1823
Samuel
Russell established Russell and Company for the purpose of
acquiring opium in Turkey and smuggling it to China. Russell and Company
merged with the Perkins (Boston) syndicate in 1830 and became the primary
American opium smuggler. Many of the great American and European fortunes
were built on the "China"(opium) trade. One of Russell and Company's Chief
of Operations in Canton was Warren Delano, Jr.,
grandfather of Franklin Roosevelt. Other Russell partners included John
Cleve Green (who financed Princeton), Abiel
Low (who financed construction of Columbia), Joseph
Coolidge and the Perkins, Sturgis and Forbes families. (Coolidge's
son organized the United Fruit company,
and his grandson, Archibald C. Coolidge,
was a co-founder of the Council on Foreign Relations
both of which will be itemized further on.)
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