Richest man

Chapter 22 Europe: Spiro Latsis (1)
In the "Forbes" list of the world's richest people, we rarely see rich people from Greece. Europeans often say that in the club of rich countries in the European Union, Greece is another poor "poor country" except for the ten countries in Eastern Europe.But even under the premise that Greece's overall economy is not optimistic, Greek shipping still occupies an important position in the world economic structure.

Greece is one of the first countries in the world to carry out shipbuilding and sea navigation.The Trojan War recorded in Homer’s epic is actually the earliest and most famous sailing expedition story in the world. The vivid description of the tall and strong three-story warship in the story shows that the Greek shipbuilding and navigation technology reached the a fairly high level.The heyday of the Greek shipping industry began in the early 18th century, when the Aegean trade under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and the trade of the entire Eastern Mediterranean were almost completely in the hands of the Greeks.The subsequent European wars continued to bring development opportunities to the Greek shipping industry. By the end of the 19th century, the total tonnage of merchant ships quadrupled. In 1947, the U.S. government sold 100 10500-ton Liberty Ships to the Greek government according to the Marshall Plan, at an average price of $54, about 1/3 of the cost.The modern Greek shipping industry has gradually developed and grown on this basis, becoming today's world shipping overlord.

The development of Greek shipping is inseparable from the dozens of ship kings that have appeared in this country. In the world, no country has more families of ship kings than it, but who is the real king of kings in this country? If the survey were conducted around the world, the former richest man in the world, Aristotle Onassis, would be the most powerful voter. This former US President Kennedy's rival in love, because he married his widow after Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 Jacqueline caused a sensation all over the world; when Monaco, a famous casino city in a small Mediterranean country, encountered financial difficulties, Onassis even tried to annex Monaco, which caused an uproar all over the world.

It's a pity that all of this is not enough for this world-famous ship magnate to win the title of Greek ship lord - a family led by an old man who was at the same time as him, but more persistent, is the country's well-deserved ship lord. First of all, he established the modern Greek shipping pattern, and then formed the largest Greek fleet at the end of the 20th century; he is low-key and charitable. He is a friend of former US President George W. , but rarely left any information pictures, his name is John Latsis, the Latsis family he led is the richest family in Greece, after his death in 2003, his eldest son Spiro Latshis inherited his wealth and became the 75th richest man in the 2005 Forbes Global Rich List with US$54 billion, the new richest man in Greece.

They are the well-deserved world ship kings.

From Shipping to Oil - Onassis and John's Road to Fortune
It is interesting to compare Aristotle Onassis with John Larthis, heir to the Larthis family fortune.

They all started from poverty, accumulated their first pot of gold through shipping, and then became rich by relying on oil transportation from Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East...

Onassis is a native of Izmir, Greece. In [-], he brought all his belongings—scarce trousers, shirts and shoes—to Greece along with the tide of refugees.

Seven years later, the terrible Great Depression ruthlessly devastated the world's economies, and the shipping industry, which was struggling in the crisis, seemed destined to be the area that would suffer - as world trade was paralyzed in the crisis, the shipping industry was on the verge of death.But Onassis didn't think so. He was running around, round the clock, snapping up bargains.When he heard the news of CN's auction of cargo ships, he rushed there and bought all six cargo ships whose owners were eager to give up: they feared that they might not be worth $[-] soon.

World War II broke out.The war caused the price of ships to skyrocket, and overnight, the ships that Onassis bought from Canada became six floating gold mines.This allowed Onassis to arrange his life as he wished, and by the end of the war, Onassis had placed himself in the ranks of the giants of the "sea-making ship" in Greece, and laid a solid foundation for his admirable rapid development in the future .

After the war, oil became black gold.Many oil-rich countries in the Middle East have become "big gold mines" coveted by the world's largest companies.At that time, Aramco took care of the oil in the Middle East as a monopoly. Aramco signed a contract with the king of Saudi Arabia, and Aramco monopolized oil exploration, and paid the king a considerable amount of royalties for every ton of oil extracted.Onassis understood that the king was just buried in a huge wealth that he had no time to count, but he didn't realize that the contract had an opportunity to bring him more huge wealth.

Onassis saw a gap, and he seized the opportunity resolutely and intelligently.He drove his most luxurious oil tanker to Saudi Arabia, and said to the King of Saudi Arabia at that time: "Aramco extracts your oil, and you can earn twice as much money by transporting it. Why don't you buy the ship yourself?" Transport yourself? Arabian oil should be transported by Arab oil tankers." In [-], the king of Saudi Arabia died and the crown prince ascended the throne.Two months later, a piece of news shocked the world: Onassis signed the famous "Jeddah Agreement" with the newly ascended King of Saudi Arabia, and established the "Saudi Arabia Tanker Shipping Co., Ltd.", which transports oil produced in Saudi Arabia. With a monopoly, the shareholders are the King of Saudi Arabia and Onassis.

