Message:101 by General Eerie

From Rice to Riches 

Each multinational company has a unique founding history, a colossal upbringing and an astounding evolution. Before setting up lavish offices and headquarters, it generally starts up in mere shops and rooms. But, sometimes, even the profession it commences with gets topsy-turvy with the passage of time. Which company as we know today has such a dramatic chronology? Which company ensconced at the zenith now once was never even a competitor? This is General Eerie with his WEIRD FACT :DAY 9 for his fellow earthians.

Samsung derives its name from a Korean word meaning big, numerous and powerful. Headquartered in Seoul, Samsung is a business conglomerate that specializes in electronics, life insurance and telecommunications. But, before manufacturing sleek screens on your walls or the notes in your hands, Samsung exercised a business quite digressing from its present identity.LISTEN HERE: SAMSUNG began its operations in businesses like trade export, selling dried Korean fish, vegetables, fruits, flour and rice.What?? What?? 

Korea in the 1930's was a Japanese colony. Japan forced the local peasants to produce rice and other commodities for export. Thousands of peasants in a conundrum of feeding Japanese stomachs failed to fill the ones of their family. At this critical juncture, Lee Byung Chul with monetary abet from Korean Industrial Bank set up a rice mill in Seoul hence salvaging the fellow peasants. He started expanding his business by investing in the transportation industry, which was necessary to transport the rice. He was no more a local mill owner anymore. Later, he started land speculation by taking a mortgage from the same bank. For him, ‘it was very rare to have this easy way of making money.' In 1938, the name Samsung first appeared in his business. when Lee established the Samsung Trading Company. What he

noticed was that, as the Japanese army was marching to China, there was expectation of market trade in China. So, Samsung moved following the business. Samsung Trading exported dried fish and fruit to Manchuria and Beijing. At the same time, Lee also invested in noodle manufacturing as well as a brewery, producing rice wines and cider that were particularly profitable.

It was in the 1960's when the South Korean economy perished debilitating the existing companies. Financial loans from the banks were now gifted to the companies in the heavy and chemical industries. Many companies like Samsung then shifted to the heavy and petrochemical industries. Samsung’s move to heavy industry was no surprise, given its track record that

found its goldmines of extra profits in the industrial sectors promoted and protected by the state. Finally, Samsung Electronics was established in 1968 

began with simple radio manufacturing. Consequently, it began manufacturing

black and white televisions with Sanyo in 1971. And after this, there was no stoppage for the South Korean MNC. 

So next time you see a Chelsea kit, smile because you know bizarre things about its sponsor.