Lord Cowdray held so large a number of shares in the _Mexican Eagle_ that to obtain them was practically to obtain control of the concern. In 1911 the _Standard_ wished to buy them from him; he refused. In 1913 the _Royal Dutch_ suffered the same rebuff. It had only offered him £2 15s. a share when he wanted £3. These shares, which were issued at par--10 Mexican gold dollars, that is, 25.90 francs, or scarcely more than £1--have risen at a phenomenal rate. Their _lowest_ prices were:-- 1912 36 francs 1918 83 francs 1919 126 francs 1920 398 francs And they rose to 712 francs in 1919 and 738 francs in 1920! Since then they have depreciated considerably, as have all oil securities. Skilful manoeuvres on a large scale provoked a panic among holders of Mexican shares, which made it possible to buy them at a low price, and led to important operations on the Stock Exchanges, beginning in December 1921 in New York. In June 1919 Deterding offered Lord Cowdray £6 a share; he accepted. The _Shell Transport_ took one million, the _Royal Dutch_ a million and a half. If Pearson consented to get rid of the controlling interest which he had in the vast undertaking founded by his genius and perseverance, it was by reason of the enormous sums which had to be found before the immense resources contained in the oil-bearing properties of the _Mexican Eagle_ could be turned to account. It can only handle 111,000 barrels a day, whereas, since the discovery of the oil-fields of Zacamixtle and Naranjos, its production could be increased, if it were desired, to 700,000 barrels a day, that is, about 110 million litres or 110,000 tons a day. In order that non-specialists may understand the importance of such a yield, we may say that one gallon contains 4.546 litres, one barrel (36 gallons) contains 163.655 litres, and that _six_ barrels represent one ton. The _Eagle's_ first well, which gave, to begin with, 100,000 barrels a day, thus yielded a daily production of 16,000,000 litres or 16,000 tons of oil. And it continued to yield large quantities--diminishing progressively, be it understood--until November 1919, when it was invaded by salt water. _The_ Shell _intends to spend several millions within the next five years in order to triple the output of the_ Eagle. Very shortly the development of its installations will allow of its refining 140,000 barrels daily, and it is clear that, some time hence, the enormous figure of 200,000 barrels daily will be reached, that is, 5 million barrels a month against the present 2-1/2 million. The _Shell's_ engineers will not push its exploitation to the maximum possible, for they wish to make the _Eagle_ last _half a century_.