of oil work. Andrew Mellon's nephew William Larimer roamed Pennsylvania and West Virginia in search of oil wells, and the Mellons soon became one of the largest independent entrepreneurs in the oil industry, with oil pipelines, tanks and a refinery. For a number of years they attacked the interests of Rockefeller, but in the end they were forced to retreat in 1895. They soon returned to the oil industry, however, in a form that could turn them into a real rival to Rockefeller. It all started with a successful drilling in 1901 by Anthony Lucic at Spindletop, near Galveston, Texas. Yugoslav Lucic was an oil explorer financed by the Pittsburgh firm Guffey and Gailey. The Spindletop well produced the largest oil gusher in history. The huge funds required for the exploitation of a giant field exceeded all the resources of both the oil explorer himself and his financial patrons. An inevitable date with Mellon followed. The latter, a highly experienced man, knew how to smell a profitable business when it arose before him. As a result, the Guffy Petroleum Company was created with a capitalization of $ 15 million, of which Mellon retained 40% for himself. Oil production skyrocketed, more and more plots were leased on adjacent lands, and the Mellons again found themselves in the oil industry. The Spindletop well actually opened the oil business in Texas, and it introduced Texas in the 20th century. The already wealthy Mellons became super-rich. In 1906, Guffy Petroleum became Gulf Oil. It now ranks third* in the world among oil producers, and in terms of sales - $ 3.8 billion a year - is in tenth place among the 500 largest industrial enterprises in the country. Today, the Mellons own about one-fourth of the assets of the Gulf Oil Company. Colonel Guffey, who had been removed from the company, sued her for $350,000 many years later and won the case at first instance, but a higher judge overturned the verdict.
A few years later, Gulf Oil reached an agreement so that when E. W. Mellon had almost completed building his empire at home, he was ready to move towards new horizons. Gulf Oil, like other companies, expanded beyond the United States with a particular interest in Mexico. However, the egalitarian sentiments that arose in countries such as Mexico plagued both oil companies as well as Washington. However, there were no grounds for special concerns, since if it had not been possible to take positions in Mexico, there would still be Venezuela, ruled by a dictator who would rather meet the wishes of the Americans. Dollar diplomacy facilitated the penetration of American business into the underdeveloped regions of the globe. For example, as a result of pressure exerted by Washington on Columbia, Mellon managed to obtain a concession there for a period of fifty years. The state south of the Rio Grande could always count on obtaining loans from New York banks at preferential interest rates if the oil problems within these countries were resolved "rationally", and the interpretation of this word depended on Washington.
The empire's companies were coordinated from Pittsburgh, primarily through Union Trust, although the Mellons also controlled Mellon National Bank, Pittsburgh National Bank of Commerce, Citizens National, City Deposit, and Union Savings Bank. »; combined, they held one-third of all bank deposits in that city. The Union Trust, 80% of whose shares were in the hands of Mellon and Frick, had an active balance in 1902 and a profit of $15.5 million. The merger of the old T. Mellon and Suns with the Union Trust led to a redistribution of shares, as a result of which 42% of them ended up with Mellon and his brother. Although at that moment another economic storm broke out, Mellon now had sufficient resources to be able to constantly keep gunpowder dry.
E. W. Mellon always sought to avoid publicity of his personal affairs, he believed that his private life concerns only himself. When he filed a divorce case with his wife, for seven months no reports of this appeared in the Pittsburgh newspapers. To keep Mellon's secret, the Pennsylvania legislature was gracious enough to pass legislation allowing the court to appoint a commissioner to hear testimony in private. Mellon's accusations were preserved in court records, but his wife's answers to them were removed from the file "for verification" and were never returned back there. Such was the power of Mellon.
In philanthropy, E. W. did not try to keep up with fellow millionaires like Carnegie. But he was generous towards both political parties. True, from time to time he gave some amounts to churches, the University of Pittsburgh, he also supported the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research. (It was at that institute that the discovery was made that reduced the amount of yeast and sugar used to make bread, saving the bakery industry millions, but giving America a tasteless white loaf instead of real bread.) University of Pittsburgh, E. W. did little to nothing to keep the building going, and the whole city wondered why Mellon would allow a steel skeleton to grace the sky. speakers, nor liberal ideas it will not be allowed to corrupt the minds of his young charges.
Now E. W. was eager to apply his energies outside the business world, and the opportunity to do so presented itself with the election in 1920 of Harding to the presidency. Mellon was appointed Secretary of the Treasury, and America became intimately acquainted with one of its richest men. A newspaper correspondent reporting Mellon's arrival in Washington wrote that he looked like "a tired accountant in fear of being fired." In government, Mellon found himself surrounded by such luminaries as Harry Dougherty, Will Hayes, Edwin Denby and Albert Fall, that is, among gentlemen who were ready to distribute the natural wealth still remaining at the disposal of science among those who already own almost all industrial enterprises. and financial resources. Mellon, in turn, was ready to grant the business world even more favorable tax laws for him.
The new head of the finance department issued an appeal to keep the savings and reduce the tax on excess profits and income taxes. Considering that the country was now at peace, the proposal seemed quite reasonable, but it turned out that the income tax cut should only apply to people whose incomes exceed $66,000 a year. For those whose income is below this amount, tax rates remain at the same level. Critics of Mellon's proposal, like Senator Robert La Follette, were regarded by the Secretary of the Treasury as ordinary ignoramuses who destroy incentives for business; the prosperity of the country can come only if the rich wish it. The appeal to common sense of this day met with the most favorable reception, and the Secretary of the Treasury's bill passed without difficulty through Congress. It was signed into law and became law in November 1921. The side effect of this was an annual tax savings for the Mellon family of nearly $1 million.
