ALASKA COMMERCIAL CORPORATION - Revision history

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2019-03-28T20:35:20Z

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	'''Gustave Niebaum, Lewis [[Gerstle_Family\|Gerstle]], Louis Sloss, founders of the Alaska Commercial Company'''		'''Gustave Niebaum, Lewis [[Gerstle_Family\|Gerstle]], Louis Sloss, founders of the Alaska Commercial Company'''

			{\| style="color: black; background-color: #F5DA81;"
			\| colspan="2" \|'''The Alaska Commercial Company was founded by Mark Gerstle and Louis Sloss in 1868 and would become one of the world’s largest fur suppliers in the late 19th century. Lucrative, dramatic overharvesting led to near-extinction for fur seals and was eventually outlawed in 1914. After this collapse, the families invested their newfound wealth into railroads, mining operations, and electric companies, which helped speed the development of the Sacramento Valley.  '''
			\|}

	In the 1985 John Boorman movie, ''The Emerald Forest'', an Amazonian chief describes the men who are mowing down his forest as termites. To the Indians, these fast-moving predators are pale, eat everything in sight, and move on quickly from the deserts they've created. What the white men call development the Indians perceive as consumption of all that supports life: the former have no love for nor identity with place, which is everywhere and always a commodity to be consumed.		In the 1985 John Boorman movie, ''The Emerald Forest'', an Amazonian chief describes the men who are mowing down his forest as termites. To the Indians, these fast-moving predators are pale, eat everything in sight, and move on quickly from the deserts they've created. What the white men call development the Indians perceive as consumption of all that supports life: the former have no love for nor identity with place, which is everywhere and always a commodity to be consumed.

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	San Francisco's founders saw the Pacific Basin as ''mare nostrum,'' a virgin bonanza literally tributary to the city they claimed as their own. Taking their cue from the earlier and spectacularly successful operations of John C. Fremont in California, filibusterers sailed out the Golden Gate in the 1850s and '60s to liberate chunks of Mexico, Nicaragua, Borneo and Hawaii, along with their resources and labor, for the United States and themselves. Among the greatest plums was Alaska, acquired from Russia in 1867 by Secretary of State William H. Seward. Bank of California chief [[William Ralston\| William Ralston]] and his partners were anxious to exploit the nearly untapped seal herds of the Pribilof Islands in the South Bering Sea. One of those partners was Louis Sloss, while another was General John F. Miller, collector of the Port of San Francisco, who maintained useful ties to President Ulysses Grant, under whom he had served in the Union Army.		San Francisco's founders saw the Pacific Basin as ''mare nostrum,'' a virgin bonanza literally tributary to the city they claimed as their own. Taking their cue from the earlier and spectacularly successful operations of John C. Fremont in California, filibusterers sailed out the Golden Gate in the 1850s and '60s to liberate chunks of Mexico, Nicaragua, Borneo and Hawaii, along with their resources and labor, for the United States and themselves. Among the greatest plums was Alaska, acquired from Russia in 1867 by Secretary of State William H. Seward. Bank of California chief [[William Ralston\| William Ralston]] and his partners were anxious to exploit the nearly untapped seal herds of the Pribilof Islands in the South Bering Sea. One of those partners was Louis Sloss, while another was General John F. Miller, collector of the Port of San Francisco, who maintained useful ties to President Ulysses Grant, under whom he had served in the Union Army.

			[[Image:Northern fur seal rookery tuleny by Wldland.jpg\|720px]]

			'''Northern fur seal rookery on Tuleny Island off the Siberian coast, much as the Pribilof Islands would have appeared when the Alaska Commerical Corporation began its decades-long "harvest."'''

			''Image: Wldland, wikimedia commons''

