After graduating with a marketing degree from the University of Commerce in Vienna at the age of 28, Mateschitz worked various marketing jobs, including stints at Unilever and Germany's Jacobs Coffee.

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When farmers later transported this unaged corn whiskey, or moonshine, across the Ohio River for commerce, the spirit would age in its oak barrel containers, becoming infused with dark colour and complex flavour.

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This year his company, Start Today, and its scalding-hot e-commerce site, Zozotown, have made him a billionaire at the age of 35.

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Illicit trade is age-old, a continuous facet and side effect of market economies or of commerce in general.

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The holy grail for e-commerce, however, would be a system in which users had permanent digital certificates on their computers containing details of age, citizenship, sex, professional credentials, and so on.

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