The next "reform", already under Coolidge, graciously provided for a reduction in tax rates for low-income groups by 1-2%. As Mellon's new plan heralded another victory for free enterprise, Wall Street stock prices began to rise. Some academic economists have argued that the tax cuts at that time might have given rise to an unhealthy expansion of production and a ruinous speculative fever on the stock exchange. No one paid any attention to these forerunners of the Keynesians. Surprisingly, the bill was defeated in Congress, which greatly affected Mellon. Moreover, the coalition of Progressives and Democrats in the Congress has gone so bold as to raise the minimum level of income subject to additional taxation, and even increased the inheritance tax rates. Coolidge's return to the presidency in 1924 brought pleasure to Mellon, he felt avenged. The new Congress unfolded with might and main, it eased the tax burden for the rich by $ 700 million. The inheritance tax rate was returned to its previous level, that is, to 20%; discount on inheritance taxes in the states increased to 80%; the fixed capital tax was completely abolished. The Mellon family saved another $2 million in taxes.
The IRS, once reproached for vigorously enforcing federal tax laws, has now suddenly become generous in giving large corporations and the wealthy tax breaks. The frequent discovery of past errors in tax practices has led some senators to wonder aloud whether the "Tipot Doom scandal" is repeating itself. It took only five days to verify Gulf Oil's tax returns; it turned out that the return reached almost 4 million dollars. The government stopped an attempt to audit the administration. Legislators were alarmed by the administration's generosity in providing large discounts on depletion while ignoring profit margins and cutting tax liabilities. The discovery of depletion allowances and deductions for deferred payments meant an additional reduction in tax revenues to the treasury. The Democrats considered the eight percent investment incentive a shameless violation of the law, they began to shout that Uncle Sam turned into Santa Claus. At the head of the column seeking the return of part of the taxes was “Yu. S. Steele, on just one check issued to the trust by a Treasury official, the trust was paid back $27 million. The Mellon family benefited from this nearly $7 million. more energetic support for the finance minister.
Mellon also did not disdain to use the state apparatus to learn how to take advantage of the opportunities offered by tax legislation and the practice of tax regulation. At his request, the Internal Revenue Commissioner drew up a memorandum describing ten possible ways legal tax evasion, and at least five of these methods, Mellon quickly applied in practice. The commissioner, moreover, instructed one of the experts of the department to draw up the tax return of the Minister of Finance himself. The expert soon found himself on Mellon's payroll, setting up family corporations for him and showing him how to cut taxes by selling shares in one family corporation to another. At the same time, the finance minister urged the country's taxpayers to fulfill their legal obligations to the government.
When Herbert Hoover succeeded Calvin Coolidge as president, Mellon remained in the cabinet, but his days seemed to be numbered. The country was gripped by a speculative fever. However, Mellon saw no reason to be alarmed. Then came the collapse, and he reacted only by remarking that a little bloodletting would only benefit the state. In the eyes: Mellon the whole world fell into madness; if, they say, they had listened to him, then order would have been restored. But this kind of orthodoxy began to be questioned: he was now called "a man who has held office too long"; he became the target of attacks on government policy. Some congressmen wanted to impeach him, but they were not allowed to carry out their threat, since Hoover removed Mellon from the cabinet and appointed him ambassador to England.
However, the Mellon family had a lot of flexibility. During the banking crisis of 1933, most of the banks closed, but the Mellon Bank continued to operate. The Mellons had enough cash in their safes to pay customers' checks, and besides, they saw this crisis as a great chance to win over depositors from other banks. The crisis enveloped the country like a cloudy smog hanging over Pittsburgh. When the city's fund for those in need was established, Mellon's sense of what constitutes genuine charity never left Mellon. Donation: the family contribution slightly exceeded $300,000, although the leaders of the city community counted on $1 million. Subsequently, the first donation was followed by another contribution in the amount of $750,000. In the winter of 1931, the governor of Pennsylvania visited Mellon to receive him a loan of $ 1 million for the charitable needs of the state. The governor did not get a loan, but he did get to see E. W. Mellon's latest acquisition of art worth $1,700,000.
Mellon was charged in 1935 by the new Democratic government that he had deceived the government by evading $1,300,000 in income tax for 1931 through a combination of redistributing shares bought at cut-price among them. himself, his bank and the family holding company. The Government argued that these transactions, which were accompanied by large write-offs of capital, were not legal because they did not involve real movement ownership. In 1937, the appeal court: the tax court ruled in favor of Mellon, considering these transactions to be fully compliant with the requirements of the law.
After the death of E. W. Mellon, his personal fortune amounted to only 37 million dollars; he had already passed on most of his wealth to his children. His son Paul, who aspired to be a publisher, was persuaded to take up banking after college, even though he had no business inclination. Paul preferred to spend his inherited wealth rather than trying to increase it; yet, despite all his varied social activities and his collection of expensive art objects, the family's fortune continued to grow. The businesses were run by Paul's cousin Richard, who ran a vast empire still funded by the Mellon banking system. Paul chose to take over the management of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which the elder Mellon had convinced the elder Mellon to turn over to the state. This magnificent gift meant not only savings on taxes, but also preventing the possibility of squandering such a first-class art collection.
The younger generation obviously has a greater sense of civic responsibility than its predecessors. Among the useful activities carried out by the new generation of the family is the campaign to turn Pittsburgh into a clean city, that is, a thing that only the Mellons could successfully carry out. They also made very large gifts to a number of universities and institutes, much more than old Andrew would have allowed himself. Some observers regard this as only partial compensation for the social ills generated by the formation of a gigantic family fortune.

