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所以历史和事实一直延续到
So history and facts going up through
1890年。
1890.
欢迎收听Acquired第九季第四集，这是一档关于伟大科技公司及其背后故事与操作手册的播客。
Welcome to season nine episode four of Acquired, the podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks behind them.
我是本·吉尔伯特，我是位于西雅图的Pioneer Square Labs的联合创始人兼管理合伙人，以及我们的风险投资基金PSL Ventures。
I'm Ben Gilbert, and I'm the cofounder and managing director of Seattle based Pioneer Square Labs and our venture fund, PSL Ventures.
我是大卫·罗森塔尔，我是一名位于旧金山的天使投资人。
And I'm David Rosenthal, and I am an angel investor based in San Francisco.
我们是你们的主持人。
And we are your hosts.
今天的这一集，酝酿了150年。
Today's episode is one hundred and fifty years in the making.
大卫，我们居然错过了这次IPO，无论它是什么时候发生的。
David, somehow we missed this IPO if or when it happened.
我们还能买到二级股份吗？
Can we still get secondary shares?
组建一个小小的SPV？
Put together a little SPV?
我觉得现在可能更像是一次分拆之类的操作。
I think it might be of a spin off or something like that at this point.
啊，明白了。
Ah, okay.
至少我们今天要讲的标准石油公司从未上市过。
At least the Standard Oil that we will cover today never IPO'd.
它一直是一家私营公司。
It was privately held the whole time.
它的财务状况一直被严格保密。
Its financials were kept very secret.
这一定就是我们直到现在才错过它的原因，大卫。
That must be why we have missed it until now, David.
确实。
Truly.
是啊。
Yeah.
肯定是。
Must be.
肯定是。
Must be.
好吧，这一集讲的Standard Oil当然是由现代人类历史上最富有的人约翰·D·洛克菲勒于19世纪70年代创立的石油垄断企业。
Well, this episode on Standard Oil is, of course, the oil monopoly founded in the eighteen seventies by John d Rockefeller, the wealthiest person in modern human history.
令人尴尬的是，在我开始做研究之前，我并没有意识到Standard Oil中的‘油’最初并不是指汽油，至少在公司发展的很晚时期才转向汽油。
Embarrassingly, until I had started to do the research, I didn't realize the oil in Standard Oil did not refer to gasoline, at least until much, much later in the life of the company.
汽车？
Automobiles?
Model T大概是1910年左右吧。
Model t was, like, 1910 or so.
完全正确。
Totally.
标准石油公司比福特T型车早了大约四十年。
Standard Oil predates the Ford Model t by, like, forty years.
是的。
Yeah.
在汽油出现之前，约翰·D·洛克菲勒就已经成为了现代历史上最富有的人。
John d becomes the wealthiest person in, like, modern human history before gasoline.
这是一种不同的油。
This is a different kind of oil.
没错。
Yep.
汽油后来才派上用场。
Gasoline helped later.
事实证明，复利效应确实会出现，尤其是当第二条业务线叠加上去时，但我们稍后再深入讨论。
Turns out compounding can kinda show up, especially when the second business line gets layered on top, but we will get into it.
听众们，我想指出另一件疯狂的事情，我之前没意识到，尽管标准石油公司早已被拆分，但它至今仍深深影响着我们。
Listeners, the other thing that is crazy that I wanna point out, I didn't realize how much Standard Oil is very much with us today despite being famously broken up.
拆分后的各个部分后来成为了埃克森和美孚。
The parts went on to become both Exxon and Mobile.
马拉松、阿莫科——当然现在属于英国石油公司、雪佛龙，以及几家其他公司。
Marathon, Amoco, which of course is now a part of BP, Chevron, and several other companies.
当你看到一个加油站时，你很可能看到的正是标准石油的某种遗留痕迹。
When you look at a gas station, you are probably looking at some remnant of Standard Oil.
这简直太不可思议了。
It's just wild.
所以这个话题至少会分成两期来讲。
So this one will be at least a two parter.
事实证明，这家创造了整个现代能源产业的公司，有着许多惊人的故事。
It turns out the company responsible for creating the entire modern energy industry has a lot of wild stories.
好了，听众们。
Alright, listeners.
现在是一个绝佳的机会，来感谢我们非常兴奋的新朋友——Sierra。
Now is a great time to thank a new friend of the show that we are very excited about, Sierra.
是的。
Yes.
我们非常高兴能与布雷特、克莱以及他们那里的整个团队合作。
We are thrilled to be working with Brett, Clay, and the entire team over there.
那么，我们为什么对Sierra如此兴奋呢？
So why are we excited about Sierra?
事实上，我们在多年制作《Acquired》的过程中学到的一点是，一家伟大的公司往往以其客户体验为标志。
Well, one of the things that we've learned from making Acquired over the years is that a great company is often defined by its customer experience.
没错。
Yep.
但要做到优秀很难。
But being great is hard.
与客户沟通是昂贵的。
Talking to customers is expensive.
虽然网站和应用程序很不错，但它们有点慢且笨重，还需要客户去学习使用。
And while websites and apps are great, they're also kinda slow and clunky, and your customers have to learn them.
而不是客户去了解你。
They don't learn you.
Sierra 改变了这一切。
Sierra changes all that.
他们构建了面向客户的AI代理，能够完成各种惊人的任务，比如找到理想的住房、挑选电视节目、办理抵押贷款、配送沙发、退鞋、为患者进行医疗认证、订购信用卡、阻止订阅者取消服务，等等。
They build customer facing AI agents that can do an insane range of things, like finding the perfect home or picking TV shows or originating mortgages, shipping a sofa, returning shoes, authenticating patients for health care, ordering credit cards, saving subscribers from canceling, and on and on.
在成立仅仅两年后，他们已成为领先的对话式AI平台，拥有数百家杰出公司，如ADT、Clear、Minted、Ramp、Redfin、Rocket Mortgage、Safelite、SiriusXM和Wayfair，这些公司都信赖Sierra来提升客户体验。
In just two years since founding, they've become the leading conversational AI platform with hundreds of incredible companies like ADT, Clear, Minted, Ramp, Redfin, Rocket Mortgage, Safelite, SiriusXM, and Wayfair, all trusting Sierra for their customer experiences.
Sierra的设计足以满足财富500强企业的需求，包括医疗保健和金融服务等高度监管的行业，但它同样非常适合任何企业，包括你的企业。
Sierra was built to be powerful enough for Fortune 500 companies, including heavily regulated industries like health care and financial services, but it really works great for any business including yours.
借助Sierra，你只需构建一次AI代理，几周内就能在电话、聊天、短信、WhatsApp、电子邮件等所有渠道部署，支持30多种语言。
With Sierra, you can build your AI agent once and deploy it everywhere within weeks, on the phone, in chat, SMS, WhatsApp, email, all in over 30 languages.
你甚至可以将其发布到ChatGPT上。
You can even publish it to ChatGPT.
而且，凭借他们独特且高度对齐成果的定价模式，您只需为西耶拉带来的价值付费，即提升的客户满意度和解决率、更低的成本以及更高的收入。
And with their unique and insanely aligned outcomes based pricing model, you only pay for the value that Sierra delivers, increased customer satisfaction and resolution rates, lower costs, and higher revenue.
西耶拉让全球优秀企业每天每时每刻都能展现出最佳状态。
Sierra enables the great companies of the world to show up at their best consistently every minute of every day.
事实上，我们对西耶拉评价极高，以至于大卫和我都投资了这家公司。
And in fact, we think so highly of Sierra that David and I even invested in the company.
要了解如何利用人工智能打造更出色、更人性化的人机交互体验，请访问 sierra.ai/acquired，并告诉他们本和大卫推荐了你。
To find out how you can build better, more human customer experiences with AI, visit sierra.ai/acquired, and tell them that Ben and David sent you.
好的。
Alright.
各位听众，在大卫带我们进入下一部分之前，和往常一样，本节目不构成投资建议。
Well, listeners, before David takes us in, as always, this show is not investment advice.
大卫和我可能投资了我们讨论的公司。
David and I may have investments in the companies we discuss.
这次不太可能。
Unlikely in this case.
这只是为了信息和娱乐。
This is for information, entertainment.
如果你找到了标准石油的股票代码，请告诉我们。
Let us know if you find the Standard Oil stock ticker.
我们很想去看看，但不作评估。
We'd love to go check it out, evaluate no.
闲话少说，标准石油。
Without further ado, Standard Oil.
也许PitchBook上有他们的数据。
Maybe PitchBook has some data on them.
好的。
Alright.
我想特别感谢罗恩·彻诺，他是美国最伟大的历史学家之一，也是《汉密尔顿》传记的作者。
I just wanna give a lot of love to Ron Chernow, who is one of, like, America's greatest historians, biographer of Hamilton.
他写了那本被改编成音乐剧的书。
He wrote the book that Hamilton's based on, the play.
对吧？
Right?
那部关于汉密尔顿的剧就是基于这本书。
That Hamilton is based on.
没错。
Yep.
他还写了《巨人的时代》，这是关于约翰·戴维斯和洛克菲勒的权威传记，也是本集的主要资料来源。
And also wrote Titan, the definitive biography of John Davis and Rockefeller that is the main source for this episode.
太棒了。
It's so good.
太棒了。
It's so good.
我认为最好的起点是切尔诺的《巨人的时代》序言中的一段话，他说：约翰·D。
And I think the perfect place to start is with one of Chernow's quotes at the very beginning in the introduction to Titan where he says, the story of John D.
洛克菲勒的故事将我们带回到工业资本主义在美国尚显原始和新兴的时代，那时游戏规则尚未确立。
Rockefeller transports us back to a time when industrial capitalism was raw and new in America and the rules of the game were unwritten as yet.
我认为，相比我们这档节目所讨论过的任何其他内容，标准石油公司制定了这些规则。
I think more than anything we've covered on this show, Standard Oil wrote the rules.
商业运作的方式。
The way business is done.
商业运作的方式。
The way business is done.
那些不成文的规则。
The unwritten rules.
他们制定了这些不成文的规则。
They wrote the unwritten rules.
然后，你知道，国会后来为他们制定了规则，但我们会谈到这一点。
And then, you know, congress wrote the rules about them, but we'll get to that.
我们应该想到的这个时代，你知道，这可不是狂野的西部。
The era that we should think of here, you know, this isn't the Wild Wild West.
这是狂野的东部。
This is the Wild Wild East.
我们距离建国已经过去了三、四十年，那是十九世纪早期。
We're thirty, forty years after our nation was founded here in the early eighteen hundreds.
该死的内战甚至还没发生。
The freaking civil war hasn't even happened yet.
还没有。
Nope.
还没有得克萨斯。
No Texas.
还没有加利福尼亚。
No California.
是的。
Yeah.
在公司法方面当然还很早期，但我们在美国的几乎所有人类组织形式上都处于早期阶段。
Certainly early in corporate law, but we're early in, like, all forms of human organization in The United States.
法律？
Law?
法律是什么？
What is law?
