The Guggenheims

• Meyer was Swiss-Jewish immigrant of 1848 who was a tailor in Europe, sold shoe polish, household lye for soap, lace and embroidery, made $300,000 investing in railroad stocks
• In 1880 bought Leadville, Colorado mines "A.Y. and Minnie" that struck silver and lead, and he ordered his 7 sons to learn about mining, sent Benjamin to Columbia to master smelting metallurgy, sent Solomon to University of Pennsylvania to study finance, sent Simon to Europe to learn French and Spanish
• Built smelter at Pueblo Colorado and imported ore from Mexico
• Daniel in 1890 won concessions in Mexico from Porfiro Diaz to build 3 smelters, explore and buy mines, import equipment duty-free, operate tax-free for 20 years
• Guggenheims battled Rockefeller 1899-1901 for control of American Smelting and Refining Co. (ASARCO) and gained control with majority of stock
• Created Guggenex 1903 to explore world-wide under leadership of John Hays Hammond, mining engineer who had helped Rhodes in South Africa
• Owned 3 million acres of chicle ranches in Mexico for Ameican Chicle Co. to make chewing gum
• Joined Bernard Baruch to form Continental Rubber Co. consortium 1904 to invest in rubber from guayule bush, later invested in Belgian Congo
• Joined J. P. Morgan 1907 in the "Alaska Syndicate" to develop Kennecott Creek copper, built railroad 200 miles from sea to Kennecott, harbor breakwater, steamships, coal, forests, helped Secretary of Interior Richard Ballinger defeat opposition of Forest Service Gifford Pinchot 1909-1910 over the sale of federal coal lands to the syndicate

Links:

• Kennecott National Historic Landmark from National Park Service
• Guggenheim Mansion from Guggenheim Library at Monmouth University in West Long Branch NJ
• The Robber Barons
• Technics and Civilization
• Economic Reasons for Empire

Sources:

• Davis, John H. The Guggenheims: an American Epic. New York: Morrow, 1978.
• Mumford, Lewis. Technics and Civilization. New York: Harcourt, 1934.
• Wilkins, Mira. The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from the Colonial Era to 1914. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.

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