	The Alaska Commercial Company was formed on January 1, 1868, with Louis Sloss as president. The following year, Sloss appointed Miller president of the company after the latter had acquired exclusive rights to harvest the Pribilof seal herds. Louis Sloss and Mark Gerstle, in fact ran the business -- particularly after Miller went to the U.S. Senate in 1881 to represent California and the Company in the Capitol. The ACC became the fount of the Sloss-Gerstle dynastic fortunes, and the de facto government of Alaska.		The Alaska Commercial Company was formed on January 1, 1868, with Louis Sloss as president. The following year, Sloss appointed Miller president of the company after the latter had acquired exclusive rights to harvest the Pribilof seal herds. Louis Sloss and Mark Gerstle, in fact ran the business -- particularly after Miller went to the U.S. Senate in 1881 to represent California and the Company in the Capitol. The ACC became the fount of the Sloss-Gerstle dynastic fortunes, and the de facto government of Alaska.
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	The personal and familial links represented by the nexus of San Francisco capital can be diagrammed spatially: a number of family-owned office buildings or businesses allied with the Alaska Commercial Company were within no more than three blocks of its headquarters at Sansome and California Streets, or they occupied offices within the ACC Building itself (e.g. the Natomas Reclamation Company, which left an expansive legacy of sterile dredge tills east of Sacramento). Cherny and Issel have noted how nicely genetic, fiduciary and spatial intimacy coincided in San Francisco:		The personal and familial links represented by the nexus of San Francisco capital can be diagrammed spatially: a number of family-owned office buildings or businesses allied with the Alaska Commercial Company were within no more than three blocks of its headquarters at Sansome and California Streets, or they occupied offices within the ACC Building itself (e.g. the Natomas Reclamation Company, which left an expansive legacy of sterile dredge tills east of Sacramento). Cherny and Issel have noted how nicely genetic, fiduciary and spatial intimacy coincided in San Francisco:

	''The sense of unity displayed by the city's business community evolved in a propitious setting. San Francisco enjoyed economic autonomy matched only by New York's... Nearly all of the city's businesses were owned and operated by San Franciscans, whose interests ranged from Alaskan fisheries to Hawaiian sugar plantations, from Mexican mining operations to hydroelectric power in the Sierra, from logging in Washington to San Joaquin wheat fields. They operated on an imperial scale, but most of their corporate boardrooms were within a few blocks of one another. They ate lunch in the same Financial District restaurants or in exclusive club rooms, saw each other regularly at the meetings of corporate and civic boards, worshipped in a few prestigious churches and synagogues, and watched fondly as their children married the children of friends [or cousins]. ''		<blockquote>''The sense of unity displayed by the city's business community evolved in a propitious setting. San Francisco enjoyed economic autonomy matched only by New York's... Nearly all of the city's businesses were owned and operated by San Franciscans, whose interests ranged from Alaskan fisheries to Hawaiian sugar plantations, from Mexican mining operations to hydroelectric power in the Sierra, from logging in Washington to San Joaquin wheat fields. They operated on an imperial scale, but most of their corporate boardrooms were within a few blocks of one another. They ate lunch in the same Financial District restaurants or in exclusive club rooms, saw each other regularly at the meetings of corporate and civic boards, worshipped in a few prestigious churches and synagogues, and watched fondly as their children married the children of friends [or cousins]. ''</blockquote>

	Above all, the goal of these men was to increase the population of California and thus, the value of the thousands of acres of land which they owned. William Thomas, president of the California Water and Forest Association, spoke for them all when he told the Merchants Association in 1900 that "The bare statement of the objects of the Association should arouse the patriotism and public spirit of every good citizen of the state and particularly of the merchants of San Francisco who have waked to the self-evident fact that their future depends upon the development of the interior. With a territory larger than that of New England and the Middle States, ''capable of supporting a population denser than that of any country in the world, ''California has a population about as large as the city of Chicago and not one-tenth of its public spirit." [Emphasis added.] It was to fill this vacuum that PG&E, Great Northern, the Northern Electric Railroad, and the various land reclamation companies such as Natomas were formed at the turn of the century, partly with profits derived from the skins and tusks of northern mammals. Capital made from the consumption of Arctic resources turned then to the consumption [development] of California land in the commodity form of real estate.		Above all, the goal of these men was to increase the population of California and thus, the value of the thousands of acres of land which they owned. William Thomas, president of the California Water and Forest Association, spoke for them all when he told the Merchants Association in 1900 that "The bare statement of the objects of the Association should arouse the patriotism and public spirit of every good citizen of the state and particularly of the merchants of San Francisco who have waked to the self-evident fact that their future depends upon the development of the interior. With a territory larger than that of New England and the Middle States, ''capable of supporting a population denser than that of any country in the world, ''California has a population about as large as the city of Chicago and not one-tenth of its public spirit." [Emphasis added.] It was to fill this vacuum that PG&E, Great Northern, the Northern Electric Railroad, and the various land reclamation companies such as Natomas were formed at the turn of the century, partly with profits derived from the skins and tusks of northern mammals. Capital made from the consumption of Arctic resources turned then to the consumption [development] of California land in the commodity form of real estate.

