The Original Merchant of Death
Sir Basil Zaharoff: The Puppet-Master of Europe
Human history is a process of powerful movements interrupted by periods of flux and revolution. Times of momentous change are typically instigated by new technology, scientific discovery, or cataclysmic events that throw humanity into a state of revolution and chaos through which a new order emerges. As individuals, much to the dismay of the optimistic hubris of youth, we find that we are thrown about by the forces of time like driftwood in a restless sea. If we can escape the immersion of the microcosm of our artificial worlds and gain some sort of independent vantage point, we can, perhaps learn to understand that today’s organized society is not as much of an all-encompassing, overbearing structure as it appears to be. Rather, it is a man-made ecosystem constructed within a natural one that, like its organic counterpart, provides an array of advantages and resources for anyone who is willing to view it as such. This perspective, however, is only best and fully attained when an individual has dispensed with the most constricting presumptions promulgated by the zeitgeist of any era.
Basil Zaharoff was, apparently, one such man. Born an ethnic Greek with Russian roots in Ottoman Anatolia, he was man whose very origins transcended the collective psychosis of nationalism that was fast sweeping through Europe, driving imperial ambitions, stoking demand for weapons and ammunition, and fostering a feverish sense of mutual distrust and paranoia. State leaders of the time franticly snapped up territory in Africa and Asia while eyeing their rivals suspiciously. Official propaganda and the “free” press alike pumped the public of these countries full of nationalist zeal and filled young minds with a romantic view of the triumphs and sacrifices of combat on behalf of their homelands. Unbeknownst to all but a few astute observers, the European theater was slowly but surely headed for a calamity that would all but obliterate the European spirit of the day that was destined to send countless people to their destruction. Zaharoff’s lack of clear national origin certainly provided some immunity to this deadly fever.
However, Zaharoff was also immune to almost any moral impulses whatsoever. His almost obvious lack of conscience, along with his opaque origins, placed him in a unique position to set himself apart from the rest of humanity in, perhaps, the most villainous way possible. When one is able to fully break away from the trappings of society and reflect upon it as a distinct object, one discovers that they are left with only three options to transcend it. One must choose to escape it, either physically or mentally, in fashion of explorers and philosophers, change it in the spirit of revolutionaries and artists, or in the manner of conquerors, master it. Zaharoff, in his expert abilities to harness the zeitgeist of the day to his own advantage and through it, amass a fortune in wealth and influence, doubtlessly represents this last class of person. In this own amoral fashion, he manipulated the fears of officials, preyed upon the naiveite of the masses, and played by his own rules – if there were any at all – to become a dominant force in the world. And as in the case of many people like him, his actions influenced the very course of history. He was an architect of the international arms trade, influenced the outcome of the Spanish-Ameican War, and World War I. The world was disease-stricken by pathological ideologies which held prince and pauper alike in its grasp. Despite its outward vitality, Western civilization festered with the stench of disease. It was, in truth, a gangrenous sheep awaiting euthanization; Basil Zaharoff, was the wolf that set upon it.
Zaharoff, indeed played an undeniable role in creating hell. Contrary to the assertions of the likes of Dr. Jordan Peterson, who attests that men like him could not, in truth, be happy, Zaharoff never showed any remorse or dismay over his path in life. In fact, by all accounts, he seemed proud it! For he may have indeed helped create hell on earth. But, for demons, hell is home, sweet home.
Zaharoff’s Shadowy Origins and Shady Dealings
The life of Basil Zaharoff was a strange and wild one from the beginning. As mentioned before, his own origins were complex; He was a member of a family of ethnic Greeks from Ottoman Anatolia, which spent nearly two decades in Russia after fleeing the Easter Pogroms of 1821. During their time in exile the Zacharias family Russified their name to Zaharoff before returning to the Ottoman Empire and settling in Constantinople. So, Basil Zaharoff was born a Greek, living in Turkey, with Russian roots.[1] This statelessness meshed well with his lack of national fidelity.