说到这个，好吧。
Speaking of okay.
我们从1810年在纽约安克鲁姆开始，那里实际上离曼哈顿没多远，但在那个时代却是另一个世界。
So we start in 1810 in Ankrum, New York, which is actually, like, not that far from Manhattan, but back in those days was a different world.
我们从威廉·埃弗里·洛克菲勒的出生说起。
We start there with the birth of William Avery Rockefeller.
大比尔。
Big Bill.
他后来还获得了另一个绰号。
He would also go on to have, another nickname.
他的另一个绰号是魔鬼比尔。
His other nickname was devil bill.
没那么好听。
Not as good.
他因为自己的职业，长大后也参与其中。
He got because of his profession that he would grow up to participate.
当然，我们这里说的是约翰·洛克菲勒的父亲。
Of course, we're we're talking about John Rockefeller's father here.
魔鬼比尔、大比尔，实际上就是一个卖假药的。
Devil Bill, Big Bill, was literally a snake oil salesman.
你知道，人们常说，哦，比如本，他就是个卖假药的。
You know, like people use the term like, oh, like, you know, oh, Ben, he's a snake oil salesman.
这个词就是这么来的。
This is where the term comes from.
他带着自己的药箱，骑着马进城，自称是医生，其实什么都不会，等人们发现真相时，他已经溜之大吉了。
He sold medicines out of his, like, pack that he rode into town on a horse that, like, professed to be a doctor, but didn't do anything, and then he got out of town before anybody realized.
所以有一天，当他26岁那年，也就是1836年，他来到一个毫不设防的新社区，想把他的货物卖出去——那就是远在纽约州中部的里奇福德。
So one day, when he is 26 years old in 1836, he rolls into a new unsuspecting community to offload his, goods on, shall we say, Richford, New York, far, far, far away in Central New York State.
在那里，他遇到了戴维森一家。
There, he encounters the Davison family.
戴维森一家与比尔和洛克菲勒家族截然不同。
The Davisons are quite unlike Bill and the Rockefeller clan.
他们品行端正。
They're upstanding.
他们品行端正。
They are upstanding.
他们是虔诚的基督教信徒。
They are devout religious Christian followers.
他们的道德标准与比尔不同，可以说。
They have a different moral compass than Bill, shall we say.
嗯，没错，而且他们很富有。
Well, yeah, and they're wealthy.
这还有另一点。
That is the other thing.
他们非常富有。
They are quite wealthy.
所以当比尔看到戴维森牧场时，他的‘狂野比尔’、‘年轻比尔’、‘大比尔’全都兴奋起来。
So Bill's Wild Bills, Young Bills, Big Bills eyes light up when he sees the Davison Ranch.
据说，我认为这其实是真的。
And he, so the story goes I think this is actually true.
他的一种典型手段，可以说是他的拿手好戏，就是假装自己聋了，脖子上挂着一块粉笔板，写写画画，装作又聋又哑。
One of his, like, sort of tricks of the trade, if you will, was he would pretend to be deaf and he would carry like a chalk slate around his neck and write on it and pretend to be deaf and couldn't speak.
他在戴维森家做这套把戏时，听到戴维森家的二女儿，一个叫伊丽莎的年轻女孩说：‘如果他不是又聋又哑，我就嫁给他。’
And he's at the Davison house and he's, you know, doing this little charade and he hears the second eldest daughter of the Davisons, a woman named Eliza, pretty young girl, say, I would marry that man if he weren't deaf and dumb.
奇迹般地，呃。
And miraculously Ew.
天哪。
Oh my god.
年轻伊丽莎的美貌治好了比尔的残疾，他又能听又能说了。
The beauty of young Eliza cures Bill of his affliction, and he can speak and he can hear.
太神奇了。
Amazing.
所以，戴维森家族的族长，一位叫约翰·戴维森的人，请记住这个名字，他对这里发生的事情有点怀疑。
So the, patriarch of the Davison family, one John Davison, remember that name, he's a little suspicious of what's going on here.
但尽管如此，比尔还是追求到了伊丽莎，他们很快便结了婚。
But nonetheless, Bill woos Eliza and they are married shortly thereafter.
他们结婚后安顿下来，比尔盖了一栋房子，一个简陋的小屋——那时候的人们就是沿着这条路稍远一点的地方盖房子的。
They get married, they settle down, you know, Bill builds a house, shack, like, literally people, like, built their houses back then, little ways down the road.
比尔说：‘我们这儿需要一个管家。’
Bill's like, well, we need a housekeeper here.
我有个老朋友，叫南希。
And I've got this old, you know, friend Nancy.
我们让南希搬来和我们一起住，当我们的管家吧？
Why don't we have Nancy move in with us and be our housekeeper?
结果发现，南希其实是他的女友。
Well, turns out Nancy was his girlfriend.
是的。
Yeah.
哦，他这位老朋友，你知道的，她可以帮忙照顾孩子和家务。
Oh, his old friend, you know, she could help with the kids, the housekeeping.
好吧。
Alright.
所以我们现在是在描绘一幅画面。
So we're painting the picture here.
你看，这边是富裕、虔诚、循规蹈矩的母亲一方家族，那边是父亲一方，人格上没那么正派。
Like, you've got this unbelievable swirling concoction of well-to-do religious by the book mom side of the family, dad's side of the family, not quite as, upstanding of a human being.
但就在某年七月的一个晚上，所有这些力量交织在一起，1839年7月8日，伊丽莎白生下了她的第二个孩子。
But here they mix, and one July evening, all of these forces swirl together, and 07/08/1839, Eliza gives birth to her second child.
这是他们的第一个儿子。
It's the first son.
他们决定以伊丽莎白的父亲约翰·戴维森的名字为这个孩子命名。
They decide to name this child after Eliza's father who was John Davison.
他们给这个男孩取名为约翰·戴维森·洛克菲勒。
They named the boy John Davison Rockefeller.
哦，天哪，小JD身上既有约翰·戴维森的影子，也有狂野比尔·洛克菲勒的特质。
And, oh, boy, does little JD have a lot of both John Davison and Wild Bill Rockefeller in him.
在洛克菲勒这一边，小约翰完全被他迷住了，对他百般宠爱。
So on the Rockefeller side, little John is, like, totally captivated, totally dotes on him.
他觉得父亲是最棒的。
He thinks he's the best.
甚至在他一生的其余时间里，洛克菲勒都会极力为父亲辩护。
He would even for the, like, the rest of his life, Rockefeller would intensely defend his father.
切尔诺夫写道，在任何方面，比尔都没有像在金钱的神奇领域那样更深刻地影响长子，也没有哪个长子比他更易受影响。
Chernow would write that in no area did Bill impress his eldest son more or did his eldest son prove more impressionable than in the magical realm of money.
大比尔对现金有着近乎感官的热爱，喜欢炫耀厚厚一叠钞票。
Big Bill had an almost sensual love of cash and enjoyed flashing plump rolls of bills.
事实上，当时比尔的一位同伴曾这样评价他：‘这位老人对金钱的热爱几乎达到了狂热的程度。’
And indeed, one of Bill's companions at the time would say of him, quote, the old man had a passion for money that amounted almost to a craze.
我从未见过一个如此热爱金钱的人。
I never met a man who had such a love of money.
当然，除了他未来的儿子。
Except, of course, for his son in the future.
这就是我们开始探讨他的儿子如何像他、却又不同的地方。
And this is where we start to get into the ways in which his son would become like him, but different.
像他的地方，当然就是这种对尽可能多地赚钱的热爱。
And the like him is, of course, in this love for making as much money as possible.
不同之处在于，比尔每次旅行回来，都会带着一大叠现金，他会拿出一张100美元的钞票，放在最外面。
The way in which it is different, you know, Bill would come back from these trips, and he would have a fat wad of cash, and he would take the $100 bill, and he would put it on the outside.
他确保每个人都知道，这厚厚的一叠现金里至少有一张，甚至可能有很多张百元大钞。
He'd make sure that everybody knew that there was at least one, maybe lots of hundreds in this fat wad of cash.
而小约翰·D长大后却厌恶炫耀财富。
Whereas John d would grow up and detest shows of wealth.
我的意思是，他在克利夫兰最漂亮的街道上买下了最小的房子，他还把母亲一方的家庭影响融入了这些来自父亲的教训中。
I mean, the smallest house on the nicest street in Cleveland, He mixes his mother's side of the family into these lessons from his father.
哦，完全没错。
Oh, totally.
嗯，说到他母亲，戴维森一家是浸信会教徒，这虽然不算独特，但与一两代前来到美洲的某些原始新教团体相比，还是相当不同的。
Well, so speaking of, you know, his mother, the Davisons were Baptists, and that was well, not unique, but pretty different than some of the original Protestant groups that had come to America, you know, a generation or two before.
浸信会，你会想到教会复兴，想到盛大、戏剧性的场面。
The Baptists, you think like church revivals, you think like big, showy, theatrical.
其目的就是为了传教和招募信徒。
The whole point was to evangelize and to recruit.
他们并不认为自己是被选中、前往新大陆独自生活的群体。
They didn't think that they were, like, the chosen people that were going off to the new land to be by themselves.
他们觉得，不。
They're like, no.
不。
No.
我们要在这里征服世界。
We're gonna take over the world here.
我们希望每个人都加入
We want everybody on
我们这一方。
our side.
这是一种福音派宗教。
It was an evangelical religion.
完全正确。
Totally.
所以，约翰母系和父系这两边在这里看起来就像油和水一样。
So here's where these two sides of John's maternal and paternal sides here seem like oil and water.
油和水。
Oil and water.
大卫是谁？
Who David?
他们不是。
They're not.
浸信会的人全都是关于钱的。
The Baptists are all about the money.
他们认为钱也很棒。
They think money is also great.
他们只是认为钱很棒，但原因不同：钱越多，影响力就越大，就能招募更多人加入我们的阵营。
They just think it's great for a different reason, which is that the more money, the more influence, the more followers we can recruit into the fold.
这也对JD产生了巨大影响。
And this also has a huge impact on JD.
他后来会说：‘我相信赚钱的能力是上帝赐予的礼物，就像艺术、音乐和文学的天赋一样，应当尽我们所能加以发展和运用，以造福人类。’
He would say later, quote, I believe the power to make money is a gift from God just as are the instincts for art, music, and literature to be developed and used to the best of our ability for the good of mankind.
既然我被赋予了赚钱的天赋，我认为我的责任就是赚钱、赚更多的钱，并用我赚来的钱为我的同胞谋福利。
Having been endowed with the gift I possess, the gift to make money, I believe it is my duty to make money and steal more money and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man.
砰。
Boom.
我的意思是，责任。
I mean, duty.
他听到了‘责任’这个词，意思是上帝要求他去尽可能多地赚钱。
He heard the word duty in there about making money that is God has asked him to go forth and make as much money as humanly possible.
这是关于约翰·D. 的一件非常独特的事情。
It is this incredibly unique thing about John D.