In this way, Onassis, who gained wealth through sea transportation, became the person who almost controlled most of Saudi Arabia's oil transportation through oil.

Almost on the same path as Onassis, John Latshis also completed the process of skyrocketing family wealth from shipping to oil.

Latsis's grandparents came from Latvia. They came to Greece via Albania in the early [-]th century. When they first arrived in Greece, the family was almost penniless.John Latsis was born after his family came to Greece. On September [-], [-], he was born in Katakoro, a small fishing village in northwestern Greece. This small mountain village is located in what is now the Peloponnese region. .

Unlike Onassis, John Lathees was brought up to be a sailor his whole life.As an adult, under the arrangement of his family, John Larthis entered the Pyrgos Commercial School and the Merchant Marine Command School, where he learned sea transportation and sailor skills.

John has never left the ocean since his life began here.In the early days, John Larthis was engaged in the dried fruit business, but it didn’t take long for him to board a sea ship in Greece and become an ordinary sailor, and soon became the captain of the ship because of his outstanding performance .

Before the outbreak of World War II, Greece's shipping was in a depression, but compared with Onassis's big purchase of six ships at one time, John Latsis was much more cautious. It was not until [-] that he bought six ships. I got off my first ship, and in the second year after I bought the first ship, the Second World War broke out, and the value of John Lutterhis’s ship also appreciated rapidly, and became the most important part of the war. beneficiaries.His fleet expanded rapidly, and within a few years, he became the leading shipping company in Greece.

Onassis' unique sense of smell and decisiveness allowed him to enter the oil industry earlier, while John Late Heath did not officially enter the oil industry until the late 20s. In the early 60s, John began to land, and his business began to advance into high-margin industries such as construction and oil, and gained a firm foothold in the Arab world.

In [-], he first integrated the upstream and downstream businesses, and established the Latsis family oil company PETROLA in Greece through the oil transported by his own fleet, which was also the first export-oriented oil refinery in Greece.Shortly thereafter, John established a second refinery in Latthis in Saudi Arabia, and has since developed an unusually close relationship with the Saudi Arabian royal family.

John Lattice seemed perpetually poised to make a fortune before a worldwide crisis hit.

In the [-]s, there was an energy crisis in the world, and the price of oil in the international market soared. John Latthis seized the opportunity to increase investment in oil refining, and the oil trade of the Latthis family surged.In Saudi Arabia, John Lutterhis' oil refinery has gained fame, and the construction of local public infrastructure and private projects is often participated by the Lutterhis Group. As a result, John Lutterhis has further expanded His own influence among the Saudi elite.

After primitive accumulation, "capital" itself began to reproduce wealth faster and more for John.He started out in banking and finance.The Savings Bank, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, originally belonged to the family of Onassis, a veteran Greek shipping tycoon. Interestingly, in [-], this bank was the first to be acquired by John Latsis, the second of the two shipping tycoons. There was the first transaction.The bank meant so much to the Latthis family that it became the cornerstone of Latthis' banking network across Europe, the US, Asia and Greece.Throughout the [-]s, one of the main activities of the Latthis Group was to acquire banks incessantly. In [-], John finally established his own private bank and trust company in London through the acquisition of a Scottish bank. In [-], the European Investment Bank was born.The Latthis family became one of the seven wealthiest families in Switzerland.

However, in the 20s and 60s when John Latthis developed rapidly and accumulated wealth, Onassis was becoming the most famous international lace news figure in the world. On October 70, 1968, in Scorbio Onassis held a wedding with the widow of former US President John F. Only 10-year-old son Alexander died of fatal brain injuries in a plane crash.Onassis was devastated and never recovered from his illness. Onassis died on March 20, 1973.

Unlike Onassis's melancholy death, John Latthis left the world in peace. Before 1997, Johann Latthis suffered a stroke that limited his mobility, and he began to hand over the management of the family business to his son Spiro and his two daughters, Mariana and Margarita.Subsequently, as his health deteriorated, John Lattice spent more and more time in the hospital. On April [-], [-], John passed away, and the Latthis Group officially transitioned to the Spiro era.

Aristotle Onassis and John Latsis, the two most famous ship tycoons in contemporary Greek history, went through almost the same process of wealth accumulation, but they came to completely different endings—one owned The legend of the ship king, which is the most widely read by posterity in the world, was made into a movie by Hollywood in his life, but he left the world with sadness; one succeeded in a low-key way, until he passed away peacefully at the age of 95, and left 44 billion US dollars for future generations (Amount of assets in 2004) and a healthy enterprise.

Who is the winner?
A Different World After the Ship King

As if destined, the descendants of Aristotle Onassis and John Latshis seem to continue the different philosophies of the two predecessors: the former still continues the feats of the previous generations with many legendary stories , while the latter maintains a low-key and stable family style to create wealth for himself.

(End of this chapter)