The last oil

Over six decades, the glistening fat from hundreds of thousands of whales met the raw material needs of multinational corporations' margarine and soap products. The court suppliers were Norwegian whalers. From the time the blubber boilers were fired up in South Georgia just after the turn of the century to the floating coking plant Kosmos IV anchored in Sandefjord in the late 1960s, whaling would dominate and shape the development of financial markets, consumer goods and capitalism in Norway. This is a story of exploding wealth and branding, but also a biological tragedy. A merciless encounter between the earth's largest animal, efficient trapping technology and the consumer industry. This is a multifaceted story of a capital-poor country's industrialization, tax-shy shipowners and multinational fat cats, but also of limitless sacrifices and losses. About Norwegian polar imperialism and global sales challenged by great powers and shifting economic cycles. This is the story of "The Last Oil".