From Republicans to US Presidents, but also a father of many children. His relationship with children can easily be called a partnership.

Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka is the executive vice president of her father's company, responsible for expanding the real estate part of his empire. She took part in the TV show Candidate, runs her own jewelry company, and wrote a book. Represents the Girl Up Foundation, recruiting American girls to participate in UN programs in third world countries. She graduated with honors from the Wharton Business School. She has been married to real estate heir Jared Kushner since 2009 and has three children.

Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., works with Ivanka in his father's company as executive vice president. True, in the media, his name pops up more often in connection with the birth of another child (38-year-old Trump Jr. became a father for the fifth time last year) than about making a successful deal.

Trump's second son, Eric, also works in his father's company. But his youngest daughter Tiffany did not want to participate in the family business, preferring a career as an actress, although not very successful so far. Trump's youngest son Barron is still only 10 years old, but he is already a frequent guest at Manhattan's secular parties, where he goes with his mother.

Pictured is the cover of the 2006 Forbes special issue of America's 400 Richest People. On the cover—Donald Trump with daughter Ivanka and son Donald Trump Jr.

Ronald and Raymond Perelman

Raymond Perelman is the founder of metalworking company Belmont Industries. He tried to involve his son Ronald in the family business from the age of 11 - the boy was obliged to attend meetings of the board of directors and make his proposals. However, Ronald was not at all interested in metallurgy, but he passionately loved music. In the end, Raymond backed down and put another son, Geoffrey, in charge of his company. But a successful rock musician did not work out from Ronald, and he could no longer return to the company. In the end, he decided to open his own business - taking out loans for $ 1.9 million, he bought a chain of jewelry stores in New York. Perelman soon sold them for $15 million, earning more than $10 million from the operation after repaying a high-interest loan. Perelman liked this way of doing business and he began to buy up one undervalued company after another and soon became famous as a "corporate grabber". In 2016, Forbes estimated the fortune of 73-year-old Perelman at $12.1 billion.

Pictured: the cover of the 2011 Forbes special issue of America's 400 Richest People. On the cover—Ronald and Raymond Perelman.

Mallon family

Judge Thomas Mallon (died 1908) immigrated from Ireland in 1818 and made a fortune in real estate, loans and farming. His son Andrew Mallon (died 1937) was US Secretary of the Treasury and a prosperous banker and investor in companies such as Alcoa and Gulf Oil, among others. His heirs could not surpass a successful ancestor, but they kept the business afloat. Andrew's grandson Timothy is the owner of the New England Company. His great-nephew Richard Skaife (died 2014) ran a media company in Western Pennsylvania that publishes the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper. He donated most of his fortune to charity. Now the family is represented by Matthew Mallon, a venture capitalist. In the Forbes ranking richest families in 2015, the Mallons ranked 21st, the magazine estimated their fortune at $11.5 billion.

Pictured: The cover of Forbes' "America's Richest Families" July 2014 issue. On the cover—Matthew Mallon with his wife and children.

Erme dynasty

Axel Dumas is the director of the Hermès house and the sixth generation of the Hermé dynasty. Hermès has managed to become the most influential company in the luxury market, over the past five years, the company's shares have grown by 175%. According to Forbes, at least five of the clan members in the Hermès management structure are on the list of billionaires. The total fortune of the Dumas family exceeds $ 25 billion - more than the Rockefellers, Mallons and Fords combined.

In 1837, the saddler Thierry Herme founded his own workshop in Paris. The beau monde of that time needed a reliable horse harness on trips and travels. And the quality and beauty of Erme's bridles and harness turned out to be unsurpassed. Thierry had an only son, Charles-Émile, who moved the company to 24 Faubourg Saint-Honoré, where it remains to this day. Charles-Emile, in turn, had two sons - Adolf and Emile-Maurice, who renamed the company Hermès Frères (Herme Brothers). However, in certain moment Adolf decided that the prospects for the company in an era of cars, not horses, were not very bright, and left the company to Emil. Emil, on the other hand, had four daughters (one of whom died in 1920) - which explains why among those who are now involved in the management of this family business, there is no one named Erme. Now the company is run by descendants in the fifth and sixth generations.

