Greek investment immigration listens to Greek stories: In 1906, Aristotle Socrates Onassis was born in Izmir, in the west of Turkey. His parents chose the names of two great ancient Greek philosophers in the hope that he would stand out and become world-renowned when he grew up.
Aristotle Socrates Onassis
In his youth, Onassis lived a carefree life because his parents' tobacco business was thriving. To cultivate his son, his father would take young Onassis along to business meetings to broaden his horizons. However, good times did not last long. In 1922, the Turks occupied Izmir, and the Onassis family was imprisoned. Although they were released after paying a huge bail, they could no longer stay in Izmir. In September of the same year, the whole family arrived in Greece in search of hope!
However, at that time, thousands of refugees were gathered along the Aegean coast and near the ports. How would Onassis make a living? Fortunately, he found a low-paying job on a dilapidated ship bound for Argentina. After arriving in Argentina, with the help of the local Greek diaspora, Onassis worked as a welder at a telephone company. Driven by the need to survive, Onassis worked 16 hours a day, but such harsh conditions did not erode his courage and hope. He believed that one day, he would succeed! By chance, Onassis discovered that tobacco was popular in Argentina, but only local and South American tobacco was available. Due to its strong flavor, many people did not like it very much, while the mild Greek tobacco was not being sold by anyone. This was a business opportunity! Seeing this, Onassis resolutely resigned and invested his hard-earned money into tobacco.
Starting from the tobacco industry
In the process of choosing an investment industry, perhaps family environment and genetic factors played a role, as Onassis chose the tobacco industry. At that time, the South American tobacco industry was controlled by several wealthy tycoons, making it difficult to break into the market. However, Onassis found a breakthrough by comparing several types of tobacco while smoking. He found that the tobacco in South America and Argentina was very strong, unlike the mild Greek tobacco. Onassis and many other Greeks were not used to the local cigarettes and often asked people to buy cigarettes from Greece for them. The sharp-eyed Onassis saw the hope of success here and positioned his business scope to specialize in selling Greek cigarettes. Due to limited capital, Onassis could only set up a manual cigarette-rolling workshop at home, purchasing Greek tobacco leaves to produce cigarettes himself. Because the products met market demand, customers flocked to him. At first, Greeks told each other: there was no need to ask others to buy cigarettes from Greece anymore. Later, many locals also felt that the mild Greek tobacco leaves tasted better than the strong local tobacco, so smoking Greek cigarettes became a fashion in Argentina. Seizing the business opportunity, Onassis immediately borrowed money to buy a cigarette-rolling machine for mass production. In less than two years, he earned nearly 1 million pesos.
Although the profits were lucrative, Onassis, who grew up in a tobacco merchant family, understood that it was impossible to make real money relying on small private workshops; only by engaging in tobacco trade and transportation could one truly become wealthy. With limited capital, Onassis took a risk and started the most profitable business—tobacco smuggling. He soon made a fortune, with assets exceeding $100,000, and established a firm foothold in Buenos Aires.
After accumulating a certain amount of capital, Onassis began to engage in formal trade activities. He chartered a ship, loaded it with wool, leather, and grain produced in Argentina, and transported them to Greece, where his father sold them. He then loaded the ship with Greek tobacco and returned to Argentina. After several round trips, Onassis quickly earned $300,000, becoming a prominent figure among the Greek diaspora in Argentina.
In 1930, Onassis had become the largest importer of Greek products and the largest provider of national foreign exchange. Given his growing influence in Argentina, the Greek government appointed him as the Consul General of Greece in Buenos Aires. Thus, while being a successful businessman, Onassis also became a diplomat, having the opportunity to meet more people from political and other circles, and at the same time, having more opportunities to come into contact with the ships he had loved since childhood. He was often attracted by the huge transport ships and would linger for a long time. That year, he was only 24 years old, but he was already a bona fide millionaire.
The rise of the "Opportunistic Shipowner"
In 1929, the global economic crisis ruthlessly devastated the entire world. Trade between countries fell into paralysis, and maritime trade suffered even heavier losses. Many giant ships not only lost their utility but also became a heavy burden for shipowners. In this crisis, Onassis, who had just emerged in the business world, also faced disaster. However, he did not panic in the face of disaster; instead, with superhuman vision and keen insight, he seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and took decisive action. He believed that if he bought a large amount of cheap goods while prices were plummeting, he could sell them at several or even dozens of times the price when the economy prospered again. He decided to bet all his assets on the paralyzed maritime transport industry, firmly believing that once the economy recovered, maritime transport would inevitably become an extremely prosperous industry.
One day, Onassis learned that the Canadian National Railway Company was auctioning off 6 cargo ships. The original price was $2 million, but now they were selling for only $20,000 each with no takers. Onassis immediately made a decisive move and bought all 6 cargo ships for $120,000. Many people thought Onassis had lost his mind, but he remained unshaken, firmly believing his decision was correct. Soon after, World War II broke out. The war required a large number of merchant ships and cargo ships to transport military supplies and daily necessities, providing magical opportunities for those who owned ships. In an instant, Onassis's 6 cargo ships turned into 6 lucrative mobile gold mines, bringing huge wealth to their owner. People had to admire Onassis's foresight and called him the "Opportunistic Shipowner." By the end of World War II, this "Opportunistic Shipowner" had firmly ranked among the giants who possessed "sea power" in Greece.
