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The Baku oil fields were capitalized by the Rothschild banking dynasty, which was already immensely wealthy before the oil age. Perhaps others will weigh in, bu
by palmfacehn 2y ago
The Baku oil fields were capitalized by the Rothschild banking dynasty, which was already immensely wealthy before the oil age. Perhaps others will weigh in, but as I recall this was in response to the fabulous wealth Rockefeller was realizing in the United States. Petroleum had always been present around Baku and elsewhere, but it hadn't been exploited on the same industrial scale. It was sometimes regarded as an inconvenience which devalued land.
- kjellsbells 2y agoExactly so. A really good, very readable book on this and oil in general is Daniel Yergin's The Prize.
- mistrial9 2y agoyes agree that is an enjoyable and informative read..
- Arainach 2y agoSure - I don't doubt that Baku made some people fabulously rich, I'm more curious about "most modern billionaires", specifically "most". I'm not even convinced that most modern billionaires made their billions through petroleum, much less Baku.
- palmfacehn 2y agoNot sure what that poster meant by that. In this case, the Rothschilds were already a powerful European banking dynasty. There are many shadowy speculations about the different branches of this family. Perhaps this is where the confusion originates. The Nobel family did better relative to their previous station. In the end the Baku concerns were sold to Rockefeller before being nationalized after the Russian Revolution.
- 1oooqooq 2y agoi think you're making the common meaning mistake between modern and current times when in a history discussion context.
- 1oooqooq 2y agothats and the Nobels are the more public ones. there's also billionaires from the astrian dynasties all over baku. also stalin journalism career took off there.