洛克菲勒，当你将他描述为有史以来最富有的商人之一和慈善家时，这与今天你描述亿万富翁的方式截然不同。
Rockefeller, where when you describe him as one of the wealthiest businessmen of all time and a philanthropist, it's very different than the way that you would describe today's billionaires as wealthy people.
这并不是非此即彼。
And it's not one then the other.
也不是先事业，再慈善。
It's not career and then philanthropy.
约翰·D. 认为这两者是密不可分的：他应该尽可能多地赚钱，同时又极其热衷于慈善。
John Dee held these things to be intertwined, that he should go make as much money as possible and to be simultaneously incredibly philanthropic.
而赚钱的目的就是为了慈善，仿佛他在慈善资源分配上比任何人都更出色。
And the purpose of making this money was to be philanthropic as if he were a better charitable allocator than anybody.
在每一个维度上——财富、权力、控制力、慈善和影响力。
In every dimension, wealth, power, control, philanthropy, impact.
约翰·D. 让比尔·盖茨或马克·扎克伯格看起来像个孩子。
John d makes Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg look like children.
这太疯狂了。
Like, it's wild.
所以1853年，当约翰14岁、刚刚步入成年时，比尔突然从一次旅行中回来，宣布要举家从纽约搬往俄亥俄州的斯特罗恩维尔，本你知道，就在克利夫兰旁边。
So in 1853, when John is 14 and just on the cusp of manhood, Bill swoops in, comes back from one of his trips, and decides announces that he is gonna move the family away from New York to Ohio, specifically to Strongville, which Ben is, you know, is right next to Cleveland.
当然。
For sure.
俄亥俄州的斯特罗恩维尔。
Strongsville, Ohio.
它是克利夫兰地区众多优秀郊区之一。
It's, one of many wonderful suburbs of the Cleveland area.
是的。
Yeah.
这集简直就是你的回家之旅。
This is like your homecoming this episode.
确实如此。
It's true.
这一集的很多场景都发生在我成长的地方周围半小时车程内的地方。
Like, a lot of this episode takes place in places that were within, like, a half hour drive of where I grew up.
哦，太棒了。
Oh, so great.
所以这次搬家的表面原因是比尔想为他的生意开拓新的市场。
So the stated reason for the move is that Bill wants to, you know, go open new territories for his business.
但其实还有另一个原因：他在纽约有了一个叫玛格丽特的新女友，他想让两个家庭更分开一些。
But there's actually another reason, is, he's got another new girlfriend back in New York named Margaret, and he wants to keep the families more separate.
但他想娶这个新女友，而且他觉得，这就是当时美国的世界。
But he wants to marry this new girlfriend and he's kinda thinking, he's like, this is the world that America was back then.
他想，只要在两地之间隔一道州界，那就完美了。
He's like, well, if I just get, like, a state border between the two of them, great.
我不明白为什么我不能同时拥有两个家庭。
I don't see why I can't have two wires.
确实如此。
That's true.
没有互联网。
There's no Internet.
各州的登记系统可能很难跨州查询信息。
State registries are probably pretty hard to go look something up in a different state.
于是他们搬到了俄亥俄州，在比尔与第二任妻子玛格丽特结婚之前，他先把约翰和弟弟威廉送到克利夫兰的一家寄宿公寓，去上克利夫兰的一所正规高中。
So they moved to Ohio, and at first, before Bill marries his second wife concurrently, Margaret, he sends John and his little brother William to a boarding house in Cleveland to go to, like, a real high school in Cleveland.
这种情况持续了大约两年。
And that that goes on for about two years.
后来，当比尔正式娶了玛格丽特后，他给约翰写了一封信，说：你知道的，上学这件事，呃，计划有变，我实在付不起你和威廉的学费了。
And then when Bill actually marries Margaret, he sends a letter to John and says, you know this, schooling thing and the well well well, plans have changed, and I I can't really pay anymore for you and William to go to school.
所以我现在正式任命你为一家之主，你得退学去找工作，想办法养活全家。
So I'm basically deputizing you now as head of household, and, you're gonna have to drop out and get a job and find a way to support the family.
祝你好运，儿子。
Best of luck, son.
听到这种事，完全打乱你的人生计划，真是够疯狂的。
Talk about wild thing to just hear and totally hijack your life plans.
完全正确。
Totally.
这真的不是约翰原本的计划，但他决定记住，他非常热爱金钱。
And this really was not what John was planning, but he decides remember, he's got this love of money.
他想：天啊，我该怎么赚钱呢？
He's like, woah, what can I do to make money?
如果我靠近钱，会怎么样？
Well, what if I stay close to the money?
于是他花了40美元，参加了一个为期三个月的暑期速成簿记课程，并决定成为一名簿记员，以此作为养家糊口的途径。
So he pays $40 and does a three month crash course over the summer in bookkeeping and decides that he's gonna become a bookkeeper, and this is gonna be his path to supporting the family.
作为一贯理智的人，完成培训后，他出去找工作时，决定通过获取克利夫兰所有企业的名录，查阅它们的信用评级，只瞄准信用评级最高的企业。
Ever the sensible fellow, when he finishes his training and he he's off to go get a job, he decides that the way he's gonna job search is he gets a directory of all the businesses in Cleveland, and he looks up what their credit ratings are and decides that he's only gonna target the ones with the best credit ratings.
他很聪明。
He's smart.
我的意思是，既然他认为资本获取渠道才是他想靠近的关键，那么你还不如只加入那些资本最雄厚的企业。
I mean, to the extent that he thinks that the access to capital is the thing that, you know, he wants to be close to, you may as well only be a part of businesses with the best access to capital.
强者愈强。
Strength leads to strength.
对吧？
Right?
据说他连续六周四处奔波求职。
So the story goes that he pounds the pavement for six weeks.
他去了名单上的每一家公司。
He goes to every firm on his list.
他们都拒绝了他，但他毫不气馁，又从头开始重新拜访。
They all reject him, but he's undeterred, and he just starts back up at the top.
所以他多次拜访这些公司，至少两次，有些甚至去了三次。
So he goes to see all these companies, like at least two, some of them three times.
终于，有一家公司——休伊特与塔特尔合伙企业——可能被这个16岁的小孩不断登门打扰得不胜其烦，于是说：好吧。
Finally, one company, the partnership of Hewitt and Tuttle, they probably just get so tired of this little kid, the 16 year old kid banging on their door that they're like, alright.
行吧。
Fine.
你可以开始了。
You can start.
你可以在这里工作。
You can you can work here.
你可以当一名初级簿记员。
You can be a junior bookkeeper.
这件事发生在1855年9月26日。
This happens on 09/26/1855.
更有趣的是，洛克菲勒一生中都将9月26日视为他的入职日。
And get this, for the rest of Rockefeller's life, he celebrates September 26 as his job day.
我太喜欢这个了。
I love this.
简直比生日还要神圣。
Like, more sacred than the birthday.
入职日是他被资本主义接纳的日子，是他第一次在世界上靠赚钱获得认可的日子。
Job day was the day it's like the day he was baptized into capitalism by being able to make money in the world.
当然。
Absolutely.
而且事实上，这每年都是他生命中最重要的大事。
And literally, it's like, this is the big deal every year in his life.
比生日还重要。
Like, it's bigger than the birthday.
这就是他的工作日。
It's it's job day.
不过，你知道，他最初是从劳动开始的，而不是资本，但他很快就完成了转型。
Except he's, you know, he's starting in labor, not in capital, but he makes the transition pretty quick.
别担心。
Don't worry.
于是他开始工作。
So he gets to work.
他几乎成了历史上前所未见、此后也罕有其匹的最优秀会计，至少在飞行员出现之前是这样。
He becomes basically, like, the best bookkeeper that history had seen before or since, at least until pilot.
是的。
Yeah.
钱诺夫对此有所记载。
Chernow writes about this.
约翰对会计有着特殊的天赋，并对数字怀有一种近乎神秘的信仰。
John betrayed a special affinity for accounting and an almost mystic faith in numbers.
对于洛克菲勒来说，账簿是神圣的书籍，指引着决策，使人免于受不可靠情绪的影响。
For Rockefeller, ledgers were sacred books that guided decisions and saved one from fallible emotion.
当然，它们是神圣的。
Well, of course, they're sacred.
账本里的数字就是钱。
The numbers in the books are money.
这是神圣的，你知道的，是上帝赐予的途径，让你贴近金钱，尽可能多地获取它。
It's the divine, you know, God given path to be close to the money and get as much of it as possible.
如果没有神性，这非常像巴菲特的风格。
Absent the divinity, this is very Buffet esque.
我的意思是，这么小的年纪就对数字有这种尊重和痴迷。
I mean, at a young age, having this sort of respect and obsession with the numbers.
据说，约翰小时候会去杂货店买一大块糖果，然后切成小块，再卖给其他孩子，真的吗？
Supposedly, when John was a younger kid, he would also, like, go to the general store and buy, like, a big block of candy and cut it up into little pieces and then sell the little pieces or Oh, no way.
卖给其他孩子。
To other kids.
是的。
Yeah.
就像巴菲特卖口香糖一样。
Just like Buffet and, gum.
对吧？
Right?
没错。
Yep.
口香糖棒。
Sticks of gum.
是的。
Yep.
所以他去这家公司的公司工作。
So he goes to work in this firm.
那么，休伊特和塔特尔公司是做什么的？
Now, what is Hewitt and Tuttle?
他们是一家从事农产品贸易的公司，专门经营食品类商品，比如人们吃的东西，你知道的，肉类、蔬菜，这些从农场运往克利夫兰等城市的农产品。
They are a merchant trading firm that specializes in produce commodities, like food stuffs, like things that people would eat, you know, meat, vegetables, produce stuff that's coming off of the farms going into cities like Cleveland.
我猜他们主要经营运往克利夫兰、再由商店销售给新兴城市人口的食品。
I assume they mostly dealt in food stuffs that came into Cleveland to then be sold in stores and consumed by the newly rising urban populace.
所以约翰·迪迅速晋升。
So John Dee is rising quickly to the ranks.
几乎立刻，他们就给了他50%的加薪，因为他表现得太出色了，尽管他还只是个孩子。
Pretty much immediately, they give him a 50% raise because he's doing so well, even his little kid.
1857年初，也就是约翰加入公司不到两年后， junior合伙人塔特尔离开公司，去追求自己的事业，而不再受资深合伙人休伊特的管束。
In the beginning of 1857, so not quite two years after John joins the firm, Tuttle, the junior partner, leaves to go seek his own fortunes, help from, under the thumb of the senior partner Hewitt.
休厄特说：好吧。
And Hewitt's like, alright.
约翰，你是我新的合伙人了。
Well, John, you're you're my new, partner.
不是合伙人，但你知道，你要接替塔特尔的位置。
Not partner, but, you know, you're you're gonna take Tuttle's role here.
约翰说：嗯，这还不错。
John is like, well, that's nice.
你会像对待合伙人那样付我薪水吗？
Are you gonna pay me like a partner?
休厄特说：老兄，你才17岁。
And, Hewitt's like, dude, you're, like, 17 years old.
