Samuel Zemurray started with overripe bananas on a cart, undercut competitors by moving fruit fast, and eventually took over United Fruit. He then allegedly financed a coup in Central America to secure banana trade deals, showing how one man's fruit business reshaped regional politics.
Late 1800s, bananas were discovered, I think in Nicaragua. They brought them to America. Americans were like, yeah, we want every banana we can get our hands on. We love it. Banana company, United Fruit, it became so big that it was basically a monopoly. Sam the Banana Man, I think his name's Samuel Zamuri. He started out with like a fruit cart and his whole shtick was he was going to sell ripe bananas that were already becoming a little bit brown, throwaway bananas. And he was like, oh, I'll buy them for a fraction of the price and I'll just be really fast at getting them to where they need to go. And he eventually becomes so big that by the time he's in his 60s, he takes over United Fruit. And the book is called The fish that ate the whale because he was the fish and he eventually ate the whale. But it gets even crazier. At one point, a new president or dictator comes in charge and they won't sell them bananas. And so he funds a coup, gets like a small unit of like 10 or 20 people to like help this other guy assassinate the current leader and take over. And that leader was like, all right, thanks for getting our back. Now you could have some more bananas.