Lisaruth at 23:57, 26 March 2013

2013-03-26T23:57:02Z

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	Though Mark and Betty speak only in economic terms of why they have traded California for Nevada, there are doubtless other reasons. Fascinated by the nervous malaise which seems to permeate Las Vegas suburbs, ''Harpers''' reporter David Gusterson asked the residents of a new walled town "Why do you live here?" but the people of Green Valley, with disconcerting uniformity, were almost never entirely forthcoming. Gusterson found that they were fleeing ''from'' the problems of urban growth, as much as they were ''to ''the low prices, 18-hole golf courses, and aquacizing classes that Inman emphasizes. This sere landscape of intolerable heat and razor-ridged mountains has, perforce, become the last best place now that California is gone. The walls, gates and sentries symbolize the hoped-for security, the lawns, lagoons and fountains a temporary stand against the cities crises as much as natures limitations. No Shoshone chief stalking the perimeter will borrow a Gerstle grandchild to teach the price of a limitless appetite. As if propelled by the same instinct that drives termites, Mark III does what he knows best to do: promotional consumption of the place which he occupies for the moment.		Though Mark and Betty speak only in economic terms of why they have traded California for Nevada, there are doubtless other reasons. Fascinated by the nervous malaise which seems to permeate Las Vegas suburbs, ''Harpers''' reporter David Gusterson asked the residents of a new walled town "Why do you live here?" but the people of Green Valley, with disconcerting uniformity, were almost never entirely forthcoming. Gusterson found that they were fleeing ''from'' the problems of urban growth, as much as they were ''to ''the low prices, 18-hole golf courses, and aquacizing classes that Inman emphasizes. This sere landscape of intolerable heat and razor-ridged mountains has, perforce, become the last best place now that California is gone. The walls, gates and sentries symbolize the hoped-for security, the lawns, lagoons and fountains a temporary stand against the cities crises as much as natures limitations. No Shoshone chief stalking the perimeter will borrow a Gerstle grandchild to teach the price of a limitless appetite. As if propelled by the same instinct that drives termites, Mark III does what he knows best to do: promotional consumption of the place which he occupies for the moment.

	~~''Excerpted from Gray Brechin's book [http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8263001.php ''Imperial San Francisco''], published in ''Upriver, Downriver,'' Fall 1993''~~


	[[Mayors 1850-1897 \|Prev. Document]] [[It's an Oily World Out There \|Next Document]]		[[Mayors 1850-1897 \|Prev. Document]] [[It's an Oily World Out There \|Next Document]]

	[[category:Power and Money]] [[category:Ecology]] [[category:1870s]] [[category:1880s]] [[category:1890s]] [[category:1900s]] [[category:1910s]] [[category:Jewish]] [[category:corporations]] [[category:Downtown]] [[category:San Francisco outside the city]]		[[category:Power and Money]] [[category:Ecology]] [[category:1870s]] [[category:1880s]] [[category:1890s]] [[category:1900s]] [[category:1910s]] [[category:Jewish]] [[category:corporations]] [[category:Downtown]] [[category:San Francisco outside the city]]

Lisaruth: relocated date and where article can be found to top

2013-03-26T23:55:30Z

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	'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''		'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''

	''by Gray Brechin''		''by Gray Brechin, Excerpted from his book [http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8263001.php ''Imperial San Francisco''], published in ''Upriver, Downriver,'' Fall 1993''

	[[Image:rulclas1$good-as-gold.jpg]]		[[Image:rulclas1$good-as-gold.jpg]]

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	By the laws of supply and demand, the increased rarity of Arctic animals spurred on their slaughter. Year by year, the valuable and once-plentiful fur-bearing animals of North America are becoming more rare -- in fact, extinct, and thus more valuable and interesting, reported one observer in 1905. Another likened the skins to valuable heirlooms: Because of its superior warmth, beauty, softness, fineness, etc., seal fur must continue to be fashionable until no more is to be had. As it grows rarer, it must of course grow more valuable. Those who possess handsome pieces of it may show them at no very distant day much as they would now show a blue diamond.		By the laws of supply and demand, the increased rarity of Arctic animals spurred on their slaughter. Year by year, the valuable and once-plentiful fur-bearing animals of North America are becoming more rare -- in fact, extinct, and thus more valuable and interesting, reported one observer in 1905. Another likened the skins to valuable heirlooms: Because of its superior warmth, beauty, softness, fineness, etc., seal fur must continue to be fashionable until no more is to be had. As it grows rarer, it must of course grow more valuable. Those who possess handsome pieces of it may show them at no very distant day much as they would now show a blue diamond.

			[[Image:Alaska-comm-co-bottom-detail.jpg]]

			'''The Alaska Commercial Company building, built in 1908, had not only walruses but also icicles and sea serpents, representing the environment of the far north from which they derived the corporate wealth.'''