不可能。
Like, no.
但约翰并没有气馁。
John is undeterred though.
这真是太疯狂了。
This is pretty crazy.
所以他就像一家之主，要养活全家。
So he's, like, head of household supporting his family.
他已经赚了很多钱。
He's already making a lot of money.
他有了一个很棒的职位。
He's got this great role.
但到了第二年，也就是1858年，他说：我觉得吧，我实际上在一家贸易公司做着合伙人的工作。
But the next year, in 1858, he's like, I think I you know, I'm doing the work of a partner in a merchant trading firm.
我要去当一家贸易公司的合伙人。
I'm gonna go be a partner in a merchant trading firm.
于是他和一位年长得多的绅士莫里斯·克拉克联手，这位绅士是他之前做会计培训时认识的，两人各出一半资金，共同创办了一家名为克拉克与洛克菲勒的贸易公司。
So he hooks up with a much older gentleman named Maurice Clark that he had met doing his bookkeeping training, and they go in 5050 on a new merchant firm called Clark and Rockefeller.
而且，还是做同样的事，继续做农产品、肉类、贸易和食品生意？
And, like, doing the same thing, still produce and meats and trade and food stuff?
没错。
Exactly.
食品、农产品。
Food stuffs produce.
前几年事情还算是顺利。
Things go, like, okay at first for a couple years.
这是什么？
What is this?
比如1859年、1860年？
Like, eighteen fifty nine sixty?
对。
Yeah.
59到60年。
5960.
他们两人共同凑了4000美元作为启动资金，用于开展贸易业务，这在当时是一笔巨款，而洛克菲勒出了一半。
They managed between the two of them to put $4,000 in capital into the firm to start the trading operations, which, like, was a lot of money, and Rockefeller put in half of it.
这并不是洛克菲勒在想办法向魔鬼借钱。
It wasn't Rockefeller, like, finding ways to borrow from devil bill.
魔鬼债券的爪子肯定伸进了这一切。
Devil bill definitely had his sticky fingers in all this.
这毫无疑问。
That is for sure.
所以事情一开始还行，但他们还是亏了一些钱。
So things go, like, okay, but they have some losses.
他们实际上不得不在1860年左右引入第三位合伙人，来弥补一些亏损，并为公司注入更多资本。
They actually have to bring in a third partner, I think in 1860, to sort of shore up some losses and bring more capital into the firm.
为了强调这一点，资本如此重要的原因是，他们基本上需要有足够的资金来完成采购，然后持有库存，直到能卖出去。
And just to put a point on that, the reason the capital is so important is they basically need to have enough on hand to basically make the purchases and then hold the inventory until they can go and sell it.
这里有一个现金流周期，他们需要有足够的资本来管理这个现金流周期。
There's a cash flow cycle there that they need to have enough capital to be able to manage that cash flow cycle.
没错。
Yep.
所以，你知道，情况还行。
So, you know, things are going okay.
然后在1861年，美国发生了一件大事。
And then 1861, something big happens in America.
一件非常大的事。
Something very big.
北方与南方开战了。
The North goes to war with the South.
是的。
Yeah.
萨姆特堡，内战爆发了。
Fort Sumter, the civil war.
第一，洛克菲勒没有参加内战，尽管那时他只有……
One, Rockefeller doesn't fight in the civil war despite being what would he be?
21或22岁，正是适龄参军的年纪。
21, 22 years old at that point in time, like prime fighting age.
他雇了一个替身。
He hires a substitute.
当时 technically 有个漏洞。
There was technically a loophole.
如果你是一家之主，就不必参战。
He was if you were head of family, you didn't have to fight.
你知道，洛克菲勒在表达家庭内部矛盾时非常谨慎。
You know, Rockefeller is careful in how he messages the strife going on in his family.
他从不把父亲推出来当替罪羊。
He never throws his dad under the bus.
他始终至少在表面上对每个人保持最高的敬意。
He always holds everyone, at least outwardly, in the highest of esteem.
因此，他在某个时候暗示的方式是说：当生意面临倒闭时，我怎么能去打仗呢？
And so the way that he sort of drops a hint here at some point is he says, how could I go fight in the war when the business would die?
那时他还很年轻。
It was young.
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当时它还很稚嫩，而且很多人依赖它。
It was fledgling, and so many relied on it.
这某种程度上是他暗示：你看。
And that's sort of him alluding to, like, look.
我的整个家庭都指望这个生意维持下去。
Like, my whole family kinda needs this business to stay alive.
是的。
Yeah.
所以他没有去参军，但为了他必须生存的生意，战争却极大地推高了商品价格，尤其是食品价格。
So he doesn't go fight, but for his business that he needs to survive, the war is a pretty big boon for commodity prices, specifically food stuff prices.
我的意思是，总得给军队提供食物吧。
I mean, you gotta supply an army with food somehow.
是的。
Yeah.
由于战争，对猪腩肉之类商品的订单和需求大幅增加。
There are a lot more orders and demand for, you know, pork belly and the like coming in, thanks to the war.
因此，这使得食品价格飙升。
So this drives up the price of foodstuffs through the roof.
在1862年，战争的第一整年，克拉克与洛克菲勒公司获得了17,000美元的交易利润，据我所知，这相当于他们公司此前所有年份利润总和的四倍。
In 1862, the first, like, full year of the war, the firm, Clark and and Rockefeller, they make a trading profit of $17,000, which I believe was four times all the money that they had made in all the previous years of operations of the firm.
哇。
Wow.
他们过得非常阔绰。
They are living large.
他们简直富得流油。
Like, they're swimming in profits.
他们根本买不够。
They can't buy enough.
他们得把这些钱花出去。
They gotta put this money somewhere.
那么，他们是怎么做的呢？
So what do they do?
就在这个时候，克利夫兰的人们开始听说在不远处的宾夕法尼亚州西部一个叫蒂特斯维尔的小村庄发生了一件有趣的事。
Well, right around this time, people in Cleveland are starting to hear about an interesting development that's happening not too too far away in Western Pennsylvania in a tiny little hamlet called Titusville.
本显然在笑。
Ben's obviously smiling here.
你们中的一些人可能也在笑。
Some of you are maybe smiling.
我刚刚花了上百万小时说‘是的’。
I just did a zillion hours of Yeah.
你们中的大多数人可能都在想：你在说什么？
Probably most of you are like, what are you talking about here?
蒂特斯维尔，宾夕法尼亚？
Like, Titusville, Pennsylvania?
我完全不知道你要说什么。
Like, I I have no idea where you're going with this.
每个人都知道，戴维，石油世界的中心不是中东、俄罗斯、阿拉斯加或德克萨斯，而是宾夕法尼亚西部。
Everyone knows, David, that the center of the oil world is not The Middle East, or Russia, or Alaska, or Texas, but Western Pennsylvania.
宾夕法尼亚西部。
Western Pennsylvania.
没错。
That's right.
在读《泰坦》这本书、为这一集做研究之前，我完全一无所知。
So I had no freaking clue until reading Titan, doing the research for this episode.
几十年来，全世界石油工业的中心就是这个小镇。
For, like, decades, the entire center of the oil industry in the world was this small little town.
差不多五十年。
For, like, fifty years.
我的意思是，虽然其他地方也有一些石油生产商和钻井平台，但规模都非常小。
Like, literally, there I mean, there were some producers, some oil rigs elsewhere, but, like, very small.
世界上大部分石油都来自宾夕法尼亚州的蒂图斯维尔。
Like, most of the oil in the world came from Titusville, Pennsylvania.
是的。
Yeah.
疯狂。
Crazy.
太疯狂了。
Just wild.
不仅仅是蒂图斯维尔，还有石油溪和宾夕法尼亚西部其他发现石油的地区。
And not just Titusville, but Oil Creek and other areas of Western PA that had oil discovers.
所有这些都在发生。
So this is all going on.
这离克利夫兰并不远。
It's not that far away from Cleveland.
在这一行业兴起的头几年，直到内战前，整个产业都集中在蒂图斯维尔。
For the first couple years of this going on up until the civil war, the whole industry is just based there in Titusville.
他们钻探石油。
They drill for the oil.
石油从地下涌出来。
The oil comes out of the ground.
他们提炼石油。
They refine the oil.
他们生产煤油。
They make kerosene.
当我们说他们在提炼时，那过程其实相当原始。
When we say they were refining, like, was a pretty rough process.
我想在很早的时候，他们就发现可以用硫酸来提炼并分离出煤油，但要用大量的硫酸，而且是在到处有裂缝的大木箱里进行，液体在里面乱晃、到处泄漏。
I think pretty early, they figured out you could use sulfuric acid to refine and separate the kerosene out, but a crap ton of sulfuric acid, and like, doing this in large wooden boxes with cracks in it everywhere, and it's just sloshing around and spilling all over the ground.
这简直就是一种非常粗糙的所谓提炼过程。
Like, it is a gnarly process of quote, unquote, refining.
是的。
Yeah.
超级、超级原始。
Super, super gnarly.
但就在洛克菲勒和克拉克积累了大量资金、不知如何使用时，有人提出了这个想法。
But right as Rockefeller and Clark have all this money that they need to have something to do with, people come up with the idea.
也就是说，他们把石油提炼成煤油。
Like, so the with the oil, they're refining it into kerosene.
煤油的主要用途是用在灯里燃烧。
Kerosene, the main use was to burn in lamps.
除了城市之外，哪里最需要灯和人工照明呢？
And where do you need lamps and artificial light more than anywhere else you need it in cities?
人们意识到，实际上并不需要在钻井的地方提炼石油。
People realize you don't actually have to refine the oil in the same place that you drill for the oil.
于是突然之间，人们开始想，等等，我们可以从蒂图斯维尔购买原油，运到城市里进行提炼，然后在城市里销售煤油，这真是个绝佳的生意。
So all of a sudden now, people like, wait, wait, we can buy the oil that comes out of the ground, crude oil from Titusville, bring it into our cities, refine it in the cities, and then sell the kerosene in the city, that's like a really good business.
这是个存放资本的好地方。
That's a good place to park some capital.
完全正确。
Totally.
同时，各种有利的外部因素也在发生，城市正在迅速扩张。
And at the same time, all these interesting tailwinds are happening where cities are blowing up.
我的意思是，你正经历一场工业革命，人们不再仅仅生活在农村种地了。
I mean, you have this sort of, like, industrial revolution that's happening where people don't just live in rural areas and farm anymore.
城市里的工业开始大量兴起。
They're starting to be a lot more industry in cities.
有一段时间，只有富人才能买得起油来晚上照明。
You have for a while, only rich people could basically get oil to burn at night.
大多数人天一黑就没什么光了，只能上床睡觉。
Most people would just the sun would go down, and then they'd have no light, and they'd go to bed.
但是，像鲸...
But, like, whale
鲸油。
oil whale oil.
对。
Yeah.
来自捕鲸业。
From the whaling industry.
