Shane Parrish

speaker

20,548 appearances 48 recordings 3 series first heard May 2025 last heard 1 Sep

Shane Parrish’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 29 in all, peaking in Jan 2026 with 4.

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A Clark and Rockefeller circular went out across the Midwestern states in their second year of business.

It said the firm was prepared to make liberal advances on consignments of produce, etc.

The most important word in that line is liberal.

In the 1850s, Midwest farmers were desperate for cash.

They only got paid when they harvested their crops, which meant borrowing money the rest of the year.

This is where commission houses came in, giving cash advances to farmers and taking delivery of product later on.

But farming was a risky business, and most firms only gave small advances.

So Clark and Rockefeller began offering larger advances and earlier in the year than others.

This set them apart.

But to make those advances, the firm had to borrow heavily.

Rockefeller's father, Big Bill, initially helped.

But his purse didn't even begin to meet his son's growing needs.

And those needs were growing fast.

The gap between what they had and what they needed was enormous.

Every bushel of grain sitting in a warehouse was waiting for a buyer.

Every shipment on a canal boat that hadn't reached its destination.

Every advance they'd made to a farmer who hadn't paid them back yet.

All of it was capital tied up.

And the faster the business worked, the more money it consumed.

There seemed as though there was no end to the money needed, Rockefeller said later.

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