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Jonathan Conlin
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Mr Five Per Cent: The many lives of Calouste Gulbenkian, the world’s richest man Kindle Edition

by Jonathan Conlin (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 151 ratings
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Winner of the BAC Wadsworth Prize for Business History 2020

When Calouste Gulbenkian died in 1955 at the age of 86, he was the richest man in the world, known as 'Mr Five Per Cent' for his personal share of Middle East oil. The son of a wealthy Armenian merchant in Istanbul, for half a century he brokered top-level oil deals, concealing his mysterious web of business interests and contacts within a labyrinth of Asian and European cartels, and convincing governments and oil barons alike of his impartiality as an 'honest broker'. Today his name is known principally through the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, to which his spectacular art collection and most of his vast wealth were bequeathed.

Gulbenkian's private life was as labyrinthine as his business dealings. He insisted on the highest 'moral values', yet ruthlessly used his wife's charm as a hostess to further his career, and demanded complete obedience from his family, whom he monitored obsessively. As a young man he lived a champagne lifestyle, escorting actresses and showgirls, and in later life - on doctor's orders - he slept with a succession of discreetly provided young women. Meanwhile he built up a superb art collection which included Rembrandts and other treasures sold to him by Stalin from the Hermitage Museum.

Published to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, Mr Five Per Cent reveals Gulbenkian's complex and many-sided existence. Written with full access to the Gulbenkian Foundation's archives, this is the fascinating story of the man who more than anyone else helped shape the modern oil industry.

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  1. Print length
    417 pages
  2. Language
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  4. Publisher
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  5. Publication date
    January 10, 2019
  6. File size
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jonathan Conlin was born in New York and studied history at Oxford University, followed by graduate work at the Courtauld Institute and Cambridge. He has taught modern British history at the University of Southampton since 2006. His books include The Nation's Mantelpiece: a history of the National Gallery, Tales of Two Cities: Paris, London and the Making of the Modern City, and a biography of Adam Smith.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07F9YVZ5J
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Profile Books; Main edition (January 10, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 10, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4543 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 417 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 151 ratings

About the author

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Jonathan Conlin

Jonathan Conlin

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Jonathan Conlin was born in New York and later moved to Britain, where he studied history at Oxford, the Courtauld Institute of Art and Cambridge University. His most recent book was the biography of the Anglo-Armenian oil baron, art collector and philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian, known as "Mr Five Per Cent" on account of his personal holding of 5% of Middle East oil production. "Mr Five Per Cent" has been translated into six languages and won the 2020 BAC Wadsworth Prize for Business History.

Jonathan is currently writing a history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to be published in 2023 by Columbia University Press. In 2022 he was commissioned by the National Gallery to write their bicentenary history, to be published in 2024. He then hopes to return to biography, with a study of the eighteenth-century trans diplomat, soldier and spy the Chevalier d'Eon.

Having first researched the history of the National Gallery as a PhD student at Cambridge, Jonathan remains fascinated by the history of collecting, of museums and the politics of national heritage. In addition to writing critical studies of the BBC2 series "Civilisation" (1969, presented by Kenneth Clark) and "Ways of Seeing" (1972, presented by John Berger) he curated two programmes of events in London and Washington to mark the fortieth anniversaries of both series. He teaches at the University of Southampton, where he is Professor of Modern History, and is co-convenor of The Lausanne Project.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
151 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

tomer
5.0 out of 5 stars Lisbon treasure
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2023
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The book helps me understand some of the information we received while we were visiting Lisbon recently. The museum Mr Gulbenkian has endowed in Lisbon is just fabulous. If you get the chance to visit Lisbon ; check out the museum.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A Gift
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2023
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Arrived in perfect condition.
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JM_33
4.0 out of 5 stars Historical but not very exciting
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2019
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I was interested in the story before I got the book and I definitely learned a lot about the oil business and diplomacy in that era. The author did not try and make him out to be more than he was, which was nice. He gave the good stories and the bad. CG had a messed up family life with estranged cousins, brothers and even his only son. This of course is a main reason for his fortune. He did not "share the wealth" but rather kept it and multiplied it. The best parts of the book are more about what CG was a part of and how it shaped history and the world wars he lived through. Not a book for everyone but it is a topic I enjoy.
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David Shulman
3.0 out of 5 stars The Mystery Man of Middle Eastern Oil
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2019
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Historian Jonathan Conlin has unfortunately written a very dull biography, at least to this reader, of Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955) who was perhaps the founding father of the Middle Eastern oil industry. Coming from an upper-middle class Armenian trading family in the Ottoman Empire and operating out London and Paris, Gulbenkian became one of the major conductors of the global oil industry orchestra.

His friendship with Henri Deterding of Royal Dutch enabled him to meet all of the major players in the industry and helped bring about the merger with Shell. He became known as an “honest broker” and with his knowledge of the region he created what was initially known as the Turkish Petroleum Company which later became Iraq Petroleum. Now get this his partners were Standard Oil of New Jersey/Socony Mobil(now Exxon), Anglo-Iranian Oil (now BP), Compagnie Francaise des Petroles (successor to Deutsche Bank after WWI and now Total) and Royal Dutch/Shell. The four corporate partners each owned 23.75% of Iraq Petroleum and Gulbenkian owned the remaining 5%.

