In 1948, Johnson bought his father's Oregon timber holdings and mills, and opened his own office in Sisters.

John Wood of Marsden came from Manchester in 1819 and bought existing woollen mills which he expanded.

He spent the next 20 years building up the company that became LNM, and its publicly traded operating company Ispat International, scouting and buying mills in Trinidad, Mexico and Western Europe.

In 1981, Mr. Gabayzadeh, now 58, and Nourollah Elghanayan - who is 86 years old and not named in the indictments - formed American Tissue to buy troubled tissue-making mills.

But why not buy the mines, refineries, mills, factories and storefronts while you're at it?

He referred to the company's practice of buying old mills in places like Poland and Kazakhstan and turning them around.

The act gave them powers which included the creation of weirs bypassed by short "cuts" equipped with locks, the creation of a towpath, and the right to buy and demolish mills and weirs.

This partnership would buy other local mills as well, including Ephraim Andrews'.

During the second boom between 1873 and 1875 about a dozen companies were formed, half were 'Turn-over' companies which bought existing mills from private owners.

Some companies have bought mills across the border to avoid the tariffs, moving jobs to the United States.