			''Photo: San Francisco Architectural Heritage''

	The official family histories of the Sloss and Gerstle clans and all their collateral branches depict the founders as paragons of vision and probity in business, devoted as husbands, fathers and community leaders in their personal lives. They built family compounds in city and country (Slosses and Gerstles maintained an expansive Victorian estate overlooking San Rafael) where wives and children were given every advantage that Alaska could provide, far from the messy killing fields of the Pribilofs. None of the histories examines the Company's ecological impact as it consumed the living ore of the Arctic; in fact, Sloss and Gerstle never saw Alaska, but directed operations at a healthy remove through their partner, Captain Gustave Niebaum, and employees.		The official family histories of the Sloss and Gerstle clans and all their collateral branches depict the founders as paragons of vision and probity in business, devoted as husbands, fathers and community leaders in their personal lives. They built family compounds in city and country (Slosses and Gerstles maintained an expansive Victorian estate overlooking San Rafael) where wives and children were given every advantage that Alaska could provide, far from the messy killing fields of the Pribilofs. None of the histories examines the Company's ecological impact as it consumed the living ore of the Arctic; in fact, Sloss and Gerstle never saw Alaska, but directed operations at a healthy remove through their partner, Captain Gustave Niebaum, and employees.

Lisaruth at 21:18, 18 January 2009

2009-01-18T21:18:04Z

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	[[Mayors 1850-1897 \|Prev. Document]] [[It's an Oily World Out There \|Next Document]]		[[Mayors 1850-1897 \|Prev. Document]] [[It's an Oily World Out There \|Next Document]]

	[[category:Power and Money]] [[category:Ecology]] [[category:1870s]] [[category:1880s]] [[category:1890s]] [[category:~~1980s~~]] [[category:Jewish]] [[category:corporations]] [[category:~~1900s~~]] [[category:~~Downtown~~]]		[[category:Power and Money]] [[category:Ecology]] [[category:1870s]] [[category:1880s]] [[category:1890s]] [[category:1900s]] [[category:1910s]] [[category:Jewish]] [[category:corporations]] [[category:Downtown]] [[category:San Francisco outside the city]]

Lisaruth at 21:15, 18 January 2009

2009-01-18T21:15:29Z

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	Though Mark and Betty speak only in economic terms of why they have traded California for Nevada, there are doubtless other reasons. Fascinated by the nervous malaise which seems to permeate Las Vegas suburbs, ''Harpers''' reporter David Gusterson asked the residents of a new walled town "Why do you live here?" but the people of Green Valley, with disconcerting uniformity, were almost never entirely forthcoming. Gusterson found that they were fleeing ''from'' the problems of urban growth, as much as they were ''to ''the low prices, 18-hole golf courses, and aquacizing classes that Inman emphasizes. This sere landscape of intolerable heat and razor-ridged mountains has, perforce, become the last best place now that California is gone. The walls, gates and sentries symbolize the hoped-for security, the lawns, lagoons and fountains a temporary stand against the cities crises as much as natures limitations. No Shoshone chief stalking the perimeter will borrow a Gerstle grandchild to teach the price of a limitless appetite. As if propelled by the same instinct that drives termites, Mark III does what he knows best to do: promotional consumption of the place which he occupies for the moment.		Though Mark and Betty speak only in economic terms of why they have traded California for Nevada, there are doubtless other reasons. Fascinated by the nervous malaise which seems to permeate Las Vegas suburbs, ''Harpers''' reporter David Gusterson asked the residents of a new walled town "Why do you live here?" but the people of Green Valley, with disconcerting uniformity, were almost never entirely forthcoming. Gusterson found that they were fleeing ''from'' the problems of urban growth, as much as they were ''to ''the low prices, 18-hole golf courses, and aquacizing classes that Inman emphasizes. This sere landscape of intolerable heat and razor-ridged mountains has, perforce, become the last best place now that California is gone. The walls, gates and sentries symbolize the hoped-for security, the lawns, lagoons and fountains a temporary stand against the cities crises as much as natures limitations. No Shoshone chief stalking the perimeter will borrow a Gerstle grandchild to teach the price of a limitless appetite. As if propelled by the same instinct that drives termites, Mark III does what he knows best to do: promotional consumption of the place which he occupies for the moment.