Gulbenkian then authored the famous “Red Line Agreement” which along with its “self-denial clause” meant that all the parties to agreement would have to conduct their business through Iraq Petroleum. Inside the Red Line were the yet to be discovered oil fields of Saudi Arabia. Thus with the exception of Kuwait, which was outside of the Red Line, Gulbenkian had a claim on 5% of all of the oil discovered in the Middle East. It made him one of the richest people in the world.

Gulbenkian was also involved in oil deals in Venezuela, Mexico, Indonesia and Russia. It is a great story, but somehow it doesn’t leap off the pages.

Conlin discusses Gulbenkian’s giant art collection came into being, some of which was directly obtained from Joseph Stalin. His family was highly dysfunctional to say the least and the 1915 Turkish massacre of Armenians did not seem to affect him. He lived in London and Paris where he had large estates, but he slept in luxury hotels. Along the way he held multiple passports which kept him safe for a while in WWII Paris, before moving on to Lisbon.

As I said from the outset, there is a great story here, but the writing is too dry for my taste.
8 people found this helpful
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LAM
5.0 out of 5 stars Gulbenkian - A hidden story of ambition, betrayal and the ultimate heist.
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2020
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The book chronicles the life of Gulbenkian, an Armenian living with his family in E 20th century Europe. He was an astute businessman negotiating oil contracts around the world accepting 5 percent rather than buying an oil field or accepting a salary or fee. His eccentric life style living in a hotel in Portugal during WWII for safety, boarding up his home in France while searching and negotiating oil deals. His business acumen, lifestyle and naive trust took him on a collision course of unfortunate circumstances leading him on a path of betrayal by a Portuguese attorney Perdigao and the President of Portugal who conned Gulbenkian out of his future plans for a philanthropic foundation, a legacy for his family and his Armenian homeland. Dr. Conlin's thorough research provides a look at Gulbenkian's strengths, weaknesses and inherent desires in his search for the ultimate deal in business, art collecting. philanthropy and his love of family, cultural traditions and homeland. The family left France for Portugal for safety during WWII and ultimate swindle by his Portuguese attorney who at the behest of the President of Portugal inserted a clause unbeknownst to Gulbenkian bequeathing his entire estate and art collection to the country of Portugal. The attorney and his associates all benefitted from administering the estate and so has the country of Portugal and its people. All the artwork resides in the Gulbenkian art museum in Lisbon. Is this a hidden story from the twentieth century?
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Robert K.
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating study of the oil industry and Mr. 5% himself.
Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2019
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Excellent study of both the birth of the oil industry and the greatest dealmaker of the century. Jonathan Conlin’s meticulous research finally lifted this incredible character out of obscurity. The book can be a drag for a reader uninterested in these subjects but it is tremendous source for people who want to learn about Calouste Gulbenkian, life of Armenian traders, birth of the oil industry and the Middle East as we know it today.
One person found this helpful
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Emin Akkan
5.0 out of 5 stars Neatly crafted same like Mr. Gulbenkian himself!
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2019
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As being a devoted history reader, this book has been fascinating voyage for me between last quarter of 19th century and mid 20th century around the cult of Mr. Gulbenkian.
One person found this helpful
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Lesley B.
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating history
Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2019
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It is a great historical review but lots of names, a bit confusing. More maps would have helped as the territory was not familiar to most North Americans
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Top reviews from other countries

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Rivadavia C. H. Gusmao
4.0 out of 5 stars A passion for detail.
Reviewed in Brazil on September 4, 2022
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Not the most fluent narrative , trade off for detail blurs the bigger picture. But the character and his time overcome that.
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Sergey Sargsyan
5.0 out of 5 stars Biography of an influential man and a new perspective of the history of 20th century
Reviewed in Germany on November 7, 2020
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This is not just a biography of Mr. Gulbenkian but also a unique view of the history of the oil industry from the first days. Since the oil industry was and is one of the most important industries, all influential countries were in the diplomatic and economic disputes over the stakes in the industry. As a result, the book will reveal a lot about the history of the 20th century.

Kindle readers might be surprised by the size of the book. The book is not that big. The actual story ends at the 61% mark. The rest are the notes. The author did a great job of proving the points. That is why there are so many footnotes.
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p.karakashian
5.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2020
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What a well researched book on a very hardworking man who was unable to make sure that his wishes for the foundation he set up were not entirely carried out after his death by untrustworthy trustees !
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LEHCIM
3.0 out of 5 stars Not so enticing...
Reviewed in France on August 29, 2019
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This biography of a great unknown figure of the oil business could have been more colourful. In fact, it leaves the reader at the hedge of Gulbenkian's life because it never really enters the many secrets of his motives, nor the real basis of its much speculated fortune...
Interesting enough though, but the subject itself would deserve a deeper approach.
One person found this helpful
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Sevana
5.0 out of 5 stars Trama
Reviewed in Italy on June 28, 2019
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Conosco già la storia di Calouste Gulbenkian. Oltre ad essere uno degli uomini più ricci del mondo, era anche un grande benefattore. Consiglio si il libro. Spero venga tradotto anche in italiano cosi possono leggerlo tanti.
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