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The elite is very old
The 58th Letter of an Autonomous Thinker

Dear reader,  

Amsterdam was in the first half of the 18^th century a very important banking and trading centre. It was ruled by 10 burgomasters who were all descendants of founders (in 1602) of worlds’ first multinational, the VOC, the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie who exploited the former Dutch colony that is now Indonesia .

Andries Pels (1655-1731) was the most prominent and richest merchant, financier, ship-owner and insurer of Amsterdam and possible of the whole world. While the financial power was in his hands, the political power was in the hands of his son-in-law Willem Munter.  

What happened to the wealth and power of these tycoons?  

A Family-circle contains all relatives of a person in at the most the sixth degree. A Family-circle is an important instrument to exercise power and an even more important instrument to preserve the surplus of wealth and power within the elite. All other nine burgomasters of Amsterdam belonged to the Family-circle of Willem Munter. Other members had high positions in the industrial, trade and financial circles.  

John Hugo Loudon was in the nineteen eighties CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, one of the most important energy companies in the world. His grandfather was minister of Dutch Colonies, including Indonesia , where Shell found its first oil. The first capital of Shell came partly from the Dutch Royal Family.
The father of John Hugo had also been Shell-CEO.John Hugo married Marie Cornélie baroness van Tuyll van Serooskerke, the most prominent Lady at the Court of the Dutch Queen. Loudon was the right man to safeguard the financial interests of his own Family as well as that of the Royal Family.  

It is not accidental that Marie Cornélie is a direct descendant (in more than one line) of Andries Pels and of Willem Munter. The capital from the past forms the basis of the Financial Power of present members of the Dutch elite. It is transferred inside the Family.

When I apply the three F’s Method of Letter 57  to John Hugo Loudon it is clear that he is an important member of the Dutch elite.
Finance: He controls vast amounts of capital (from his own Family as well as from the Royal Family).
He has an important Function in which he can contribute to the decision-making process.
And he has many Family-members who also occupy important positions in the Financial and Economical world.  

It is amazing that though the world had become more complicated, the Family-circle still has a central function in the preservation of power and wealth in the elite. The Family-circle of John Hugo seems even more important than the Family-circle of Willem Munter.  

The Board of Directors of Dutch multinationals as Shell, Philips, Unilever, AKZO-Nobel, Heineken, SHV, ABNAMRO, The Central Bank of The Netherlands and Corus contain many members of the Family-circle of Loudon. When we look at the Family-circles of all these close relatives then the domination of Dutch industry by members of the elite becomes astonishing maybe even frightening.

Nothing seems to have changed since the first half of the 18^th century. But while the Family-circle of Willem Munter hardly transgressed the borders of Amsterdam , the Family-circle of Loudon extends beyond the frontiers of The Netherlands by having many tentacles in other rich countries.  

When nothing is undertaken against these inheritors of wealth and power from the past, the coming centuries their descendants will use this wealth and power to rule the world in the first place for their own benefit.    

Yours truly, Joost van Steenis

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