During the time of Axel Dumas' uncle, Jean-Louis Dumas, who was CEO from 1978 to 2006, most of the company's family management structure was transformed into a "matryoshka" of six holdings included in each other. On top of it all was an intricate two-tier control structure designed by Jean-Louis. The new management system helped Hermès to publicly list 4% of its shares on the stock exchange in 1993, which, on the one hand, allowed representatives of the new generation to turn assets into cash, and on the other hand, retain control in the hands of the family. The new budget allowed Hermès to step out of its role as a leather goods manufacturer. Jean-Louis Dumas expanded the scope of activities by launching the production of men's ready-to-wear, cutlery and furniture.

Pictured: the cover of Forbes' 100 Most Innovative Companies, September 2014. On the cover—Axel Dumas.

Father and daughter Lauren

Ralph Lauren was born in the Bronx, in a poor family of Jewish immigrants, and all his childhood and youth passionately dreamed of wealth. He wrote about it in a school essay, saved up money at age 12 to buy himself a three-piece suit, and his first office for his own tie company was in the Empire State Building - it doesn’t matter that it was a ten-meter windowless closet, but what an address. Lauren started with ties, which helped to look expensive and stylish. He made a name on them, then made the polo shirt popular in any situation. But it is unlikely that he would have created an empire if his marketing nose was limited to ties and jackets in the style of the English aristocracy. Lauren made an online store before mass market brands thought about it, in front of his store in Manhattan there is a touch screen with which you can buy any item at any time of the day. Today, Lauren is ranked 74th richest American, with a fortune of $6.2 billion.

The heir to this fortune is Dylan Lauren, no less successful businessman than her father. In 2001, she founded Dylan's Candy Bar, a confectionery chain that includes several of its own stores, as well as outlets in such legendary places as the New York Yankees Stadium. The main store in Manhattan offers 5,000 types of sweets, and in addition - Dylan is also actively involved in the activities of the ASPCA (American Society against Cruelty to Animals) and the Feed Foundation.

Pritzker family

The powerful Chicago-based Pritzker business family spent the 2000s in endless litigation over family assets until they decided on an ownership and control structure. One of the heirs of the business empire, Penny Pritzker, is now US Secretary of Commerce. Thomas is Chairman of the Board of Directors for Hyatt Hotels. Gigi is a famous film producer. John is the owner of the boutique hotel chain Commune Hotels. Brothers Anthony and JB run the Pritzker Group, a family-owned investment company. Karen and her husband Michael are famous investors. Liesel Pritzker Simmons (pictured), who in 2003 sued her father and other relatives over the division of assets, also invests (one of her exotic projects in Ghana is the processing of human waste into combustible fuel). 11 representatives of the dynasty - participants in the rating of billionaires by Forbes versions. The family owes their fortune to Anthony Pritzker (died 1986), who founded Hyatt with his sons and invested heavily in various assets, including the industrial conglomerate Marmon Group, now owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

Photo: Forbes cover, November 2003. LIselle Pritzker Simmons.

Bechtel family

Bechtel is a private company with 100 years of history. Warren Bechtel, the founder of the company, died in Moscow in 1933 after a trip to Siberia, bequeathing to his descendants to master the vast wealth of our country. Today Bechtel is the 4th largest private construction company in USA. Despite the influence, but rather even because of it, the family of the founder of the company is subjected to constant attacks. So, she was criticized for financial ties with the Bin Laden family, because of contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq after the invasion in 2003. In addition, during his tenure as President George W. Bush, Bechtel was accused of mutual corrupt appointments to office.

Nevertheless, Stephen Bechtel Jr. is included in the Forbes list of the richest Americans with a fortune of $ 2.9 billion, as well as in the ranking of philanthropists.

In the photo: the cover of the December 7, 1981 issue of Forbes. On the cover—Stephen Bechtel Jr.

Dupont family

The history of the Dupont family began in 1802, when Eluther Irene Dupont founded a gunpowder factory that turned into a whole chemical empire. Eluther's father, Pierre Samuel de Pont de Nemours, a French nobleman who was part of the retinue of King Louis XVI, fled the revolution in the United States in 1800. It was he who brought the formula of gunpowder, developed by his teacher Antoine Lavoisier. But Du Pont's fortune was made during the First World War, on military contracts.

Du Pont heirs to the chemical empire, Marianne Silliman and Eleanor Rast, featured on Forbes lists until 1994. But when analysts began to recalculate their wealth, it turned out that they had been dead for several years.

Another deadly story is connected with the heirs of the Du Ponts. John E. Dupont, whose net worth was estimated at $200 million in 1986, was sentenced in 1997 to 30 years for the murder of Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz. The heir was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and died in prison in 2010. The story of the murder is dedicated to the Hollywood film Foxcatcher, where Dupont is played by Steve Carrel.

