Free Empress Bianca by Lady Colin Campbell

in their world, the family was what counted first and foremost, and the idea that Ferdie would ever hive off, having used his family business as the springboard, and increase his own fortune without increasing theirs was unthinkable.
    The family name and the name of the company, Calorblanco, with its emblem of a white flame, were by now known in every household in Mexico, Ferdie having diversified into everything from food shops and electrical stores to clothing stores and garages which sold both new and used motor cars.
    Aside from Ferdie’s tremendous energy, Calorblanco owed its extraordinary rate of growth to another of those chance encounters that would shape all of Ferdie’s life. On a visit to Antwerp in 1949 to buy jewelry for the shows that the company now owned in Mexico City, Cuernevaca, Acapulco and five other Mexican cities, Ferdie had stopped off in London. He had never been to England before and, although the capital was in the grips of the British Labour Government’s austerity programme and the overall impression was one of greyness, a chance encounter in an electrical shop changed the way he looked at funding, thereby paving the way for the massive expansion of the family business which followed.
    Ferdie had arrived in London with an American electrical razor. He disliked shaving with razor blades. To him, there was something morbid about a man shaving himself with a sharp implement. It was difficult to say whether this distaste was his unconscious seeking to preserve him against temptation or whether it was simply his innate fastidiousness and sensitivity: Ferdie disliked pain and mess in equal measure and would go to great lengths to avoid both. Whatever the reason, his predilection for Remington razors was the reason why he walked into McCarthy’s electrical shop on Piccadilly and made a great discovery when the shop assistant asked: ‘Cash, cheque, account or hire purchase, sir?’
    ‘What’s hire purchase?’ Ferdie asked, aware that his English was hardly fluent but also curious, as always, about what he did not know.
    ‘That’s when you buy something and pay for it in instalments, sir.’
    ‘That’s not the same as “on account”, is it?’
    ‘No, sir, “on account” means you take the item, and we invoice you for it. “Hire purchase” means you pay a portion of the selling price uponpurchase and the remainder in instalments, say, over six, twelve or eighteen months.’
    ‘Interesting,’ Ferdie said, immediately spotting the possibilities of applying the same principle to purchases made in Mexico.
    Ferdie walked out of McCarthy’s realizing that he had been handed the means to expand the family business. No longer would he have to exercise patience, the way he had been doing, opening one electrical shop here, another there, a jewellery shop elsewhere, all the while making sure their financial base was covered so that any losses could be absorbed without affecting the overall performance of the business. The percentage the purchasers paid upfront in a hire purchase arrangement meant that there was an increased cash flow, which could be used to provide other goods for other purchasers. The sky was the limit if the system worked, as it seemed to be doing in England.
    By applying the principle of hire purchase, no longer would a businessman have to aim his market at the moneyed classes. The poor also had needs and were a vast untapped market, if only the limits of their purchasing power could be enlarged. Hire purchase seemed to be the way to do it. With hire purchase, he could sell a labourer an item he might want - or, indeed, need - without either the labourer or the business having to fully finance the purchase at the time it took place. In effect, expansion could be financed in part by the customers instead of the banks, thereby keeping bank loans to a minimum.
    Ferdie returned to Mexico Citys eager to try out this new idea. ‘It seems sound,’ Manny said. ‘Like all good