这不就是伯克希尔·哈撒韦的哈撒韦的来源吗？
Which isn't that where Hathaway of Berkshire Hathaway
伯克希尔·哈撒韦的哈撒韦就是来自这里。
Hathaway of Berkshire Hathaway came from.
但煤油比鲸油便宜得多，而鲸油当时严重短缺，而且显然，为了获取鲸油而猎杀鲸鱼是非常恶劣的行为。
But kerosene's, like, way cheaper than whale oil, which had a massive shortage, and it's obviously terrible that we kill whales to harvest the whale oil.
便宜得多，也丰富得多。
Like, way cheaper, way more plentiful.
相对于人们当时尝试燃烧的其他物质，煤油燃烧起来要干净得多。
It's a pretty clean thing to burn relative to the other stuff that people were trying to burn.
这太重要了，你知道吗？你提到的关键词是，当然，钻地取油比去用鱼叉猎杀鲸鱼要容易得多。
This is huge, you know, and the keyword, you said, you know, it's cheaper, of course, easier to drill into the ground than go, like, harpoon a whale.
是的。
Yeah.
这在这里是一个取之不尽的资源。
This is an infinite resource here.
是的。
Yeah.
完全正确。
Totally.
但“充足”才是关键。
But the plentiful is the keyword.
就像你说的，以前只有富人才用得起鲸油，晚上才能有光；但随着内战、战争以及之后的工业化，商业和工业都需要照明。
So, like you said, it was only rich people that use whaling oil that they could have light at night, but the new demand, like, with the civil war going on, the war, and then industrialization afterwards, you need light for commerce, for, like, industry.
这不仅仅是为了让富人能有光。
Like, it's not just so that rich people can have light.
你需要点亮工厂，做各种事情。
You need to, like, operate factories and, like, do all this stuff.
你需要光。
You need light.
所以需求很大，而煤油正是答案。
So there's a lot of demand, and kerosene is the answer.
所以洛克菲勒心想，好吧。
So Rockefeller is like, oh, okay.
不错。
Cool.
这是一种新的商品。
Like, this is a new commodity.
克拉克和洛克菲勒开始少量交易这种产品。
They start trading a little bit in this at Clark and Rockefeller.
他们开始赚取一些利润。
They start making some profits.
但当然，洛克菲勒对大量投入感到有些犹豫，因为他觉得这具有投机性。
But, of course, Rockefeller is feeling a little hesitant to do too much of it because he's like, this is speculative.
谁知道什么时候会枯竭呢？
Like, who knows when this will dry up?
而且，你知道，这个行业已经经历过几次繁荣与萧条的周期了。
And, you know, there have already been some, like, boom bust cycles in this.
比如，食品才是我们的主业。
Like, food stuffs are kind of our thing.
所以我不想过多涉足这种投机性的奇怪石油生意。
So I don't wanna dabble too much in this speculative weird oil thing.
我认为最初他们交易的是原油，但后来，正如我所说，人们开始意识到，等等，我们可以在城市里进行提炼。
And I think initially, they were trading crude, but then, like I said, people start to realize, wait a minute, we can refine in the cities.
这是一种非常早期的知识。
And this is, like, really, like, early knowledge.
这大概是在2011年，如果有人来找你，说：嘿。
This would be, like, in, I don't know, 2011 if somebody came to you and were, like, hey.
有一种叫比特币的东西。
There's this thing called Bitcoin.
现在别光买它，而且我知道怎么搭建矿机来挖矿，你知道的，等等。
And now don't just buy it, but, like, I know how to set up rigs to mine it, you know, and, like, wait.
我们为什么不把你那些旧电脑拿来，直接挖矿呢？
Why don't we just take some old computers you have and, like, mine it?
所以这真的是很难获取的知识，恰好在克利夫兰有个叫塞缪尔·安德鲁斯的人，他懂得如何提炼石油，而他正是巴德，也就是洛克菲勒的合伙人克拉克的搭档。
So this is, like, really hard to get knowledge, and it just so happens that the one guy in Cleveland, guy named Samuel Andrews, who knows how to refine oil is Bud's with Rockefeller's partner, Clark.
这倒挺巧的。
Well, that works out.
他像个化学家。
He's like a chemist.
对吧？
Right?
他是个化学家。
He's a chemist.
是的。
Yeah.
这里的‘化学家’是打引号的。
Chemist in quotes here.
但确实涉及真正的科学，比如使用硫酸，把煤油和汽油以及其他没用的残留物分离开来。
Well, but there's, like, real science involved in, like, applying the sulfuric acid and, you know, separating the kerosene from the gasoline and other crap that's left over that you don't have anything to do with.
顺便说一下，他们直接把这东西倒进河里。
Which, by the way, they just pour that stuff into the river.
哦，没错。
Oh, totally.
事实上，这有个有趣的克利夫兰冷知识。
In fact, this is a fun little Cleveland trivia.
凯霍加河曾多次起火。
The Cuyahoga River caught fire many times.
有一款大湖区酿酒公司生产的啤酒叫‘燃烧之河艾尔’。
There's this Great Lakes Brewing Company beer called Burning River Ale.
这正是它的由来？
And this is where it comes from?
没错。
Totally.
因为在夜色掩护下，这些炼油厂会剩下大量多余的汽油。
Because under the cover of night, these refineries would have all this extra gasoline left over.
再过三十四十年，汽车才会出现。
Cars wouldn't be a thing for thirty, forty more years.
他们觉得汽油没什么用，就直接把它滴进河里。
They thought the gasoline was, like, useless Where's they would just, like, drip it into the river.
是啊。
Yeah.
呃。
Ugh.
太糟糕了。
Awful.
天啊。
God.
真是疯狂。
Just wild.
真是疯狂。
Just wild.
安德鲁是那个懂得如何提炼煤油的化学家。
So Andrew's the chemist who knows how to refine kerosene.
他和克拉克是朋友。
He's buds with Clark.
有一天，他去克拉克的办公室——他们那个商人办公室——对他说：嘿。
He goes to Clark one day in the office, the merchant office that they have, and, he asked was like, hey.
我觉得这会是个不错的投资。
I think it'd be a pretty good investment.
我知道怎么做。
I know how to do this.
这里没人真的懂怎么做。
Nobody else around here really knows how to do this.
我觉得这会是个好投资。
I think it'd be a good investment.
你为什么不投资我，我们就在克利夫兰建个炼油厂，开始在这里提炼？
Why don't you invest in me and we'll set up a refinery, and we'll start refining here in Cleveland.
所以传说中，克拉克说：‘嗯，我对这个不太感兴趣。’
So the story goes that, Clark is like, look, I'm not too interested in this.
但洛克菲勒听到了他们的对话，插话说：‘嘿，实际上，我觉得这主意不错。’
But Rockefeller overhears what's going on, and he pipes in and he's like, hey, actually, I think that's not a bad idea.
我对这个感兴趣。
I'm interested in that.
当然，克拉克知道，洛克菲勒在这方面非常在行。
And Clark, of course, knows that, you know, Rockefeller is really good at this stuff.
于是他说：‘好吧。’
And he's like, okay.
行吧。
Fine.
他们转身就行动了。
They turn around.
他们当场投资了4000美元，设立了一家新炼油厂。
They invest $4,000 on the spot to go set up a new refinery.
哇。
Wow.
所以那一年晚些时候，他们在镇上一个战略要地开设了卓越工厂炼油厂。
So later that year, they open the Excelsior Works Refinery in a strategically chosen spot in town.
本，你肯定知道具体在哪儿。
Ben, you'll probably know exactly where this is.
在平原区。
In the flats.
对吧？
Right?
对。
Yeah.
我觉得在平原区，那里既能通向凯霍加河，又能连接新修的通往克利夫兰的铁路终点站。
I think in the flats, it's an area that has access both to the Cuyahoga River and to the terminus of new rail lines that are going into Cleveland.
对。
Yeah.
而且，是个超级工业区。
And, like, super industrial area.
实际上，在过去几年里，那里发生了惊人的翻新，还有很多酷炫的变化。
Actually, in the last few years, there's been, like, an amazing amount of renovation and, like, cool stuff that's going on there.
所以你现在能看到河流与石油时代遗留下来的设施，以及克利夫兰钢铁业繁荣的痕迹，还有现在的重新开发，这一切奇妙地交织在一起。
So you have this, like, interesting confluence of the river and, like, everything left over from the standard oil days and, like, the steel boom that happened in Cleveland and now this redevelopment.
但没错，这完全是紧邻滨水区的城市区域。
But, yeah, it's totally the city area that's up against the waterfront.
有意思。
Interesting.
我们得去那里实地考察一下。
We'll to go do a field trip there.
当然。
For sure.
我们会来一次特罗瓦之旅。
We'll we'll do a Trova trip.
所以他在这里就像泥里打滚的猪。
So he is like a pig in mud here.
我的意思是，他以前是个会计。
I mean, like, he was a bookkeeper.
他非常一丝不苟。
He's so meticulous.
他喜欢钱。
He loves money.
他喜欢利润。
He loves profit.
他以前专注于交易，但现在他有了这个运营项目——这个炼油厂。
He was focused on trading before, but now he's got this operation, this refinery.
他简直成了石油炼化领域的张忠谋。
And he becomes, like literally, he's, like, the Morris Chang of oil refineries.
他一直在不断试验，调整工艺。
He's experimenting with constantly tweaking the process.
你知道吗，安德鲁是化学家，而洛克菲勒则负责所有周边事务。
You know, Andrew's the chemist is, like, dude, I'm like the technical talent, but Rockefeller is like everything around it.
运营方面，原油怎么进来，工厂里各种东西的位置等等。
The operations, how crude comes in, where things are located in the factory.
他在做A/B测试。
He's AB testing.
他简直在搞地狱模式啊。
Like, he's doing Hell, wow.
各种各样的事情。
All sorts of stuff.
他总是在寻找任何效率提升的机会，而且一切都是为了这个目标。
He's always looking like any efficiency, and it's all with a view to it.
这不仅仅是‘更好’就足够了，而是所有改进都着眼于盈利能力。
It's not just, like, better is good, but it's all with a view to, like, profitability.
我们要尽可能精简运营，赚取尽可能多的钱。
Like, we wanna run this as lean as possible, make as much money.
上帝告诉我一定要盈利，而我来这里就是为了赚钱。
God told me to make a profit, and I am here to make a profit.
顺便说一下，先记下莫里斯·张这件事，因为他们有一种非常类似于台积电的方式，我想稍后谈谈。
By the way, put a pin in that Morris Chang thing because there's an interesting way that they are very much like TSMC that I wanna talk about later.
哦。
Oh.
你知道吗，他如此专注，这太不一样了。
So, you know, he's focused like, this is so different.
你知道，还有其他人正在克利夫兰和其他地方建立炼油厂，但他们根本不关心优化。
You know, there are other people that are setting up refineries in Cleveland and elsewhere, but they don't care about optimization.
他们不在乎效率。
They don't care about efficiency.
他们只是说：看。
They're just like, look.
嘿。
Hey.
这是一场淘金热。
It's a gold rush.