As early as his teens, Zaharoff demonstrated a penchant for criminal behavior and a complete lack of regard for moral conventions. Sources say that his employment began as an arsonist for the corrupt Constantinople Fire Brigades, which set fires to then be put out for profit, along with running protection rackets and post-fire salvaging services. There are also reports that state that he worked as a brothel tout. While there is also an array of outlandish claims made about Zaharoff’s origins that can be written off as false, there is considerable consistency here.[2]
One would think that such a lawless individual would make a poor international representative for a family business, but this thought clearly didn’t occur to Basil’s father when he hired the future “Merchant of Death” as a sales representative in London, until he was tried, yet acquitted, for embezzlement. During this time, Zaharoff entered into a new phase of his criminal career. He took measures that later became his standard mode of operation from his stay in London, until the time in which he shifted his energy into arms sales.[3]
These tactics involved conducting apparently legitimate business in plain sight while running some sort of scam or grift behind the scenes under bogus prestigious identities that became more outrageous as time went by. He would run his operations until he was exposed, then pack his bags and move on. He lived like this right up until he started selling weapons full-time. So, in England, he acted as a sales representative for his uncle’s textile company under the alias of retired Russian general, (name), until he was charged (but acquitted) for embezzlement. He then absconded from there, deserting his wife that he had married during his stay. In Galway, Ireland, he worked as a shipping agent under the name of Count Zacharoff, until Irish residentss discovered that he was talking Irish women into emigrating to Massachusetts for factory work. Following an ultimatum delivered by his angry hosts to vacate the country within 24 hours, Zaharoff himself relocated to the United States, where he both ran scams and built a short career in the railroad. Never one to care for laws or conventions, Zaharoff, shortly after promoting himself to Prince, bigamously married (name) in 1885. This last act proved to be his undoing in America when an expatriate Briton from Bristol recognized the supposed Prince and promptly exposed his bigamy. The resulting scandal drove Zaharoff to abandon the United States to Rotterdam, Amsterdam, dogged by police in an international manhunt.[4]
Zaharoff, the Real Lord of War
Zaharoff’s misadventures in the U.S. marked the end of Zaharoff’s life as a con man and the beginning of a lucrative career as an arms dealer for Nordenfelt. Interestingly, Zaharoff actually landed the job as Nordenfelt’s sales representative in the Balkans upon the recommendation of his friend, the rising journalist Stephanos Skouladis, back in 1877.[5] It’s a bit of mystery why Zaharoff didn’t focus his talents on his new position until years after, and even stranger that he retained the role after nearly a decade of apparent dereliction. However, it would seem that Nordenfelt’s apparent patience was worth the wait. Zaharoff, by this point, had decades of salesmanship, both legitimate and outright illegal, under his belt. His business acumen was infinitely augmented by his boundless ruthless cunning. And Nordenfelt had unleashed him as an arms dealer into one of the most militaristic and mutually hostile regions in the world.
Selling arms to these countries would be like taking candy from a baby for even a mediocre shill. For Zaharoff, the sky was the limit. The Balkan region at the time was one of burgeoning nationalism, mutual paranoia, and bitter rivalries. A swell of new and vulnerable nations was breaking away from Ottoman control, full of ambition and devoid of security. Zaharoff skillfully played off these sentiments, selling vast quantities of arms to all sides, often fanning the flames of vulnerability or greasing the wheels with bribery to secure contracts. His two most famous accomplishments during this early period involved his efforts to secure contracts for the wildly flawed Nordenfelt submarine and the Nordenfelt multi-barrel machine gun.
