75 Highlights Teil 2 der 61. Auktion für Historische Wertpapiere Part 2 of the 61st Auction for Old Stocks and Bonds

35 Los 525 Standard Oil Trust City of New York, 30 November 1885, 100 Shares á US-$ 100, #A620, 30 x 19.7 cm, brown, vertical fold, condition EF/VF, vignet- te with Capitol, signed by John D. Rockefeller as President and by Henry M. Flagler (both cancelled) as Secretary, issued to Rus- sell Sage and signed by him on back. The signature of Russell Sage is in perfect condition. We only know one more Standard Oil Trust certificate with this signature combination (#A619, auctioned by us in 2007), R11! During his formative years, John D. Rockefeller – born in 1839 – managed to save 1,000 Dollars, a small fortune at that time. In 1859, he borrowed the same amount from his father and opened a brokerage firm with Maurice B. Clark. Very soon, they received orders for oil dril- ling in Pennsylvania. In 1863, they added Samuel Andrews as partner and from then on operated under Andrews, Clark & Co. They were then less interested in new capital but in Andrew’s patent for refinement of crude oil into benzin. Since the company took in more part- ners, a quarrel ensued over the ongoing company management; as a result, the company was auctioned off to the highest bidder. Rockefeller’s bid of 72,500 Dollars was accepted. Afterwards he made Andrews his partner again. One year later, they bought two refineries in Cleveland. Because of the received patents, they were now the only refinery, which could manufacture benzin, heating oil and petroleum. In 1870, Rockefeller together with his brother William, Henry M. Flagler, and a few others founded the Standard Oil Company. The compa- ny incorporated, partially through third companies, the largest part of the competition. Already at the end of the 1870s, the Standard Oil Company controlled 90 per cent of the American oil refining business. Later on, the shares of the 37 partial owners were brought into Stan- dard Oil Trust, which had nine trustees – led by John D. Rockefeller. In 1890, the state of Ohio issued the „Sherman Act“ against the compa- ny, which led to its divestiture. Because New Jersey had another jurisdiction, Rockefeller relocated the company there. Henceforth, the com- pany was called „Standard Oil Company of New Jersey“. In 1911, Rockefeller retired from managing the company. However, in the same year the Supreme Court ordered the divestiture into 34 independent companies. Exxon and Mobil were one of the companies among others. Paradoxically, just a few years ago, the cartel authority allowed the fusion of both of these companies to ExxonMobil. With a clever trick, Rockefeller opened up the huge China market: He presented kerosene lamps named Mei Foo to the Chinese. They were supposed to replace the old lamps, which were operated with vegetable oil. The Chinese then were forced to buy the necessary kerosene from Standard Oil. John Davison Rockefeller died on May 23, 1937 at the age of 97. At that time, his assets were estimated to be about 10 billion dollars. Henry M. Flagler had already slowly pulled away from the oil business in 1883 and engaged himself in Florida, which at that time, was still largely uninhabited. He built splendid hotels and amusement parks and planned the necessary infrastructure. The legendary Flori- da East Coast Railway built by Flagler was the first rail line, which connected larger cities of the East coast of the sunshine state. Only through these activities Florida was opened for tourism. Flagler died, highly revered as „Founder of Florida“ in West Palm Beach, where his palace – like home today serves as a museum in his honor. Minimum bid: 1,800 € Russell Sage (1816 - 1906) betrieb schon in frühen Jahren einen Großhandel in Troy. 1852 wurde Sage dann in den Kongress gewählt. Dort blieb er nur vier Jahre, da er den Verloc- kungen der Börse erlag. In späteren Jahren arbeitete Sage vor al- lem mit Jay Gould zusammen und half diesem auch in schwieri- gen Situationen des Öfteren in großem Stil mit Barem aus. Sage ging im Gegensatz zu Gould allerdings nur sehr selten große und nicht kalkulierbare Risiken ein. Vielmehr konzentrierte er sich darauf, den Spekulanten Geld zu leihen und die Aktien als Sicherheiten einzubehalten. Der Zinssatz lag dabei nicht selten bei mehr als 20 Prozent. Dies führte dazu, dass der „Money King“, wie ihn später sein Biograf Paul Sarnoff nannte, 1869 des Wuchers angeklagt wurde. Fortan durfte er nur noch maximal sieben Prozent Zins verlangen. Doch der clevere Sage wusste sich zu helfen: Er lieh kein Geld mehr aus. Stattdessen übertrug er den Spekulanten das Recht, eine gewisse An- zahl Aktien zu einem festgelegten Preis bis zu einem festgelegten Datum von ihm zu bezie- hen. (Call-Option). Gleichzeitig hatte er das Recht, die gleiche Menge Aktien zu den glei- chen Konditionen an den Spekulanten zu ver- kaufen (Put-Option). Nun kaufte Sage selbst die gewünschte Aktienanzahl, und fertig war der Aktienkauf auf Kredit. Über die Prämie der Calls und Puts bestimmte Sage seinen Zins, ohne dass ihn jemand des Wuchers anklagen konnte. Sage gilt daher als Erfinder des Put- Call-Systems sowie der Straddles. Bei seinem Tod im Jahr 1906 hinterließ der für seine Spar- samkeit und seinen Geiz bekannte Sage mehr als 70 Millionen Dollar. Er galt zu dieser Zeit als einer der reichsten Männer Amerikas. Seiner Frau ist es zu verdanken, dass das Vermögen in der Sage-Stiftung landete, aus der heute noch wohltätige Projekte finanziert und unterstützt werden. Russell Sage (1816 - 1906) as a young man ran a wholesa- le trading firm in Troy. In 1852 Sage was elected to Con- gress. He remained there for only four years, succumbing to the temptations of the stock market. In contrast to Gould, Sage only seldom took on large and uncertain risks. More often he concen- trated on lending money to speculators and taking stock certifica- tes as security. The rate of interest in these transactions quite of- ten was over 20 percent. This led to the „Money King“, as he was referred to later by his biographer Paul Sarnoff, being accused of usury in 1869. From then on he could demand at the most seven percent interest. However, the clever Sage knew how to help him- self – he lent no more money. Instead, he transferred to specula- tors the right to receive from him a certain number of shares at a pre-determined price at a pre-determined date (call option). At the same time he had the right to sell the same number of shares under the same conditions to the speculators (put option). Now Sage himself purchased the desired number of shares, the purchase being done on credit. Sage determined the rate of interest on the premium of the calls and puts so that no one could charge him with usury. Sage thus came to be regarded as the inventor of the put-call system as well as of the straddle. At his death in 1906, Sage, known for his parsimony and his greed, left more than $70 million. He was regarded at that time as one of the richest men in America. His wife is to be thanked for the fact that the fortune wound up in the Sage Foundation, which still today finances and aids many charitable projects. Signatur und Bild von Russell Sage. Signature and picture of Russell Sage.