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List of oldest companies: Before 1300

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Re: List of oldest companies: Before 1300

#141

Post by atomic77 »

jedberg wrote: post #130
atomic77 wrote: post #92

Something I can't help but notice: all of the countries on the list are currently wealthy, advanced economies. Cause or effect?

Both? Most likely it's because those countries have strong traditions of record keeping and have been fairly stable culturally.

Maybe it's a reflection of a sort of long term, virtuous loop. Stability brings wealth, wealth reinforces the need for stability. Shocks can occur (e.g. Japan and Germany most recently) but note how quickly they're right back where they were, at least on multi-generational timescale.

Re: List of oldest companies: Before 1300

#142

Post by jkestner »

dfee wrote: post #58
navidfarhadi wrote: post #26

The oldest name on this list that stood out to me is Weihenstephan brewery, founded in 1040 in Bavaria, Germany. They have some of the finest lagers I have ever tried. If you enjoy crisp, refreshing lager beers, I highly recommend their beers. My favorite one is probably the Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier, followed by the Hefeweissbier Dunkel. Note: I am not affiliated in any way with the company, I just highly enjoy…

I’m unimpressed with the Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen beer. That said, there is a company in Austin, TX - Live Oak - who makes an incredible Hefeweizen. Every time I go back to Austin, I hunt down this beer and enjoy it with a “Detroiter” pizza from the Via 313 food truck at a bar called Craft Pride. Now that I live in San Diego, I have an incredible selection of local brew to choose from, but I have yet to find anythi…

Live Oak Hefe is my No. 1 here (right in front of 512 Pecan Porter), and one of the finest beer I've had period. If you haven't been to the Live Oak tasting room across from the airport, it has a variety of rarer German styles as well. German immigrants settled in this part of Texas, which means there's a lot of craft breweries that give someone who drinks marzens and weisens year-round (me) great alternatives to Weihenstephaner and Spaten.

Via 313 is good, but man, nothing on the Neapolitan that Pieous makes. To bring us back onto the topic, water-barley-yeast-hops and water-flour-yeast-salt recipes say that there's longevity in simplicity. Makes one want to give up making technology, or focus on distilling it down to the essential.

Re: List of oldest companies: Before 1300

#144

Post by reitanqild »

icebraining wrote: post #132
reitanqild wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I write this minikites is downvoted for no good reason. As much as I support freedom of speech I also think it's unwise to normalize nazism. Reminding people not to normalize nazism isn't something one should be downvoted for in my book.

Just as an alternative point of view, they're debasing and ridiculing the term, whereas you're helping to inflate its importance by trying to keep it a taboo. As an aside, here's an interview with the Jewish actor who played the Soup Nazi: http://uproxx.com/tv/soup-nazi-interview-seinfeld-apartment/

Well, I give you an upvote for that.

Good answer but I don't agree.

Re: List of oldest companies: Before 1300

#145

Post by rurban »

ViktorV wrote: post #129
rurban wrote: post #109

This list looks very suspicious when the largest company ever, the VOC founded 1602 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company founded is not listed there. Apparently only small family companies are listed, not the big ones. The 2nd biggest company of those times, the Fugger copper mining company founded 1494, dissolved 1657 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugger is also not listed, neither the 3rd largest,…

I suppose that the company has to be functioning in the present too.

Yes, that's the purpose. Oldest still existing companies. But I didn't like that the biggest ones, bigger than today's Amazon or Google are not in it.

Re: List of oldest companies: Before 1300

#146

Post by gist »

rplnt wrote: post #19

I think it's hard to argue it's the same company in some cases. The breweries in particular used to be a brewery in said city (the city had right to have a brewery). Different owners, different locations, later different legal companies, periods of inactivity, etc.. The continuity is lost beyond "there was a brewery in this town 600 year ago".

The list is interesting entertainment but I am skeptical about how they determine oldest other than what a wikipedia page says in some cases.

It's not like we are talking about dates which have been certified by experts at auction houses for personal property.

Re: List of oldest companies: Before 1300

#147

Post by microcolonel »

navidfarhadi wrote: post #26

The oldest name on this list that stood out to me is Weihenstephan brewery, founded in 1040 in Bavaria, Germany. They have some of the finest lagers I have ever tried. If you enjoy crisp, refreshing lager beers, I highly recommend their beers. My favorite one is probably the Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier, followed by the Hefeweissbier Dunkel. Note: I am not affiliated in any way with the company, I just highly enjoy…

Yeah, I marvelled a bit when I first saw that they were licensed in 1040. Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier is excellent.

They seem pretty bizarre as modern breweries go. Originally operated as part of the abbey, they are now somewhat joined with TU München. Hard for me to even say if they are really the successors to a continuous organization from 1040.

Re: List of oldest companies: Before 1300

#149

Post by dev360 »

mseebach wrote: post #84
dev360 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're probably most known for their lagers/pilsener, maybe he meant he also likes their wheat beers?

They're definitely best known for their weissbier - especially historically. Lager/pilsner is only 150 years old.

Didn't know that. Here in US, Ive mostly seen lager on tap.

Re: List of oldest companies: Before 1300

#150

Post by Cyberdog »

pjc50 wrote: post #106
twobyfour wrote: post #93

The older tiers of this list seem to be heavily dominated by Japan, Germany, and Switzerland. Is that reflective of something other than the demographics of non-"New World" contributors to Wikipedia?

Surviving these millenia requires avoiding the situations where businesses are mass-confiscated or the population is destroyed by disaster. So: - not being colonised (rules out New World, Africa, middle east, India) - not going through Communism or one of the less business friendly dictatorships (rules out Eastern Europe, Russia, China etc)

World War II certainly counted as a disaster in both Germany and Japan's case, and both countries had more localized civil strife throughout the millennia as well.

That's not to disprove your point, I suppose, but perhaps to make the perseverance of those companies all the more fascinating.

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