In 2014, another DuPont heir, Robert Richards, was accused of raping his 3-year-old daughter.

Today DuPont Corporation is managed by Aurelia DuPont.

In the photo: the president of the DuPont Corporation in 1962, Crawford Greenwalt, in front of a portrait of the founder of the company.

The name of Aurélie Dupont is well known both in France and abroad. For more than 20 years, this outstanding ballerina has been the leading soloist of the Opera de Paris. The talent of the dancer inspired the director Cedric Klapisch to create documentary film"L'espace d'un instant", dedicated to the everyday life of the prima. A few years ago, Aurélie visited Moscow to take part in the award ceremony and the concert of the winners of the annual Benois de la Danse award. Being at the peak of fame and professional opportunities, on May 28, 2015, the 42-year-old etoile said goodbye to the stage. It was said that the artistic director of the ballet theater Benjamin Millepied offered her the post of head tutor of the troupe. However, on February 4, news came that from August 1, she would head the ballet troupe instead of Millepied himself, who was leaving his post ahead of schedule.

Among the outgoing generation of stars of the Paris Opera, Aurélie Dupont has undoubtedly been and remains the brightest. The career of the dancer from the very beginning was very successful. Being enrolled in the troupe at the age of 16, she rose to the highest level of the ballet hierarchy in an extremely short time. The title of etoile was brought to her by the part of Kitri in the Nuriev edition of Don Quixote.

Perhaps the main professional advantage of Aurélie Dupont is its versatility. She can equally well perform classics, neoclassical productions, modern choreography. The ballerina's repertoire included performances by both the famous ballet masters of the 19th century - Marius Petipa, Jules Perrot, and the great masters of the 20th century - George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Pina Bausch, Roland Petit, John Neumeier and others.
During her long career, Aurélie Dupont has performed in the title parts of more than 30 ballets, from the traditional version of Swan Lake to shocking novelties like Angelin Preljocaj's Siddhartra. It is interesting to compare the same heroines in different productions. For example, the classic "Giselle" and the famous "Giselle" by Mats Ek, in which Albert's beloved from the very beginning is in a state of madness. In both cases, the choreographic and dramatic side of the dancer's talent turned out to be on top.

What a talent! It was enough for her just to appear on the stage, and the audience was already frozen in admiration. Ideally correct facial features, combined with a refined figure and thick dark hair, gave birth to the image of the Madonna, reproduced by Leonardo. Aurelie categorically did not recognize the on-duty ballet smile. On the contrary, a concentrated, intelligent facial expression, which made her uncharismatic in the eyes of some critics, became the hallmark of the dancer's style. Impeccable technical equipment was in harmony with the innate grace, plasticity, excellent sense of posture and the aristocratic nobility of the prima. Aurelie Dupont is not one of those who did 32 fouettes for the sake of showing their own virtuoso abilities. She carefully nurtured each part, thoroughly rehearsed, got used to it. And even on stage, inspired by the theatrical atmosphere, she never lost self-control.

Another amazing quality of a ballerina is amazing musicality. Whatever she performs - Tchaikovsky's ballets or modern performances, where metal rattle often acts as musical accompaniment - you can see how she listens to the music, reacting to the slightest turn in the score. This skill, rare for a ballerina, gave her every movement organicity and a special, elusive charm.

Aurelie Dupont's regular partners on the stage of the Opera de Paris were such brilliant dancers as Nicolas Le Rich, Manuel Legris, and others. The prima's farewell gift to the Parisian public was the ballet Manon by Kenneth Macmillan, performed with the guest premiere of La Scala, Roberto Bolle. Recently, Aurelie devoted more time to her family and raising a child, but she did not plan to break with the world of choreography. Now we can say with confidence: “Aurelie, we are not saying goodbye!”

Anastasia Popova,
IV course ITF

Northern Delaware is called the country of the Duponts: the road leading to the city of Wilmington is named after the Dupont Highway, and in Wilmington itself they own absolutely everything - from factories and banks to a computer corporation.

The surrounding towns of Wilmington seem like a piece of France - every now and then road signs flicker: Nemours, Sheanne. Boret de Fossey, Montchanet and Granois. Until recently, the French language prevailed on the streets of each of them - for a hundred years in a row, the Du Ponts hired mainly French people.

For outsiders, Dupont de Nemours is a giant multinational company: the size of the fortune in assets is $ 211 billion, branches in Europe and Latin America, the world monopoly on nylon, orlon, dacron and teflon, dozens of chemical plants, production of aircraft and weapons. By the middle of the twentieth century, there were already about one and a half thousand Du Ponts; five hundred people were considered multimillionaires, two hundred and fifty were part of the inner circle of the family, eight decided her fate.

André Dupont with his wife
20s

Delaware was used to the DuPonts: Edward DuPont, first vice president of the Wilmington Trust Company, the center of the clan's financial power, until recently sat with his managers in the city club and was one of the best parishioners of the city church.

