Calgary, May 2026
Erik Smith was an old man. Old and lonely. His brother was dead, his wife had left him, and there were no children and no friends. The only thing Eric had was money. “What will happen with it when I die?” he asked himself. He knew that the business which made him so rich caused a lot of harm. Merchant of death, some called him. He didn’t want to be remembered like that. He wanted to be remembered as someone who contributed to improving this world, and he wanted his money to be used for that.
From an early age, Eric was a smart kid. Learning new things came to him easily, and his natural curiosity made learning fun. At home, there was no shortage of things to be curious about. His dad was an engineer who owned an armament factory, where new technologies were tried out, and Erik loved to listen when he talked about it. Later, when his dad was taking him to his factory to show him the developments of new weapons, Eirik thought about his own life. “I will be like my father,” he was telling himself. “I will become a great scientist and discover new things which will make me rich.” In retrospect, he did just that.
Erik's older brother, Andrey, was more practical. He was interested in the business aspects of running the factory, and that defined the future of the family business. After their dad retires, Andery will manage it, and Erik will oversee the innovations. Therefore, Eric got a good education in science and engineering, and after graduation, he worked with leading chemists in Europe and the United States. But his dad’s business wasn’t prospering. The wars which made the arms manufacturers rich were over, and the governments wanted to spend money on rebuilding countries rather than on buying more arms. There were no more contracts for Mr. Smith’s factory, and he had to close it.
“It is OK,” Eric said to his father. “We will keep the company but will concentrate on manufacturing only the ammunition. Ammunition could be sold to the military, but also to the civilian population, like hunters, people who like target shooting and similar. Besides, the military still must do drills, and for that, they will need ammunition. And with my knowledge of chemistry, I can develop a better gunpowder to use. This might be the future of our business.”
It was true. The propellant used at that time in all the ammunition, from small bullets to artillery shells, was black powder, but there were problems. Black powder doesn’t have enough explosive power, is sensitive to moisture, is corrosive, and produces a massive cloud of thick white smoke, which impairs the shooter's aim and can reveal their position. There was a need for something better, and Eric was determined to develop it. But he wasn’t the only one with such an idea. Other people realized the same thing, and the competition was stiff. Now the company’s business model was different. Instead of large orders from armies at war, the company will have to advertise their products. They will need a salesperson to contact various gun shops, hunting clubs and military units. That person will be his brother, Andrey.
The business of selling ammunition is rigorously regulated, as both brothers knew very well. The customer needs the Possession and Acquisition Licence, issued by the government of the country of the purchaser. “We will keep our business strictly legal,” said Eric to his brother. “No sales to gangsters, terrorists, revolutionaries and similar. We will sell only to the customers with a valid licence,” and that’s what they did. Their product was successful, and Andrey turned out to be a good salesman. The customers were the gun shops and various clubs involved in hunting and target shooting. The business wasn’t making them rich, but it was adequate.
Time was passing, they found themselves wives, life continued, and I could leave the story at that, but then something happened. The company received a large government order to supply ammunition for the army’s infantry unit.
“We will be rich!” shouted Eric to his wife Jane as he was coming home from work.
“Doing what?” she asked.
“Supplying ammunition to the army.”
But this didn’t make Jane happy. “When I was complaining that your product is used for killing, you said that it is used only for killing animals. Now it will be used for killing people.”
“It is not up to me to decide how the army will use it. I am only the supplier.”
This is the usual argument all arms manufacturers use. They don’t make the decisions, but they provide the means of killing.
“So, what do you want me to do?” continued Eric. “If I refuse the order, they will go to the competition, and we will lose not only this contract, but all the future ones too. Refusing the order wouldn’t prevent any killings; it would only make us poor.”
This was certainly true, and Jane had no answer to that. The order was accepted, the ammunition was supplied, other orders followed, and the company was on the way to becoming rich. This could also be the end of the story but then came something else. They got a large order from an American agriculture company operating in South America, and the question was, " Why do they want so much ammunition? The investigation Andrey conducted led him to a meeting with a US government official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Does the company have the licence to import arms, issued by the government of the country they operate in?” was Andrey’s first question.
“No. They don’t. But they have the approval from us.”
“In that case, selling the ammunition to them would be illegal.”
“It would be illegal from the point of view of the country they operate in, but it is legal for us.”
“My company doesn’t want to do anything illegal.”
“If you refuse the order, we will cancel it and go to the competition.”
There wasn’t much Andrey could do. If he rejects the sale, they will lose not only this contract but also all the other government orders. They couldn’t afford that.
“OK, we will do it,” he said.
“But there is another condition,” the government officer said. “The customer wants the delivery to be accompanied by somebody from your company. They want a person to be present if something goes wrong.”
“Like a hostage?”
“Yes, like a hostage. But I am sure nothing will go wrong. You are a reliable company.”
When Andrey explained the deal to Eric, his brother was worried. “I don’t like you to go there, to be a hostage of men who need so much ammunition to feel safe.”
“Nothing will go wrong. We will deliver what they asked for, and I will go home. Don’t worry.”
But something did go wrong. The locals of the country where the Americans operated hated them. They resented losing the land and being forced to work as peasants on the farms which used to be theirs. There were armed groups of resistance, and one of them set up an ambush when the ammunition was delivered. There was a shootout, people died, and one of them was Andrey.
When Eric learned about it, he was devastated. Not only he lost his brother, but Andrey’s widow blamed him for his death, and Jane threatened to leave him.
“I am not going to live with a man responsible for murders,” she told Eric.
“So, what do you want me to do?”
“I want you to sell the company.”
“And then what?”
“I don’t know. It will be up to you.”
“I have built this company with my brother. It is part of my life, and I don’t think he would want me to sell it.”
“It is either your company or me. You decide.”
Eric didn’t sell it, Jane left him, and Andrey’s widow never spoke to him again. Now the only thing left for him was his work. There were new contracts, money was rolling in, he became rich, and we are returning to the beginning of the story. Eric didn’t want to be remembered as a merchant of death. He wanted to be remembered as somebody who contributed to making this world more peaceful, and that is how the Philanthropic Peace Funds started. It is a pool of charitable organizations created by private foundations, governments and donors to finance conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and human rights initiatives. This organization still exists, and I think that Eric would be pleased.