	''Excerpted from Gray Brechin's book [http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8263001.php ~~'''~~''Imperial San Francisco'''], published in ''Upriver, Downriver,'' Fall 1993''		''Excerpted from Gray Brechin's book [http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8263001.php ''Imperial San Francisco''], published in ''Upriver, Downriver,'' Fall 1993''

Lisaruth: included links

2009-01-18T21:13:47Z

included links

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	[[Image:rulclas1$good-as-gold.jpg]]		[[Image:rulclas1$good-as-gold.jpg]]

	'''Gustave Niebaum, Lewis Gerstle, Louis Sloss, founders of the Alaska Commercial Company'''		'''Gustave Niebaum, Lewis [[Gerstle_Family\|Gerstle]], Louis Sloss, founders of the Alaska Commercial Company'''

	In the 1985 John Boorman movie, ''The Emerald Forest'', an Amazonian chief describes the men who are mowing down his forest as termites. To the Indians, these fast-moving predators are pale, eat everything in sight, and move on quickly from the deserts they've created. What the white men call development the Indians perceive as consumption of all that supports life: the former have no love for nor identity with place, which is everywhere and always a commodity to be consumed.		In the 1985 John Boorman movie, ''The Emerald Forest'', an Amazonian chief describes the men who are mowing down his forest as termites. To the Indians, these fast-moving predators are pale, eat everything in sight, and move on quickly from the deserts they've created. What the white men call development the Indians perceive as consumption of all that supports life: the former have no love for nor identity with place, which is everywhere and always a commodity to be consumed.
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	Though Mark and Betty speak only in economic terms of why they have traded California for Nevada, there are doubtless other reasons. Fascinated by the nervous malaise which seems to permeate Las Vegas suburbs, ''Harpers''' reporter David Gusterson asked the residents of a new walled town "Why do you live here?" but the people of Green Valley, with disconcerting uniformity, were almost never entirely forthcoming. Gusterson found that they were fleeing ''from'' the problems of urban growth, as much as they were ''to ''the low prices, 18-hole golf courses, and aquacizing classes that Inman emphasizes. This sere landscape of intolerable heat and razor-ridged mountains has, perforce, become the last best place now that California is gone. The walls, gates and sentries symbolize the hoped-for security, the lawns, lagoons and fountains a temporary stand against the cities crises as much as natures limitations. No Shoshone chief stalking the perimeter will borrow a Gerstle grandchild to teach the price of a limitless appetite. As if propelled by the same instinct that drives termites, Mark III does what he knows best to do: promotional consumption of the place which he occupies for the moment.		Though Mark and Betty speak only in economic terms of why they have traded California for Nevada, there are doubtless other reasons. Fascinated by the nervous malaise which seems to permeate Las Vegas suburbs, ''Harpers''' reporter David Gusterson asked the residents of a new walled town "Why do you live here?" but the people of Green Valley, with disconcerting uniformity, were almost never entirely forthcoming. Gusterson found that they were fleeing ''from'' the problems of urban growth, as much as they were ''to ''the low prices, 18-hole golf courses, and aquacizing classes that Inman emphasizes. This sere landscape of intolerable heat and razor-ridged mountains has, perforce, become the last best place now that California is gone. The walls, gates and sentries symbolize the hoped-for security, the lawns, lagoons and fountains a temporary stand against the cities crises as much as natures limitations. No Shoshone chief stalking the perimeter will borrow a Gerstle grandchild to teach the price of a limitless appetite. As if propelled by the same instinct that drives termites, Mark III does what he knows best to do: promotional consumption of the place which he occupies for the moment.

	''(Excerpted from Gray Brechin's book '''''Imperial San Francisco''', published in ''Upriver, Downriver,'' Fall 1993)		''Excerpted from Gray Brechin's book [http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8263001.php '''''Imperial San Francisco'''], published in ''Upriver, Downriver,'' Fall 1993''

Lisaruth: added category

2009-01-18T21:08:07Z

added category

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	[[Mayors 1850-1897 \|Prev. Document]] [[It's an Oily World Out There \|Next Document]]		[[Mayors 1850-1897 \|Prev. Document]] [[It's an Oily World Out There \|Next Document]]

	[[category:Power and Money]] [[category:Ecology]] [[category:1870s]] [[category:1880s]] [[category:1890s]] [[category:1980s]] [[category:Jewish]] [[category:corporations]] [[category:1900s]]		[[category:Power and Money]] [[category:Ecology]] [[category:1870s]] [[category:1880s]] [[category:1890s]] [[category:1980s]] [[category:Jewish]] [[category:corporations]] [[category:1900s]] [[category:Downtown]]

Ccarlsson: Protected "ALASKA COMMERCIAL CORPORATION": excerpted essay [edit=sysop:move=sysop]

2009-01-17T08:37:15Z

Protected "ALASKA COMMERCIAL CORPORATION": excerpted essay [edit=sysop:move=sysop]

← Older revision	Revision as of 01:37, 17 January 2009
(No difference)