The famous Dupont hunts and balls are a thing of the distant past - after the First World War, which brought them hundreds of millions, they hunted foxes, sitting on blooded stallions, surrounded by hunters and packs of hounds, in eighteenth-century camisoles, cocked hats and powdered wigs. At family celebrations they danced in the costumes of Louis XV marquises and marquises and drove home in gilded carriages - their estates, built in the manner of feudal castles and Versailles palaces, still surround Wilmington.

For about two hundred years, the Du Ponts have personified a special aristocratic style - unobtrusive wealth and effective power; about their family secrets, adultery, suicides, sudden and tragic deaths, about the madness that haunts this kind of madness in the city, legends still tell. Darkened ancestral portraits hang in the front hall of the Wilmington Trust Company: a fair-haired lady and a stately, broad-faced gentleman in a powdered wig open the gallery.

The official Dupont family tree describes the meeting of the founders of the dynasty in idyllic colors: a fragile blond girl sat in her attic on the Rue de Richelieu, painted miniatures and looked out the window opposite. hosted there beautiful poses while practicing the noble art of swordsmanship, a strong young man Pierre Samuel Dupont, her watchmaker neighbor: he stopped the feint, the sword pierced the target painted on the wall ...

One of the family portraits
early 19th century

Anna Alexandrina had big blue eyes, delicate skin and a highly developed imagination: she dreamed of great love and saw in a neighbor (large nose, proud stand and wide shoulders) the embodiment of all perfections.

Anna Alexandrina, left an orphan at the age of 8, lived at the mercy of rich relatives until she was sixteen - she grew up with her uncle and aunt own daughter and the girls became friends. When they turned into young ladies, the pupil was offered a place as a housekeeper on a distant estate - otherwise she could go to all four sides.

She chose the latter: now, having settled on the street of watchmakers, the dowry earned a living by painting dials.

A few months later, Samuel and Anna Alexandrina got married: the watchmaker was a Protestant and, having learned that a pretty neighbor shared his faith, he decided to take her down the aisle. She moved her belongings across the Rue Richelieu and settled in the very room where she had first seen her husband. Anna Alexandrina is only sixteen. In a few years, she will be severely disappointed in her marriage.

One of the main life principles of Mr. Dupont was deep ignorance: his ancestors professed Protestantism (and were considered dissidents in Catholic France), many of his Huguenot friends were in prison, which is why Samuel preferred to keep a low profile. He had his own method of self-preservation: Mr. Dupont could neither read nor write - therefore, royal officials could not accuse him of studying forbidden books. He didn't know a single letter or a single number, and on top of that, he was as stubborn as a donkey and narcissistic as a peacock.

Educated and educated Anna Alexandrina had a hard time with him. Their son Pierre grew up as an extraordinary child. He resembled his father only with a huge, like an eagle's beak, nose (a large nose still remains a hereditary feature of the Du Ponts - like the heavy jaw of the Habsburgs or the protruding lip of the Bourbons). From childhood, Pierre was lame, weak and unhealthy, but he had a brilliant memory and a quick mind: at the age of twelve he knew French grammar by heart and freely translated from Latin.

Pierre turned out to be a kind boy: when the red-haired, freckled and stupid cousin Marianne fell ill with smallpox, the brother sat by her bed for days and became infected as a result. A few days later, doctors, not finding a pulse in him, pronounced him dead. All night before the funeral, heartbroken Anna sat at the coffin of her son, praying for the repose of his soul. By morning, the mother dozed off, when suddenly Pierre's cry woke her up: the boy survived, although his face was hopelessly disfigured.

Smallpox marks covered his cheeks and forehead, one eye was struck by farsightedness, the other by myopia: over the years, Pierre Dupont decided that in this way fate marks his chosen ones. “I am grateful to nature and chance,” he wrote in his memoirs, “for giving me the opportunity to have the entire range of vision.” The mother sobbed, the father forced his son to engage in fencing - Samuel Dupont considered the sword a universal remedy that strengthens the body and spirit. In the evenings, they practiced attacks, and spent their days at work: the father decided to make a watchmaker out of his son.

So several years passed, and then Anna Alexandrina died in childbirth. Before her death, joining the hands of her husband and son, she said: "Try to live happily."

They did not succeed - after the death of his mother, Pierre went astray. He made acquaintances with aspiring writers and young actors, drank with them, disappeared backstage and went to brothels. In addition, the young man fell into writing poetry and became addicted to empty thoughts: he closed himself in the attic and meditated for hours, staring at the ceiling beam. Once, having caught Pierre doing this, his father beat him like a dog, and then threw him out of the house.

Lame, disfigured by smallpox, half-blind young man found himself on the streets of Paris without a penny in his pocket - this is how the brilliant career of Pierre Dupont (Pierre Samuel du Pont), a publicist and businessman, a friend of the American president and an approximate French king, began.

Friends did not let the poor man die of hunger - a familiar watchmaker took him to work. A few years later, Pierre came to his father's workshop, holding in his hands a magnificent watch in a carved oak case with a chased silver dial. It was engraved with the inscription: "Designed and made by the son of Dupont, dedicated to the father."

