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The Pacific Coast Biscuit Company was a conglomerate of baking companies headquartered in Portland, Oregon, United States. The company, also known as Pacific Coast, was formed in 1899, and it was purchased by the National Biscuit Company in 1930. It was the only baking company in the United States to trademark a swastika. ==History== In the late 19th century, regional baking companies combined to form larger conglomerates, often known as Cracker Trusts. Of these, the largest was the National Biscuit Company that included 114 baking companies. It was incorporated in New Jersey in February 1898, and the company was later renamed Nabisco. Prior to modern securities law, it was not uncommon for companies to inflate the value of their assets. Nabisco, for example, was capitalized at $55,000,000, but its estimated value in real assets was less than $25,000,000. Writing in ''Moody's Magazine'', John Moody referred to the $30,000,000 discrepancy as "water." The Pacific Coast Biscuit Company was formed to compete against Nabisco. It was incorporated in New Jersey in May 1899, and included seven companies that together controlled most of the commercial biscuit and cracker business west of the Rocky Mountains. The companies, also known as the Cracker Trust, were * Portland Cracker Co. of Portland * Oregon Cracker Co. of Portland * Seattle Cracker and Candy Co. of Seattle * Washington Cracker Co. of Spokane * American Biscuit Co. of San Francisco * Standard Biscuit Co. of San Francisco * Southern California Cracker Co. of Los Angeles Although the combined assets of the seven companies were valued at less than $1,000,000, capitalization was $4,000,000, and the ''United States Investor'' described the trust as "a stock jobbing scheme, whereby the operators hope to make a lot of money out of the investing public." Three of the subsidiaries, the Washington Cracker Company, the Oregon Cracker Company, and the Portland Cracker Company were owned by Herman Wittenberg, an entrepreneur specializing in biscuit and cracker company management. Wittenberg started the Portland Cracker Company in 1886, and in the years thereafter he purchased several competing firms in Oregon and Washington. When Pacific Coast was organized, Wittenberg became vice president, and he remained in that office until the time of his death in 1912. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pacific Coast Biscuit Company」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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