给我金子，我会尽可能多地拿走。
Like, give me the gold, and I'll just take as much of it as possible.
如果明天就没了，那也没关系。
If it goes away tomorrow, that's fine.
没错。
Yep.
高额利润的钱正从地里源源不断地冒出来。
High margin dollars just flying out of the ground.
所有这些，其他人的行为，导致了价格的巨大波动。
All of this, the behavior of the other folks, this causes huge gyrations in price.
真的就是这样。
Like, it really is.
就像比特币的早期阶段。
It's like the early days of Bitcoin.
我的意思是，直到今天在加密货币领域也是如此。
I mean, still today in crypto.
就像，各种东西一直在不停地飞来飞去。
Like, things are flying around, like, all the time.
比如，油价可能是一桶12美元。
Like, prices could be $12 a barrel.
也可能一桶油只有12美分。
They could be 12¢ a barrel for oil.
这一切都取决于，我的意思是，两件事。
And it all depends on I mean, two things.
第一是谁发现了什么，第二是人们最近相信别人发现了什么。
One is who found what, and two is what do people believe people have found recently.
所以，价格会受到口碑传播的影响，比如说：嘿。
And so, like, prices would be impacted by word-of-mouth traveling and saying, hey.
我听说现在这个城市正发生一场大喷涌。
I heard there's a big gusher going on in this city right now.
人们会想：嗯，我想我还是先别买了，因为我听说有个大油井正在喷油，所以价格会下跌。
And people would be like, well, I guess I'm not gonna buy for a while because I heard there's a big gusher, and so prices are gonna go down.
没错。
Yep.
但洛克菲勒却有着这样的远见：天啊。
So Rockefeller, though, he's just got this vision where he's like, oh, man.
我赚得越多，手里的钱和资本就越多，就能投入更多石油，生产更多。
The more profit I make, the more money, the more capital I can put into this, the more oil I can hold, the more I can produce.
当价格暴跌时，我会继续买入。
And when the price crashes, I'll just keep buying.
他会不断抄底，一遍又一遍地买入。
Like, I'll just keep he's like, he buys the dip, like, over and over and over again.
因为他的运营效率高得多，利润也高得多，所以他能负担得起比别人更高的价格。
And because his operations are so much more efficient and so much more profitable, he can afford to pay, like, more than anybody else.
他能承受更长时间地持有这些石油。
He can afford to hold this stuff longer.
他以一种其他竞争对手都没有的长远眼光在思考。
He's, like, really thinking long term in a way that none of his other competitors are.
哦，我们还应该说，当我们说他在调整时，他盈利得多得多，他既进行了横向整合，也进行了纵向整合。
Oh, and we should say, like, when we say he's tweaking stuff, he's so much more profitable, he is both horizontally and vertically integrating.
我们先来谈谈纵向整合吧。
So let's talk about vertically integrating first.
他意识到，天啊，我们每次扩建都要雇很多水管工来，
He's doing things like realizing, jeez, we're hiring a lot of plumbers to come in and,
这太棒了。
like is so good.
我喜欢这个。
I love this.
每次我们建新设施时都要铺设管道。
Lay this pipe every time we do a build out.
所以他们做了类似的事情：雇用自己的水管工和铁匠，决定实际上我们应该自己来做这些事。
And so they do things like hire their own plumber and hire their own blacksmiths and decide, actually, we should do this ourselves.
这样，我们就能省下大量购买管道的费用，而不是从第三方承包商那里购买。
And that way, we can save all this money on piping instead of buying it from a third party contractor.
后来，他甚至买下了一片森林，以便自己砍伐树木来制作木桶。
Later down the road, he even plants a forest, like, buys up a forest so that they can cut down the trees themselves to build the barrels out of.
来制作他们自己的木桶。
To make their own barrels.
是的。
Yeah.
天哪。
Oh my gosh.
这
This
所有这些钱都省下来了，而不是从别人那里购买木桶。
is so all this money rather than buying barrels from somebody else.
然后，当然，他们还可以在木桶制作工艺上进行创新。
And then, of course, they can innovate on the barrel making process.
所以他想到，如果我们对森林里的木材进行处理，它就会变得更轻、运回炼油厂的成本也更低。
So he figures out, oh, if we treat the wood in the forest, then it's lighter and cheaper to ship back to the refinery.
所以我们能在运输上省下一大笔钱。
So we save all this money on transportation.
这就是所谓的垂直整合，这本身已经够疯狂了。
So that's, like, the vertical integration side of things, which would be crazy enough.
但他又想到，等等。
But he's figuring out that, wait.
我们做了这个过程。
We do this process.
我们怎么才能充分利用整个水牛呢？
How can we sort of use the whole buffalo?
比如，我们可以把汽油卖到什么用途？
Like, what can we sell the gasoline for?
我认为他们发明了凡士林。
What I think they invent Vaseline.
是的。
Yes.
我认为他们收购了发明凡士林的公司，没错，他们用的是石油 jelly，这是副产品之一。
They I think they buy the company that invents Vaseline, but, yeah, they like like petroleum jelly, which is one of the byproducts.
他们将其商业化。
They commercialize it.
所以洛克菲勒觉得，他在这里找到了自己的使命。
So Rockefeller is like he's, like, found his calling here.
这简直就是天赐的激情。
Like, this is, like, divine passion here.
这里有一个问题，就是合伙人克拉克。
There's this one problem, which is the partner, Clark.
克拉克不太认同洛克菲勒在这里投入了这么多资本。
Clark is, like, not so into how much capital Rockefeller is tying up in the business here.
他说：嘿，我们本质上是商人贸易商。
He's like, hey, we're, like, merchant traders.
关键是利润，然后我们保留这些利润。
The point is profits, and then we keep the profits.
而洛克菲勒说：不。
And Rockefeller's like, no.
要将利润再投资于研发、资本支出和库存。
Like, reinvest in r and d and, like, CapEx and and inventory.
于是洛克菲勒开始走访克利夫兰所有银行和金融家，筹措资金——他甚至不只是用他们业务的利润。
So Rockefeller starts going around to all the banks and all the financers in Cleveland and lining up he's not even using just the profits from their operations.
他还在获取更多外部融资来支持这里的扩张。
He's getting more external financing to finance growth here.
当然了。
Oh, totally.
比如当
Like, when
我说垂直和水平整合时，在水平层面，他痴迷于如何成为全球唯一的石油供应商。
I say both vertically and horizontally integrating, in the horizontal sense, he is obsessed with trying to figure out how to be the sole supplier of oil to the world.
一旦他意识到这里存在规模经济，他就说：好吧。
Like, as soon as he figures out that there's economies of scale here, he's like, okay.
酷。
Cool.
我们怎么启动这个飞轮，尽可能多地筹集资金，扩大生产规模，并与尽可能多的土地拥有者达成协议，以便向全球销售？
How do we start the flywheel, get as much capital as possible, build out as much production as possible, start having agreements with whoever's got rights to the land as possible so we can start vending to the world?
没错。
Yep.
并掌控城市炼油这一超级战略咽喉点。
And own this super strategic choke point of refining in cities.
因此，克拉克对这一切感到惊恐。
So Clark is, like, spooked by all this.
特纳引用了一段关于洛克菲勒的精彩言论。
Turnout has this amazing quote that he finds from Rockefeller.
我不知道他是在哪儿找到这段话的。
I don't know where he found this.
我应该去查一下《泰坦》这本书末尾的笔记。
I should look up in the notes at the end of Titan.
这太棒了。
This is so good.
洛克菲勒显然曾经写过或说过这句话。
Rockefeller apparently, like, wrote or said this at some point.
克拉克是个老奶奶，吓得要死，因为我们欠了银行的钱。
Clark was an old grandmother and was scared to death because we owed money to the banks.
太棒了。
So great.
于是洛克菲勒策划了一场政变。
So Rockefeller engineers a coup.
这太棒了。
This is so good.
此时，克拉克的一些兄弟也是这家公司的合伙人。
And some of Clark's brothers are also partners in the business at this point in time.
他们总是陷入各种争论。
They get into all these arguments.
所以有一天，约翰故意激他们，让他们威胁说应该解散合伙关系。
So John baits them one day into threatening that they should just dissolve the partnership.
约翰说：好吧。
And John's like, okay.
太好了。
Great.
那就解散合伙关系吧。
Let's dissolve the partnership.
因为他知道，如果他直接去对他们说：首先，我觉得你们风险承受能力不够。
Well, because he knows that if he goes to them and says, look, first of all, I don't think you are risk tolerant enough.
其次，我觉得你们品行不端，所以我想退出。
Second of all, I don't think you're upstanding, and so I want out.
他知道那样做会丧失主动权，所以他故意激他们，让他们像往常一样大发雷霆，说要退出。
Like, he knows that he loses leverage by doing that, so that's why he baits them into doing their normal thing of getting all up in a fit and saying, we're gonna back out.
是的。
Yep.
完全正确。
Totally.
于是洛克菲勒立即找到当地报纸，刊登了一则公告，称该合伙企业即将解散，并将对合伙企业的资产（包括炼油厂）进行拍卖。
So Rockefeller immediately goes to the local paper and places a notice that the partnership is dissolving and that there's gonna be an auction for the assets of the partnership, including the oil refineries.
这引发了一场对决，克拉克兄弟和洛克菲勒互相竞标对方在企业中50%的股份。
And it sets up this showdown where the Clark brothers and Rockefeller bid against each other for each other's 50% stake in the business.
顺便说一句，这真是个绝妙的做法。
Which is, by the way, a great way to do it.
比如，如果你的合伙关系即将破裂，好吧。
Like, if you've got a partnership that's blowing up, alright.
谁愿意出更高的价格买断对方的股份，谁就该拥有整个企业。
Whoever wants to pay more to buy the other person out is the person that should get to own the whole thing.
因此，让他们俩通过竞价来确定企业估值，这完全说得通。
And so the the idea of a bidding war between the two of them to figure out how to value the business makes total sense.
在两位合伙人之间。
Between the two principles.
但记住，洛克菲勒一直在与各家银行和金融家建立关系。
So Rockefeller, though, remember, he's been going and getting the relationships with all the banks and financers.
他在拍卖前就安排好了融资。
He lines up financing in advance of the auction.
因此他实际上拥有无限的资源，尽管最终的价格还是让他压力很大。
So he's got basically unlimited resources, although it's still the price ends up stressing him out.
他以72,500美元买下了克拉克在石油业务中的50%股份，并且作为交换，也把克拉克在农产品贸易中的50%股份给了克拉克。
He buys Clark's 50% of the oil business for $72,500, and in exchange also gives Clark Rockefeller gives Clark his 50% share of the produce trading.
顺便说一句，以2021年的美元计算，他买断对方股份的价格可能是三到四百万美元左右。
Which, by the way, that's something he probably buys them out for, like, 3 to $4,000,000, something like that in $20.21 dollars.
是的。
Yeah.
确实是一大笔钱。
So good chunk of change.
嗯。
Yeah.
