Primitive Land as Blank Canvas Advantage

“During their eighty years in Russia the Nobels and their band of Scandinavian expatriates were industrial miracle makers in a primitive land. They built armament factories in the wilds of northern Russia, expanded a small St. Petersburg machine shop and foundry into one of the largest enterprises in the country, developed and marketed the Nobel wheel—the Michelin of its time—devised new tools and procedures for assembly-line production, exhibiting in all their undertakings an active and continuing concern for their workers’ welfare—as unique a concern in Russia at the time as it was in the rest of the world.”

“It was a time when promoters traded pharmaceuticals for priceless art at bargain basement prices, when wheeler-dealers squirmed to secure exclusive exploitation rights, when bankers and industrialists circumvented their own governments’ regulations in the rush to gain concessions.”