2015年8月10日 星期一

George Fisher Baker. The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger


“Jacob the Rich” was a late-medieval banker from Germany. Were he alive today, he would have cut a swathe through Wall Street and the City. His story is still little known http://econ.st/1MVgzpN

The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger. By Greg Steinmetz. Simon and Schuster; 283 pages; $27.95. ALBRECHT DÜRER’S portrait of Jacob...
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經濟部長李國鼎先生在東海大學工學院新廈落成奉獻典禮( 1968.11.9) 的演講,末尾講的兩個故事:
一個是哥倫比亞大學的丁龍講座;
一個是銀行家George Fisher Baker助哈佛大學商學院的故事

George Fisher Baker

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George Fisher Baker
Born March 27, 1840
Died May 2, 1931 (aged 91)
Citizenship American
Net worth USD $100 million at the time of his death (approximately 1/758th of US GNP)[1]
Spouse Florence Tucker Baker
Children Evelyn, Florence Bellows, George Fisher, Jr.
George Fisher Baker (March 27, 1840 – May 2, 1931) was a U.S. financier and philanthropist. In 1924 he provided much of the initial funding for Harvard Business School with a grant for $5 million.[2] In reciprocation of this generous donation Harvard made him an honorary Doctor of Laws and named the library after Baker. In addition, he also made several large donations to charitable causes throughout New York City and funded the construction of Baker Field, Columbia University's primary athletic facility. He also provided $2 million for Baker Memorial Library at Dartmouth College, which has since become one of the school's symbols. He was a co-founder—along with his mentor, John Thompson, and Thompson's sons Frederick Ferris Thompson and Samuel C. Thompson—of the First National Bank of the City of New York in 1863. The institution was the first national bank to be chartered in New York City under the National Currency Act of 1863, and is a forerunner of today's Citibank N.A.[3] He became First National's President on September 1, 1877 (aged just 37) and Chairman of the Board in 1909. Mr. Baker's 20,000 shares in the First National Bank were worth twenty million dollars (~$501 million in 2011). He was also the largest stockholder in the Central Railroad of New Jersey. He was a director in 22 corporations, which, together with their subsidiaries, had aggregate resources of $7,272,000,000 and he presumably had stock in at least as many corporations. To add on, he made $25,000,000 in 2 days in a stock exchange event and $42,000,000 in the same week which makes him the fastest money maker so far in the world.



Baker Library, 2009


Media coverage

The April 14, 1924, Edition of Time Magazine had this to say about Baker:
True, he is twice as rich as the original J. P. Morgan, having a fortune estimated at 200 millions. True, at the age of 84 when he has retired from many directorates, he dominates half a dozen railroads, several banks, scores of industrial concerns.
The March 26, 1934, Time magazine magazine article called Baker
the richest, most powerful and most taciturn commercial banker in U. S. history[5]
A 1934 article in Newsweek describes him as one of the most imposing figures in banking history. In the November 1994 issue of Worth magazine, in an interview with James Grant, editor of a financial newsletter, Baker is described as the hidebound turn-of-the-century banker who always got his loans repaid and was one of Grant's heroes.

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