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In
a way only history could set coincidences, both men had their
decisive years in 1908, 1919 and 1947. Henry Ford launched his
famous Model T, the car which made his success, in 1908 and Willie
Durant founded General Motors in that same year. Both reached the
peak of their power within their companies in 1919, Ford when he
bought out his minority shareholders for an aggregate
$105'820'894.57 and Durant, whose position as president and largest
shareholder, enabled him to direct the company at his discretion, or
almost, after having re-conquered it from the hold of a banking
syndicate in 1916. Both men had personal fortunes exceeding $100
million in 1919, putting them in the league of America's richest
people. Durant stumbled over his own speculative nature and lost
control of General Motors along with the major part of his fortune
in the post war recession of 1920, while Henry Ford weathered the
storm and eventually became a billionaire. Both men died less than a
month apart in 1947.
It
is around these two towering figures, that most of the remaining
automobile producers, parts suppliers and managers, developed their
businesses and oriented their careers in the first decades of the
Twentieth Century.
After
building his Quadricycle in 1896, Henry Ford gained recognition as
one of the most promising automobile constructors in Detroit. In
these days, Detroit was a bustling city of some [116'000] people,
heavily engaged in metal works, carriage and wagon making, engine
and railcar production, as well as tobacco, flour milling, brewing
and chemicals. Stoves, cast in the abundant Michigan iron were among
its major products. It's economic and social elite was made up of
frontier entrepreneurs or their descendants*, always eager to invest
into a promising new venture. Under the sponsorship of Detroit mayor
William C. Maybury, the city's elite was induced to finance Henry
Ford's first manufacturing venture, called the Detroit Automobile
Company and capitalized at $150'000.
The
venture failed and was closed after almost 60% of its capital had
been wasted in pointless development costs, but after winning a race
against Alexander Winton on Grosse Pointe's first racetrack, Ford
was again sponsored by a group of Detroit's wealthy capitalists,
this time under his own name. Henry Ford again failed to satisfy his
backers with the development and manufacturing of a functional
passenger car and was fired in 1902. But this time, William Murphy
and the other investors did not liquidate the company. Instead they
turned to Henry Martyn Leland, whose Leland & Faulconer machine shop
was the most proficient in the Midwest. Leland and his son Wilfred
joined the company, which was renamed "Cadillac" and built it into
one of America's most admired and successful automobile
manufacturers.
Meanwhile
Ford left to do more racing and to found yet another company, again
bearing his name, in 1903. And another group of Detroit capitalists,
led by Henry Bourne Joy invested into the automobile factory a
disgruntled Winton owner, James Ward Packard, had started in 1899.
In 1903, Packard was moved to Detroit and joined Cadillac as a
premium brand of high quality cars manufactured in the nascent motor
city of America.
* see " Detroit millionaires
in 1892 " for a list of leading Detroit capitalist of the
pre-automobile
times. A feature of
Encyclopedia of American Wealth.
Automobile & Aviation
> Index
and Introduction
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