Pierre bowed silently, handed Samuel a gift and left his home - this time forever. So he paid off his filial duty and forever got rid of guilt. And that the priest could not read the dedication and did not understand its meaning even when a competent neighbor came to his aid - before that, Pierre did not care in the slightest.

Many years have passed since then, but Samuel Dupont never saw his son again. Pierre did not even come to his funeral - now he lived a different life. Pierre Dupont became a friend and adviser to the Prime Minister of France, Baron Turgot, edited an influential magazine, successfully speculated on the stock exchange and attended receptions with the king.

It all started with the fact that Pierre Dupont wrote an economic essay that accidentally caught the eye of Baron Turgot. The dignitary was struck by the style and perfection of the argument, and he took the young talent under his wing. Soon Pierre was offered a great job with a big salary.

The career was secured, now he could think about the family. When he was poor and persecuted, he was taken in by his mother's relatives, Messrs. Dor. On their estate lived Charlotte Marie Louise Le Deux, who was also distant relatives of Pierre. She was a slightly overgrown girl (at that time she was already eighteen), and the nearest neighbor, a fifty-five-year-old tax collector, a widower who drove two wives into a coffin, was considered by the patrons of Marie Louise a good match. Pierre was always distinguished by chivalrous inclinations, and Marie was smart and pretty, and he rushed to her aid, promising to marry. The young man asked to be given two years - during this time he promised to put his affairs in order.

Young Dupont kept his promise, although by that time it had already become clear that there was no love at all. However, this did not prevent Marie Le Deux from giving him two sons - one of them, following the already established family tradition, rebelled against his father ...

Portraits of both of Pierre Dupont's sons hang in the front hall of the Wilmington Trust Company. The tall, dark-haired, handsome Victor did not want to study and failed any business: he was like two drops of water like his grandfather, Samuel Dupont. The youngest, Elethere Irene, inherited his father's traits and talents: small stature, a firm mouth, a pronounced ability in the sciences and a serious attitude to life. Pierre sent him to study with his friend, the famous chemist Lavoisier, who headed the powder mines of the French kingdom. A few years later, Elether Irene knew absolutely everything about gunpowder: it was he who laid the foundation of the Du Pont empire.

But the old life was swept away by the revolution - in 1799, the Du Ponts fled from France, because they were among those who tried to protect the king. Father and sons, together with courtiers loyal to Louis XVI, fired back at the sans-culottes in the Tuileries Palace, then, miraculously avoiding the guillotine, lay down on the bottom - and yet they could not settle in a new life.

The ship, the American Eagle, which left Toulon, was loaded with their furniture, pianos, and silverware. For the entire three-month journey across the Atlantic, the Du Ponts guarded their property with drawn swords in their hands - the team did not inspire confidence in them.

The American Eagle landed in Newport Bay, Rhode Island, and the DuPonts disembarked and headed for the nearest house. Pierre knocked - they did not open it; he looked out the window and saw the table set. Bells were ringing, a Christmas service was going on in the church, a turkey was waiting for the owners of the house and Apple pie, which they never tried: the du Ponts broke into the house and, in the name of freedom, equality and fraternity, ate everything that was on the table.

The dawn of a frosty morning on January 1, 1800 was engaged in - it began new Age, and in America it became the century of the du Ponts. They brought with them two hundred thousand francs in cash - before leaving France, Pierre Dupont established for land speculation Joint-Stock Company"Pontiania" and issued shares. But America was teeming with its speculators, who had long ago raised the price of undeveloped land. Then Pierre Dupont took up the smuggling of Spanish gold, which also did not succeed.

He never got rich, but he made a contribution to history - Dupont Sr., while still in France, met the future US President Thomas Jefferson, and he entrusted him with mediation in negotiations between France and the United States. Thanks to Dupont, Napoleon sold Louisiana to America, and its territory doubled. The United States saved a lot of money on this deal, but Pierre Dupont himself did not make a dime from it.

Victor forced him out of business and, becoming the head of the company, finally ruined the "Pontiania". Pierre fell into melancholy and died a few years later. Victor briefly outlived his father, dying on a New York street from a heart attack.

Now the family is headed by Eleuthere Irenee du Pont. During his reign, the DuPonts have become a closed clan, shrouded in legends, living by their own laws.

Irene had three sons and twenty-four grandchildren. They were fond of chemistry, tried their hand at business, and the family business traditionally went to the most gifted and quirky.

The du Ponts no longer dealt with land - now they made money from death ...

Quiet, withdrawn Elethere did not look like a businessman at all. He was what he seemed to be: a scientist to the core, a man obsessed with chemical formulas.

In addition to his academic merits, the new head of the clan was observant and possessed a sense of opportunism. America turned out to be a country of armed men, and Elether Irene knew how to make the best gunpowder in the world.

And soon, in the town of Brandywine, the millstones of powder mills began to spin, and the Du Ponts' passion for the theory of explosives has now become hereditary. True, they changed their name: in democratic America, the plebeians of Du Pont turned into French aristocrats du Pont de Nemours.

