El segundo extracto, también muy interesante, se encuentra en la página 274 y se trata de los detalles del contrato entre Socal e Ibn Saud, la primera concesión de exploración petrolífera en lo que hoy denominamos Arabia Saudí:
"The agreement provided for a £35,000 payment in gold up front - £30,000 being a loan, and £5,000 as the first year's royalty paid in advance. [...] The only remaining problem was how to obtain that much gold. Because America had just gone off the gold standard, Socal's efforts to dispatch the gold directly from the United States were turned down by Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Dean Acheson. But finally, the Guaranty Trust's London office, acting on behalf of Socal, obtained thirty-five thousand gold sovereigns from the Royal Mint, and they were transported to Saudi Arabia in seven boxes on a ship belonging to the P&O line. Care had been taken that all the coins bore the likeness of a male English monarch, and not Queen Victoria, which, it was feared, would have devalued them in the male-dominated society of Saudi Arabia."
¿Ha sido desde entonces el petróleo tan buen medio para conservar el valor como el oro?
Te he contestado antes en el blog de Rallo, por si te quieres pasar, donde hablamos del petróleo.
ReplyDeleteUn saludo,
Merco