The Acquisition of the Maxim Machine Gun
From 1886 to 1888, Zaharoff showcased other duplicitous tactics to stifle sales of the Maxim Machine Gun until Maxim and Nordenfelt merged following pressure from the banking magnate Rothschild and arms giant Vickers in 1888. During this time, Zaharoff allegedly saw to it that Maxim, despite his clearly superior product, would not supercede Nordenfelt’s own multi-barrel machine gun. On the first occasion, national representatives slated to attend Maxim’s presentation of the weapon failed to show after being waylaid by an unknown individual who had taken them on a tour of the host town’s nightlife. In a second instance, Maxim’s presentation was confounded by a strange mechanical error in the gun that was later discovered to be sabotage.[6] Finally, Maxim failed to fill orders after a third, apparently successful presentation after an unknown person floated through the crowd espousing rumors that the weapon took years to master and that it could not be mass-produced. Seemingly miraculously, these problems vanished after Nordenfelt and Maxim merged into Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company. At that point, Hiram Maxim’s state-of-the-art machine gun was at Zaharoff’s disposal.[7]
The Nordenfelt Submarine
Zaharoff’s shrewd acquisition of the Maxim machine was a stroke of magnificent cunning. However, his most notorious single achievement in arms dealing was his ability to secure sales for disastrously faulty Nordenfelt submarines to Greece, Turkey, and Russia. These vessels were veritable deathtraps. They suffered from a range of problems from propulsions issues to instability problems. It even got so hot inside after the hatch was closed that crews tended to faint. In one field exercise conducted by the Turkish military, the submarine reared into a vertical position and capsized after firing a torpedo. Due to these critical flaws, it was clear that these scrap heaps could not be sold through means of honest salesmanship. This made Zaharoff perfect for the job.[8]
Nordenfelt subs were junk. No one in their right mind would willingly purchase one. However, warlike paranoia that surged through the Balkans in the years preceding World War I warped the minds of national leaders and gave Zaharoff the angle he needed to secure contracts for a product that never should have seen water. He first sold one to Greece, which was anxious to gain a technological edge over its recently weakened rival, Turkey. He then went to Turkey, where he stoked fears of the new submarine that Greece just obtained. Panicked, Turkey bought two. Finally, Zaharoff arrived in Russia, and urged to purchase a more modern version of the Nordenfelt to protect their interests in the Black Sea against the menacing presence of Turkey’s recently acquired nautical clout. Russia promptly bought two and added them to their Black Seas Fleet. In the end, none of these worthless submarines ever saw action.[9] The character of this success is perhaps the most defining illustration of Zaharoff’s trademark abilities to exploit fears and delusions of the times to secure his own interests. This tactic of selling weapons to rival countries in order to escalate tensions and drive up the need for more weapons has been termed, the Systeme Zaharoff.
Sinking his Claws into Spain
Zaharoff employed similar tactics to acquire the building plans for Spanish Naval Officer and inventor Isaac Peral’s new submarine. Unlike Nordenfelt’s catastrophic deathtrap, Peral’s sub could drive and fire torpedoes both submerged and afloat. It also solved the problems of stability that plagued earlier models. Zaharoff and Nordenfelt desperately wanted to get their hands on it.[10]
However, Peral proved intractable, rejecting both Zaharoff and Nordenfelt’s offers for the submarine plans. Undeterred, Zaharoff got creative. Like with the Maxim machine gun, he allegedly engaged in sabotage on at least four separate occasions. He also networked his way into an intimate relationship with Pilar de Muguiro y Beruete, whose father was the leader of the Spanish Conservative Party and a close friend of the King. This granted him access to both the Spanish elite circles and royal grounds, including those where the new submarine was being constructed. While these tactics really only succeeded in scuttling the Spanish Government’s interest in the submarine, it was enough to keep Zaharoff’s competition at bay.[11]
Over the next decade, Thorsten Nordenfelt was bankrupt, and Maxim was purchased by Vickers. Now under the employ of this English Arms giant, Zaharoff continued to exercise his influence in Spain, selling weapons and establishing a Spanish subsidiary arms company, “Placencia de Armas Co, Ltd”. While still influential among Spanish notables, he supposedly made sinister plays against Spain during the Spanish-American War, including selling faulty weaponry and sending Spanish military intelligence to the U.S. Government via Hiram Maxim to pressure the Spanish Government to award Vickers exclusive Naval construction rights for the Spanish Navy. The ensuing outcry over the scandal was promptly stamped out by the Spanish government.[12]
Thanks to ruthless tactics such as these, Basil Zaharoff not only amassed a fortune; through a series of mergers and acquisitions, he successfully rose to become a member of the Board of Directors for the arms mogul, Vickers, in 1911.[13] Along with that, he networked his way into elite circles, whose members included the Prime Ministers of England and France, the King of Greece, and the Spanish monarchy.[14] The massive wealth and influence he attained through his underhanded tactics and business acumen even yielded highly esteemed political honors. He was given the Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire and even knighthood (despite holding French citizenship) for his service to the Allied cause in World War I; a conflict in which Vickers made record profits, largely thanks to the contemporary international arms trade network of which Zaharoff was a chief architect.[15]
Sir Basil Zaharoff died at the ripe old age of 87, in the Monte Carlo Chateau in Paris, France, as one of the wealthiest men in the world at the time.[16] Though more is known of Zaharoff than before, most of his life is still shrouded by mystery and somewhat cobbled together by conjecture and speculation. The international Man of Mystery was sure to destroy any evidence of his background and activities throughout his lifetime, burning any documentation in his possession in his fireplace shortly before his death.[17] Because of this, perhaps, this Merchant of Death will remain a captivating enigma, a shadowy figure lurking just outside the sight of the public eye, an iceberg of which only the tip is visible. But one thing that we can confidently deduce from Zaharoff’s life is that much to the chagrin of pontificating moralists, is that as long as you’re clever, lucky, and bad enough, crime does pay. In fact, it yields dividends.