但那50%，那72,500美元，或者你怎么看待它都行。
But that 50%, that $72,500 or, you know, however you wanna think about it.
那正是标准石油公司的一半。
That's 50% of standard oil right there.
哇。
Wow.
洛克菲勒后来会说，那是决定我职业生涯的一天。
Rockefeller would say later, it was the day that determined my career.
可能比入职日还要重要。
Probably bigger than job day.
我感受到了它的重大意义，但我当时平静得就像现在跟你说话一样。
I felt the bigness of it, but I was as calm as I am talking to you now.
而这正是我们将要看到的。
And this is like what we're gonna see.
这家伙真是冷血。
Like, this man has ice.
不是冰水，而是 literally 冰块流经他的血管。
Not ice water, like literally solid ice running through his veins.
太疯狂了。
It's crazy.
这是一笔巨额价格。
So this was a big price.
这比洛克菲勒愿意支付的还要高，但这件事发生在1865年，也就是1865年2月初。
It was more than Rockefeller wanted to pay, but this happens in 1865, in the beginning of in February 1865.
回到当时美国的情况，两个月后，李将军向格兰特投降，内战结束了。
Back to what's going on in America, two months later, General Lee surrenders to Grant and the civil war is over.
内战结束后，商品交易变得不那么重要了，而石油、工业、城市化等一切突然变得极其重要。
And with the civil war over, what's less important, commodity produce trading, and what is all of a sudden a hell of a lot more important, oil, industry, urbanization, everything.
因为所有士兵都回来了，进入工厂工作。
Well, because all these soldiers are coming back and getting jobs in factories.
你看，这里出现了一种工业繁荣。
Like, you have sort of an industrial boom here.
有趣的是，洛克菲勒一直执着于一点：我不是投机者。
And it's interesting how Rockefeller is sort of obsessed with, I'm not a speculator.
你知道，我不是那种冲到宾夕法尼亚西部去勘探各种地块的人。
You know, I'm not one of these people rushing to prospect, you know, various plots of land in Western Pennsylvania.
有趣的是，这可以说是一场‘镐头和铁锹’式的生意。
It's funny that it's, I would say, a picks and shovels play.
我想强调的是，他做的正是价值链中可预测、可靠、稳定且极具战略性的部分。
I guess the point to make here is he's doing the predictable, reliable, stable, very strategic part of the value chain.
他并没有去勘探土地。
He's not out prospecting land.
是的。
Yeah.
为了进一步强调他的战略眼光，洛克菲勒知道这场战争会在两个月后结束吗？
To just doubly underscore strategic, did Rockefeller know the war was gonna end in two months?
我的意思是，大概吧。
I mean, probably.
我认为谢尔曼此时可能正在向大海进军。
I think Sherman's probably marching to the sea at this point.
所以切尔诺夫写道：‘战争通过切断南方松节油的供应，刺激了煤油的使用，而松节油曾产出一种名为樟脑油的替代照明燃料。’
So Chernow writes, quote, the war had stimulated growth in the use of kerosene by cutting off the supply of southern turpentine, which had yielded a rival illuminant called camphine.
战争还扰乱了捕鲸业，导致鲸油价格翻倍。
The war had also disrupted the whaling industry and led to a doubling of whale oil prices.
煤油填补了这一空白，成为一种经济必需品，并为战后的迅猛繁荣做好了准备。
Moving into the vacuum, kerosene emerged as an economic staple and was primed for a furious postwar boom.
这种燃烧的液体延长了城市中的白昼，也消除了乡村生活中的许多孤寂黑暗。
This burning fluid extended the day in cities and removed much of the lonely darkness from rural life.
很快，约翰·D·洛克菲勒将成为这个世界的无可争议之王。
Soon, John d Rockefeller would reign as the undisputed king of that world.
因此，他现在把石油开采和炼油业务全都掌握在自己手中。
So he's now got the oil operations, the refining business all to himself.
1865年12月，战争结束了。
December 1865, the war is over.
所有这些都已经发生了。
All this has gone on.
他在克利夫兰的卓越工厂旁开设了第二家炼油厂，并选了一个全新的名字。
He opens a second refinery in Cleveland next to the Excelsior Works with a new name that he really he he chooses.
他想让每个人都知道，他的石油、他的煤油、他的生意和运营将超越任何人。
He wants to let everybody know that his oil, his kerosene, his business, his operations is gonna be bigger than anyone else.
它将是最高品质的，并且将遍及从海到海的每一个角落。
It's gonna be the best quality, and it is gonna rain from sea to sea.
他给这个新业务起了什么名字？
What does he call the new operation?
标准石油。
Standard oil.
首先，它是
Well, first, it's the
工厂被称为标准工厂，然后它变成了
factory is the standard works, and then it becomes
哦，真的吗？
Oh, really?
是的。
Yeah.
第一个炼油厂是卓越工厂，然后啊。
The first refinery was the Excelsior Works, and then Ah.
标准工厂是他选择的名字。
Standard Works is the name that he chooses.
标准公司。
The Standard.
他正在树立行业标准。
He's setting the standard.
而且重要的是，没错，这关乎制定行业标准。
And importantly, yeah, it's about setting industry standards.
我的意思是，对他来说，他一直在观察——我知道我反复强调这一点，就是投机者和牛仔的问题——但尤其是战后，有这么多士兵在思考自己未来该做什么。
I mean, for him, he was observing I know I'm hammering home on this, like, speculators and cowboys thing, but, like, especially after the war, you've got all these soldiers who are trying to figure out what to do with their lives.
他们四处奔波，工作、打井。
And they're going, and they're working and drilling.
所以你有这么一群人，我想书里提到过，有人带着枪、水壶，还有宾夕法尼亚的一块地。
And so you have all these people that have I think in the book, it refers to someone with a a gun and a canteen and, you know, their plot of land in Pennsylvania.
我认为洛克菲勒观察到的是，能为世界提供动力的煤油，其价格波动极大。
And I think Rockefeller is basically observing that the kerosene that could power the world is volatile in price.
人们担心煤油不安全，因为它的提炼方式可疑，导致人们的房子频频起火。
People are scared that it's not safe because it's being refined in questionable ways, and so people's houses are burning down.
煤油行业还没有实现他所希望的那种专业化。
There's not professionalization in the kerosene industry the way that he wants to bring it.
所以这种‘标准’的概念，有点像台积电的芯片良率问题。
So this notion of standard is almost like kinda like the TSMC chip yield thing.
就是说，我们生产线上出来的每一件产品都具有极高的品质。
Like, everything that comes off of our line is super high quality.
完全正确。
Totally.
这个类比简直一模一样。
That is exactly the same analogy.
这可不是什么容易的事。
Like, this is not necessarily easy stuff to do.
他们会确立标准。
They're gonna set the standard.
顺便说一下，到这个时候，他已经发现可以用汽油来运行工厂。
And by the way, at this point, he's now figured out that he can run the factory on gasoline.
哦，我之前不知道这一点。
Oh, I didn't realize that.
因此，标准石油公司的工厂比竞争对手消耗更少的煤，并利用汽油的副产品。
So the Standard Oil factories are burning less coal than their competitors and using the gasoline byproduct.
哦，这太棒了。
Oh, that's so great.
所以他们实际上是在自给自足。
So they're literally feeding themselves.
没错。
Yep.
你刚才提到这个的时候说了一些话。
So you said something a minute ago when you're talking about this.
你说把这种油、这种煤油卖到全世界。
You said selling this oil, this kerosene to the world.
所以在接下来的1866年，你知道，美国是个大市场，尤其是在内战之后，它将大幅增长。
So by the very next year in 1866, you know, America is a big market and it's gonna grow hugely especially after the civil war.
但你知道更大的市场是什么吗？
But do you know what's a bigger market?
全世界其他地区。
The rest of the world.
尤其是在这个时候。
Especially at this point in time.
我的意思是，美国还称不上是美国。
I mean, America is not America yet.
人口可能只有三千万到四千万。
It's probably thirty, forty million people.
是的。
Yeah.
也许就这么多。
Maybe if that.
好吧。
Alright.
你继续说。
You keep talking.
我来查一下谷歌。
I'm a Google this.
好的。
Okay.
好的。
Okay.
太好了。
Great.
所以到了第二年，也就是1866年，刚刚起步的标准石油公司就已经将三分之二的煤油销往海外，主要销往欧洲。
So by the very next year in 1866, the fledgling Standard Oil Company is already selling two thirds of their kerosene overseas, primarily to Europe.
所以，大约三分之一在国内，
So, like, one third domestic,
三分之二已经在国际市场上了。
two thirds international already.
1865年，美国人口为三千一百万。
31,000,000 people in 1865.
哇。
Wow.
所以他们大部分的石油都销往海外。
So they're selling most of their oil overseas.
洛克菲勒派他年幼的弟弟威廉——当时已在公司工作——前往纽约，负责标准石油公司的所有出口业务。
Rockefeller dispatches his little brother, William, who's now working in the business, to New York City to go handle all of the export business for Standard Oil.
你知道他需要筹集大约5万美元的那个故事吗？
Do you know the story about when he needed to raise I think it was $50,000?
哦，我不知道。
Oh, I don't know.
哦，是的。
Oh, yeah.
这是一个很棒的故事。
Well, it's a great story.
这出自钱诺夫的书。
So this is in Chernow's book.
洛克菲勒身上有他父亲的一些特质，有点表演天赋，他确实需要1.5万美元。
Rockefeller has a bit of his father in him, sort of a flair for showmanship, and he really needs $15,000.
他急需一笔贷款，于是四处寻找投资者。
Like, he needs a loan pretty quickly, and he's sort of looking around for financiers for it.
他穿着非常得体，举止优雅，专门去那些肯定能遇到人的地方走动。
And he dresses very nicely, and he presents himself nicely, and he walks in areas where he's sure to bump into people.
某时，有人停下他的马车，望过来说道：‘哦，洛克菲勒先生，您需要一笔五万美元的贷款吗？’
And at some point, someone stops his carriage and looks over and says, oh, mister Rockefeller, could you use a 50,000 loan?
当然，洛克菲勒心想：太棒了！
And, of course, Rockefeller is like, jackpot.
他看着对方，面不改色。
And he sort of looks at him, like, without breaking.
他看着对方，说：‘您能给我二十四小时考虑一下吗？’
And he looks at him, he goes, could you give me twenty four hours to think it over?
是的。
Yeah.
当然，这样做让他获得了贷款的最佳条款。
And, of course, by doing that, he gets, like, the best terms on the loan.
我都不确定我是不是真需要这笔钱。
It's like, I'm not sure I really need this.
他简直太厉害了，能以远优于其他人的方式获得更多的资金。
He's unbelievable at, like, getting his hands on way more capital at way better terms than other people would be able to.
哦，太棒了。
Oh, so good.
现在威廉到了纽约，家族在纽约有了业务，人们就会说，‘洛克菲勒先生，您要不要考虑25万或50万美元的贷款？’
Now that William's in New York and the family has got the family, has got operations in New York, they can get, like, oh, mister sir Rockefeller's, could you use $250,000 or $500,000?