The children of the Parisian watchmaker began to call themselves marquises, Nemours, the village where Pierre Dupont met Marie Le Deux, turned into their family estate.

What was going on in the world, the people of Brandywine did not learn from the newspapers. The Du Pont gunpowder factories were located here, and if there was a war somewhere, the mines worked in two shifts. However, this was quickly learned in neighboring towns - in a hurry, workers forgot about safety rules, and explosions were heard for tens of kilometers, and a column of fire sometimes threw people across the river into the streets of a neighboring village.

The du Ponts fed the whole area, and were treated with almost religious reverence - they were lucky, rich and made more and more perfect gunpowder. But no one felt love for them: too many Brandywine men died in their mines.

The stories that were told about them in the city were more like scary tales that are told to children on Halloween. The old people said that the Dupont clan had a special fate: they live differently, but they die the same way.

It is no coincidence that Eleter Irene, who survived his brother by seven years, clutched his heart on the same New York street as Victor, and he was carried to die in the same room of the same hotel.

It was said that they always had to pay for their sins: under Alfred I. du Pont, the son of Irene, who headed the company in 1837 (according to the portrait, he had a big nose, fleshy cheeks and a sharp, penetrating look), powder mines worked around the clock. Accidents followed one after another - as a result, he experienced such a strong nervous shock that he was forced to retire.

They also remembered the shadow of the unfortunate Cowan, a former worker in the du Pont mines. Some of the old men swore that they themselves saw him wandering around the house of Henry Dupont, younger brother and Alfred's successor: in one hand the ghost held the Bible, in the other - the same rope ...

In 1852, two powder mines exploded, and Henry blamed Cowan for this. The poor man swore on the Bible that it was not his fault, but Dupont put him out the door, and that same night Cowan hanged himself. The old people talked about retribution: a few years later, Alexis Dupont died in a mine explosion. When his brother's eyes were closed, Henry Dupont turned gray.

During the war between the North and the South, the mines exploded 11 times: 43 people died, hundreds of people were mutilated. The Duponts also had to pay for this: fate took its toll on poor Charlotte Shepard Henderson DuPont, one of the most beautiful women of his time.

She came from an old southern family. The brothers fought on the side of the Confederates, and the husband's family armed Lincoln's army, and poor Charlotte found herself between two fires: those who were dear to her became enemies. The mother-in-law, a strong-willed and domineering lady, commanded the house.

The case ended in a nervous breakdown, from which Charlotte never recovered and died a few years later in an insane asylum. Her husband, Irene Dupont II, blamed her mother for what had happened and did not say a word to her until his death.

Some people in Wilmington still believe that the DuPonts have a special gift: they make themselves and their loved ones miserable. However, most do not believe in this: the days when the Du Ponts traded in death have sunk into the past. Now they have a completely "vegetarian" business: nylon, orlon, teflon, tights, windbreakers, non-burning frying pans, mineral fertilizers, medicines - more than twenty thousand items of various goods in total.

Wallace Karoteros

But the Wilmington gossips, no, no, yes, and they will remember the fate of Wallace Hume Carothers. The inventor of nylon, which brings the DuPonts $4.5 billion a year, which made women's waists thin and bellies flat, died in insanity and obscurity. He struggled with the nylon formula for almost ten years - from 1928 to 1937, discovered it and landed in a psychiatric clinic.

And after leaving the hospital and celebrating his forty-first birthday, he locked himself in a hotel room and took potassium cyanide. Carrothers' wife was two months pregnant, but that didn't stop him.

Another reason to gossip about the Du Ponts appeared in 1995, when John du Pont, already an elderly gentleman who had been studying biology all his life, in a fit of sudden madness, shot a friend, Olympic wrestling champion George Schultz, who had come to him to have a glass of whiskey. The lawyers did a good job, and John du Pont was declared insane.

This was a great success: in the worst case, he was threatened with life imprisonment, for murder without aggravating circumstances they could be given from twenty-eight to forty years, and he got off with five years in a psychiatric hospital.

Those who had seen John before did not recognize him in the courtroom: a tangled beard, long, dirty, gray hair in one week ... When the jury reached a verdict, the killer's father said that the term for which he was convicted did not matter much : in a prisoner's uniform or without it, but John Dupont will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Exactly one year later, he will be released from a psychiatric clinic, and he will settle away from people, in the Du Pont estate, located in Philadelphia. Where one of John's relatives lived out her life, the insane Charlotte Shepard Henderson DuPont.

But the Du Ponts themselves are not inclined to believe the sinister legends about a family curse that haunts their family. For a long time, the current head of the Dupont family, Pierre Samuel, the fourth, was the governor of the state of Delaware, a courteous and well-mannered gentleman, a former candidate for the US presidency.

Every year, the numerous genus increases by about thirty strong, red-cheeked, big-nosed babies. The DuPont empire is expanding, the scientists working for it are inventing new high-tech toys that make human life easier. And one and a half thousand shareholders, who had the good fortune to be born under the name of DuPont, live in peace and contentment.