Analysis and Conclusion
Basil Zaharoff, without a doubt, ranks as one of most sinister people in history. Few other individuals had such a categorically negative impact on humanity. He participated in rackets and vice, ran scams for decades, and habitually deserted his wives. He not only lied, cheated, and bribed his way to the top of an industry that turned death and destruction into profit, but was instrumental in building the international arms trade into the monster it has become today.
Yet, In a strange way, there is something to admire in Basil Zaharoff’s character. Unlike most people, Zaharoff was never enslaved to some pervasive ideology that demanded his obedience or compromised his value system, regardless of how psychopathic it was. The militaristic nationalism that enthralled the masses of Europe from the humblest farmer or factory worker to the rich and powerful were nothing more to him than angles to exploit to his own advantage. He did so with an impressive cunning and casual ruthlessness that can seem to fly in the face of our own arbitrary submission to the assumptive powers and paradigms of our own times. Indeed, for him, the very kings and ideologies that commanded the respect and obedience of so many were mere playthings to him. He seemed to be a god –or more precisely a demon— among mortals. In this way, despite his inveterate wickedness, he elicits a certain degree of respect. Imperious authorities and repressive ideologies have a way of fettering our souls and enticing our resentment. Zaharoff’s conquest and subjugation of the very elements that crush us gives a – perhaps a warped – sense of vengeance. Fictional anti-heroes like Snake Pliskin and charismatic villains such as Tyler Durden and The Joker come to mind. Their actions, right or wrong, have their unique appeal because stand against these constrictions.
This is the real value of Basil Zaharoff’s life. His example helps us recognize the resentfulness many of us feel about the crushing effect of political power and cultural pressure. It also reminds us of our inability to escape the lives of necessity and obligation that so many of us are beholden to. To be clear, his smoldering footsteps should not be followed. His absolute disregard for the rest of humanity is an impediment, at the least. If we all adopted his mindset, the Earth would burn to a cinder within a month. But he does show us that if we are able to master our environment and harness its resources, we can transcend the forces that tie us down and the structures that box us in. If one can do it in a way that doesn’t impede upon others, or better yet, advances them, they would truly be benevolent masters of the Earth.
[1] The Mysterious Mr. Zedzed: The Wickedest Man in the World | History| Smithsonian Magazine
[2] Ibid.
[3] Sir Basil Zaharoff | Arms Dealer, Industrialist, Philanthropist | Britannica
[4] The Mysterious Mr. Zedzed: The Wickedest Man in the World | History| Smithsonian Magazine
[5] Sir Basil Zaharoff | Arms Dealer, Industrialist, Philanthropist | Britannica
[6] Basil Zaharoff: How to Play Both Sides, Sell Weapons and Get Rich (thecollector.com)
[7] The Cantos Project - Hiram Maxim and the machine gun (ezrapoundcantos.org)
[8] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-mysterious-mr-zedzed-the-wickedest-man-in-the-world-97435790/, https://www.thecollector.com/basil-zaharoff-merchant-of-death/
[9] Basil Zaharoff: How to Play Both Sides, Sell Weapons and Get Rich (thecollector.com)
[10] Ibid
[12] Basil Zaharoff: How to Play Both Sides, Sell Weapons and Get Rich (thecollector.com)
[13] Basil Zaharoff, the merchant of death who became Europe's richest man (thevintagenews.com)
[14] Dodgy dealings with the 'merchant of death' - The National Archives blog
[15] The Merchant of Death: Basil Zaharoff | Mises Institute
[16]The Mysterious Mr. Zedzed: The Wickedest Man in the World | History| Smithsonian Magazine