所以很快，他们就像拿着火箭筒去打一场拳击赛，对付其他炼油商。
So pretty soon, they're, like, bringing a bazooka to a like a fist fight with the other refiners out there.
这部分故事让我想起了优步的那些日子。
And it's kinda like this whole part of the story just reminded me so much of, like, the Uber days.
你还记得优步当时出去融资，说我们要碾压Lyft、滴滴以及所有全球竞争对手吗？
You remember when Uber went out and raised all that money and it's like, oh, we're gonna flat in Lyft and Didi and all the global competitors that, like, ugh.
这完全是优步的打法，只不过这次真的成功了。
It was totally was the Uber playbook except it really worked.
没错。
Yep.
说到优步，威廉刚到纽约后，就出现了标准石油公司里的这样一个叫埃米尔·迈克尔的人物。
Speaking of Uber, right after William goes to New York, this sort of, shall we say, Emile Michael character of Standard Oil.
你这比喻有点牵强了。
Stretching a metaphor here.
好吧，我承认。
Stretch alright.
我确实扯得太远了。
I'm stretching it too far.
但在标准石油初创帝国中，出现了一个有趣而富有色彩的人物。
But an interesting, colorful character comes into the fold in the fledgling Standard Oil empire.
我一直在推特上发布一些有趣的内容，因为我实在太享受这项研究了。
I, I've been posting on Twitter, like, all the fun stuff, like, just because I've been enjoying this research so much.
我在推特上发过关于亨利·莫里森·弗拉格勒的事。
And I posted about this guy, Henry Morrison Flagler on Twitter.
安迪·斯帕克斯在我的推文下回复了我，我想那是关于弗拉格勒最精彩的一句话。
And, Andy Sparks replied to my tweet with, I think, like, the best one liner about Flagler possible.
他说：‘Flagler是个狠角色。’
He says, quote, Flagler was savage.
哦，而且他真的，你知道，Rockefeller是被一种神圣的使命感驱动的。
Oh, and he was really, like, you know, Rockefeller, he's driven by this divine calling.
他愿意全力以赴。
He's willing to go to the mat.
他愿意做几乎任何事情。
He's willing to do just about whatever.
但真正干脏活的是Flagler，以及他引进的其他一些副手。
But it was Flagler and then some of the other lieutenants that he brought in that were, like, they're the ones who did the dirty work.
哦，没错。
Oh, yeah.
因为Rockefeller需要保持合理的否认空间，方方面面都得留有余地，尤其是当他们发现所有能让自己占据优势的商业手段之后。
Because Rockefeller, you know, he needed to preserve plausible deniability left, right, and center, especially once they figured out all the business tactics that were really gonna let them press their advantage.
你知道，他有一些非常恶劣的下属，这样他就能尽可能地保持表面上的正直。
You know, he had some very bad lieutenants, he could stay as, plausibly good as possible.
洛克菲勒无疑是幕后操纵者。
Rockefeller was for sure the one pulling the strings.
所以弗拉格勒之所以进入这个行业，是因为他有一位名叫史蒂文·哈克尼斯的富有亲戚，听说了这件事后，想要投资这笔新的标准业务。
So Flagler ends up coming into the business because he has a wealthy relative named Steven Harkness, who hears about what's going on and and wants to invest, like, equity dollars into this new standard operation.
于是他投资了10万美元进入这项业务，天哪。
So he invests a $100,000 in the operation, which, oh my goodness.
我其实没找到哈克尼斯家族因为这笔投资最终积累了多少财富，但总之，
Like, I didn't actually find, like, what the net worth of the Harkness family ends up being because of this, but, like,
巨大无比。
enormous.
是啊。
Yeah.
这肯定是世代相传的财富。
It has to be just generational wealth.
他作为投资者提出的一个条件是，他希望——我想弗拉格勒可能是他的侄子之类的。
And his sort of one term that he asked for as part of investing is that he wants I think maybe Flagler was his nephew or something.
他希望Flagler加入公司担任财务主管，以监督他的投资。
He wants Flagler to join the firm as treasurer to, quote, keep an eye on his investment.
于是Flagler加入了，这正是我发推文的内容。
And so Flagler joins and literally, this is what I tweeted.
他在标准石油公司工作期间，一直把这句话放在办公桌上。
He keeps a quote on his desk at Standard Oil for all the time he's working there.
这句话写道：己所不欲，勿施于人，且要率先做到。
The quote says, do unto others as they would do unto you and do it first.
天哪。
Oh my goodness.
于是Flagler接管了与铁路公司关于石油运输的谈判。
So Flagler takes over the negotiations for shipping of oil with the railroads.
如果你了解标准石油公司，你就知道接下来会发生什么。
If you know anything about standard oil, you can see where this is going.
当洛克菲勒与铁路公司进行谈判时，他总能获得不错的运费，因为他位于克利夫兰的伊利湖畔，拥有良好的替代方案。
When Rockefeller was running negotiations with the railroads, he always was able to get pretty good rates shipping rates because he had a BATNA being there in Cleveland on Lake Erie.
完全正确。
Totally.
在夏季、春季和秋季，我们可以通过水路运输，成本低得多。
During the summer months, in the spring and fall, we can ship way cheaper by sending it out by water.
通过水路。
By water.
没错。
Yep.
因此，从蒂图斯维尔运来的所有原油，用于在克利夫兰的标准石油公司炼制，可以通过水路或铁路运输。
So all the crude coming in from Titusville to be refined in Cleveland at Standard could come in over the water or by rail.
当原油要运往美国其他地区和世界各地时，他又有了另一个选择。
And then when it was going out to then go off to the rest of the country and the rest of the world, he had another option.
弗拉格勒说，哦，这不错。
Flagler, he's like, oh, this is nice.
真可爱。
That's cute.
让我们换种方式行使我们的权力。
Let's exercise our power a different way.
嗯。
Yeah.
如果我们去找铁路公司，跟他们说：嘿，各位。
What about if we go to the railroads and we're like, hey, guys.
运营这些铁路的成本真的很高。
It's really expensive to operate these railroads.
如果我们向你们保证，我们会给你们提供大量、大量、大量的最低油品运输量，你们觉得怎么样？
What would you say if we were to guarantee a really, really, really large amount of minimum shipments of oil that we'll do with you.
作为交换，我们保证给你们提供难以置信的运输量，你们就给我们同样难以置信的运费价格，也就是这么做的成本。
In exchange for us guaranteeing you guys, like, an unbelievable amount of volume that we'll do on your railroads, you give us an equally unbelievable shipping rate, like, cost of doing this.
铁路公司说：好啊。
The railroads are like, yeah.
这听起来不错。
That sounds good.
但铁路公司会说：等等，你们没那么多石油。
Except the railroads are like, wait a minute, but you don't make that much oil.
这些石油都从哪儿来？
Where's all this oil gonna come from?
具体来说，铁路公司觉得这听起来非常好，因为他们提到的运量意味着他们可以专门运行只运油罐车的线路。
Well, specifically, the railroads think this sounds really good because with the amount of volume that they're talking about, this means they can run dedicated lines of just oil tank cars.
所以不是混编列车，比如有棚车和油罐车，而是从蒂图斯维尔到克利夫兰之间只运行油罐车，中途不停靠。
So not mixed trains with, like, boxcars and oil cars, like, just oil tanks between Titusville and Cleveland with no stops.
如果你考虑铁路运营，如果你装载的货物类型不同，就会花费更多时间和金钱。
So if you think about operating a railroad, if you have different types of product that you're loading on to the train, that takes more time and money.
他们被迫停下来，装上一辆车，再加到列车上。
They were, like, being forced to stop to pick up, like, one car and add it to the train.
没错。
Exactly.
而且这些停靠点一多，成本就累积起来了。
And then all these stops, that just adds up.
你知道，这需要花钱。
You know, it costs money.
对吧？
Right?
你知道，在这里时间就是金钱。
You know, time is money here.
所以他们非常喜欢我们。
So they they love us.
但正如你所说，本，他们会觉得，那么，亨利？
But as you said, Ben, they're like, well, how, Henry?
这确实是个好主意，但你打算怎么做呢？
Like, this is a great idea, but how are you gonna do it?
你的运力不够。
You don't have enough capacity.
在回答这个问题之前，还有另外两点。
And two other things before we answer that question.
一是要说明这给他们带来了多大的帮助。
One is just to give, like, the magnitude of how much this helped them.
它还让他们拥有的汽车数量大大减少。
It lets them own way less cars also.
比如铁路，他们从原本需要150节车厢才能赚到同样的钱，到现在只需要40节左右，规模大幅缩小。
Like, the railroad, they get to go from something, like, needing to have a 150 cars to be able to, like, make the same amount of money on, like, 40 or something just, like, dramatically smaller.
另一件事是，标准石油公司已经开始建立起相当的信誉，因为以前人们把石油放在开放式木箱里运上火车，结果石油到处晃荡。
And the other thing is Standard Oil has started to, like, really build up some credibility here because when people were putting oil on trains before, they were sloshing around in, like, open wooden boxes.
而标准石油公司率先提出：我们要把石油装进油罐，后来 eventually 换成金属油罐。
And, like, Standard Oil pioneered, hey, we're gonna put them in, like, tanks, and then eventually metal tanks.
这真正让石油运输变得专业化了。
And it really, like, professionalized the
最终，我们会制造出整个车厢本身就是一个油罐的铁路车。
And eventually, we're gonna make railroad cars that are, like, the car itself is just a tank.
没错。
Yep.
我们快进一点，看看铁路。
And fast forwarding a little bit like, oh, railroads.
如果我们为你制造这些油罐呢？
What if we made those tanks for you?
但我们有点跑题了。
But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
所以弗拉格勒说：别担心，伙计们，我来搞定。
So Flagler's like, don't worry guys, I got this.
于是他去拜访克利夫兰其他所有炼油商。
So he goes around to all the other refiners like everybody else in Cleveland.
他对大家说：嘿，各位。
He's like, hey, guys.
我已经为咱们所有人谈到了一个很棒的运费。
I have negotiated a great rate for all of us.
你们要不要一起加入，把我们所有发往匹兹堡的货物集中起来？
Do y'all wanna come on board together and we'll all, like, pool our, shipments that we're all getting in for Pitusville?
通过一起合作，我们获得了这个绝佳的费率。
And, by doing this altogether, we've got this great rate.
这是一个他们无法拒绝的提议。
And this is an offer that they can't refuse.
而且他们不仅无法拒绝，因为呃，如果我们拒绝了会怎样？
And not not only can they sort of not refuse it because, uh-oh, what happens if we say no?
但这可是他们的主要成本驱动因素。
But this is their major cost driver.
此时他们处于一个大宗商品行业，因此石油的分销实际上是业务的关键驱动因素。
They're in a commodity industry at this point, and so distribution of the oil is actually the big driver of the business.
没错。
Yep.
所以好吧。
So okay.
大家都觉得这太棒了。
Everybody's like, well, this is fantastic.
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