In 1943, Onassis moved his corporate headquarters to New York, hoping to achieve greater development on the American continent he longed for. His dreams were indeed realized step by step: his wealth grew, and his fleet expanded. However, success also invited jealousy, and someone shot an arrow from the shadows. In January 1951, Onassis was suddenly arrested by the police on charges of "defrauding the U.S. government and tax evasion." Unable to bear such false accusations and humiliation, after spending $10,000 to be released on bail, he hired famous lawyers at a high cost to fight the U.S. government. However, it is naturally difficult to win against the government. Under pressure from all sides, Onassis had to agree to a fine of $7.5 million to avoid deportation; he also promised to order oil tankers from U.S. shipyards in the future and to fly the U.S. flag on these ships.
This lawsuit left Onassis full of anger toward the Americans, but he decided to retaliate in another way: by making more money from the Americans, becoming a hegemon at sea, and making American competitors tremble with fear. At this time, he had keenly seen that after World War II, the world economy would enter a historic period of development, and the economies of various countries would rapidly revive and rebuild. The great development of the economy would inevitably stimulate the demand for oil and other energy sources, and the sharp increase in oil consumption would inevitably lead to a surge in oil tanker freight rates. To this end, Onassis immediately withdrew a large amount of capital from his merchant fleet to build oil tankers, making full preparations for the upcoming oil war.
The "Greek God of War" who broke into Mecca
In the summer of 1953, Onassis and his wife Tina arrived at the port of Jeddah in Mecca, the holy city of Islam, on their private luxury yacht. He broke into this place with the grand goal of advancing into the oil industry.
At that time, the rich oil resources of the Arabs had attracted global attention, and the American company Aramco had already signed a contract with the King of Saudi Arabia to monopolize the extraction of Arab oil. The news of Onassis's arrival in Mecca immediately attracted the attention of world public opinion, and many people wanted to see how Onassis would deal with Aramco, which held the monopoly on oil extraction.
Onassis did indeed go to Mecca largely because of Aramco, as he had kept the humiliation he suffered in his heart and wanted to find an opportunity to seek justice from the Americans. He had long talks with the aging Saudi King and Crown Prince Abdullah Aziz respectively. He discovered that although the contract signed by Aramco stated that the company had the monopoly on oil extraction and was responsible for transporting oil to all parts of the world for sale using oil tankers, it did not stipulate that Saudi Arabia could not use its own oil tankers for oil transportation. Onassis took advantage of this point and hoped to persuade the Saudi King to use the oil tankers he provided to transport oil. However, just as the aging King was hesitating, he suddenly passed away, and Crown Prince Abdullah Aziz succeeded to the throne. Onassis seized on the young King's desire for autonomy and national self-esteem, lobbied repeatedly, and finally signed the world-shaking "Jeddah Agreement" with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on January 20, 1954. The agreement stipulated: (1) Establish the "Saudi Arabian Oil Tanker Maritime Transport Co., Ltd."; (2) The company would own an oil tanker fleet with a total tonnage of 550,000 tons, all flying the Arab flag; (3) The company would have the monopoly on the transportation of oil extracted from Saudi Arabian oil fields; (4) The shareholders of the company would be the King of Saudi Arabia and Onassis; (5) Onassis would undertake to establish a maritime academy that would train 50 senior crew members for the Saudi Arabian merchant fleet every year.
The "Jeddah Agreement" angered the Americans, and the powerful Aramco immediately began to fight back. At the same time, the Iraq Petroleum Company, British Petroleum, the Iranian Oil Company, as well as major oil companies such as Mobil, Esso, Texaco, and Shell also united to besiege Onassis. More seriously, American shipowners united with other Greek shipowners to besiege Onassis. A Greek shipowner named Spiro Capodistrias even published a sensational news story in the newspaper, claiming to be a witness to the "Jeddah Agreement," exposing that Onassis used heavy bribes to buy off the sheikhs and forged documents to obtain the signing of the agreement. Consequently, the American side made a big deal out of this news and put pressure on the young Saudi King, threatening that if the "Jeddah Agreement" was not cancelled, the United States would impose sanctions such as a maritime blockade and food embargo on Saudi Arabia, and would stop all aid to Saudi Arabia.
Facing such tremendous pressure, Onassis did not even have a chance to clarify the facts before he was defeated by the combined attacks of all parties. In this offensive, he lost a total of about $1 billion, but he became famous overnight and became the focus of world attention. After the "Jeddah Incident," Onassis's career was unstoppable, and people began to call him the "Greek God of War." Driving his chariot that always moved forward, he observed the world with keen eyes at all times, waiting for the opportunity to launch an attack on new targets.