雙語故事:"石油之王"的複雜人生(1)

Marc Rich, who died yesterday, aged 78, was one of the most controversial business figures of the late 20th century. He was a gifted, aggressive commodity trader with a global network of business interests and contacts – and an amoral attitude to pursuing them that empire-building 18th century merchants would have both recognised and applauded.

馬克•裏奇(Marc Rich)於週三去世，終年78歲。他是二十世紀末最具爭議的商業人物之一，作爲一名富有天分、作風激進的大宗商品交易員，他建立起了一個由商業利益和人脈資源交織而成的全球網絡，並以一種無視道德觀念的態度追逐利益——十八世紀開拓帝國的商人們或許會認可及讚賞這種方式。

But while his dealings with regimes outlawed by the US – from Iran to Cuba – fed his fortune, they irreversibly tainted his reputation.

雖然與伊朗、古巴等被美國宣佈爲非法政權的國家進行交易增加了他的財富，但這也無可挽回地玷污了他的名譽。

Rich would have dearly wished it otherwise. But his life – if not his legacy – hinged on two events: his indictment by the US in 1983 on charges that included tax evasion and illegally trading with Iran, and his 2001 pardon, one of Bill Clinton’s last acts as president, which Rich himself hoped would set his record straight.

裏奇或許曾經真心實意地希望事情按另一條軌跡發展。但他的人生——同時也是他留下的遺產——主要被兩件事情決定：1983年他被美國政府以逃稅、與伊朗進行非法交易等罪名起訴，以及2001年他所得到的赦免，這是比爾•克林頓(Bill Clinton)在總統任期內所做的最後幾件事情之一。裏奇希望這次赦免能夠洗刷自己的污點。

The reverse turned out to be true. The pardon – for which Rich’s friends, allies and ex-wife had secretly lobbied – not only polluted Mr Clinton’s own legacy, it reignited interest in Rich’s own case, raising his carefully-sheltered profile and obscuring his other achievements as a pioneer in the commodities business. It made it impossible for him to return to the US.

但事情的結果卻正好相反。這次赦免——裏奇的朋友、支持者以及前妻爲此曾祕密展開遊說——不僅污損了克林頓自己的政治遺產，還重新激起了人們對於裏奇原本案情的興趣，擡高了他刻意壓低的曝光率，同時掩蓋了他作爲大宗商品交易領域先驅者所取得的其他成就。這一切使得裏奇無法再返回美國。

Rich’s resentment at being, in his eyes unjustly, handed the role of fugitive from US justice had deep roots. Born Marcell David Reich in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1934, Rich’s early mentor and employer was his father, who had himself been driven from the family home on the border of what is now Poland and Ukraine by anti-Jewish pogroms after the first world war. As the Nazis advanced on Belgium in 1940, the Reich family fled to the US, via Vichy France. Rich later claimed to have attended 12 different primary and secondary schools in as many years.

在裏奇看來，自己被美國司法部門不公正地扣上了逃犯的帽子，他的這種不滿情緒有着很深的根源。裏奇於1934年出生於比利時的安特衛普，原名馬塞爾•大衛•賴克(Marcell David Reich)。裏奇早期的導師和僱主是他的父親。第一次世界大戰後，裏奇的父親在反猶大屠殺的威脅下被迫離開了現在位於波蘭和烏克蘭邊境的家鄉。隨着納粹於1940年侵入比利時，裏奇一家經由維希法國(Vichy France)逃到了美國。裏奇後來宣稱，自己在那些年間先後在12所不同的小學以及中學就讀。

But the proving ground for the business skills he acquired while working for his father was Philipp Brothers – Phibro – the oil, grain and metals trader. There, in the 1950s, Rich met his business partner Pincus “Pinky” Green (who was also later pardoned by Mr Clinton).

直到裏奇開始爲菲布羅（Philipp Brothers,簡稱Phibro）工作時，他纔開始展現出他在自己父親手下幹活時學到的商業技巧。菲布羅是一家經營石油、穀物和金屬的大宗商品交易商。二十世紀五十年代，裏奇在菲布羅遇到了自己的商業夥伴、綽號“Pinky”的平卡斯•格林（Pincus Green，其後也被克林頓赦免）。

They set out on their own in 1974, forming Zug-based Marc Rich + Co just as the price of oil was surging as a result of the Arab embargo, and then building on the growing appetite of a globalising world for commodities.

兩人於1974年自立門戶，在瑞士楚格(Zug)成立了馬克裏奇公司(Marc Rich + Co)。當時正值石油價格因阿拉伯國家的禁運限制大幅飆漲之際。全球化導致的大宗商品國際需求上升也爲該公司帶來了發展動力。

Rich’s key insight was that oil – and other raw materials – could be traded with less capital, and fewer assets, than the big oil producers thought, if backed by bank finance. It was this highly leveraged business model that became the template for modern traders, including Trafigura, Vitol, and Glencore – which was born from a buyout of his interest in the commodity trading arm of Marc Rich + Co – and this year merged with Xstrata.

裏奇最主要的觀點是，如果有銀行融資的支持，進行石油以及其他原材料的交易所需的資本和資產比大型石油生產商所設想的少得多。這種高度槓桿化的商業模式成爲了托克(Trafigura)、維多(Vitol)以及嘉能可(Glencore)等現代大宗商品交易商的經營模板。其中，嘉能可是在馬克裏奇公司大宗商品交易部門的管理層收購了裏奇的全部權益之後誕生的，並在今年完成了與斯特拉塔(Xstrata)的合併交易。