I'm looking to give the six corporations names based on equivalent real-life companies - i.e. big corporations that do something vaguely equivalent to a civ corporation and were founded at roughly the appropriate time period.

So far all I've got is...

Sid's Sushi Co. > Nippon Suisan Kaisha (or Nissui)
Japanese, founded 1908, harvests the world's largest fishing haul, manufactures and markets its own fish products, has its own restaurant chain, has its own long-established research program, has many subsidiaries all over the world
http://www.nissui.co.jp/english/history.html
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/NIPPON-SUISAN-KAISHA-LIMITED-Company-History.html

Aluminium Inc > Alcoa? UC RUSAL?

Standard Ethanol > Broin (or POET, as it was renamed this year)
founded 1987, America's number one ethanol fuel producer (America is the world's biggest producer and consumer of ethanol fuel)
http://www.ethanolrfa.org/industry/locations/
http://www.poetenergy.com/about/index.asp

Cereal Mills- General Mills
Civilised Jewellers- Maybe Bulgari or something
Mining Inc- Rio Tinto, BHP, something along those lines

That's all I got

Standard Ethanol = Archer Daniels Midland Company.

Jewellers: The Beers (from South Africa)

Thanks, they're great suggestions! Keep them coming. The only one without any suggestions now is Creative Constructions.

Standard Ethanol = Archer Daniels Midland Company.

Hmm, I had a look but I didn't find anything about them producing ethanol fuel, which is what I understand the civ corporation to be doing. I think they'd make a good replace for Cereal Mills though. They're bigger than General Mills, which was the other suggestion.

Hmm, I had a look but I didn't find anything about them producing ethanol fuel, which is what I understand the civ corporation to be doing.

Large oil companies have been adding ethanol to gasoline for years now. It has been in small amounts, like 10-15%. There has to be a major supplier for the ethanol.

And here's one for Creative Constructions: VINCI (between 1899 and 2000 it was Société générale d'entreprises (SGE))
Ranked world number two in engineering/construction by the Fortune Global 500
http://www.vinci.com/vinci.nsf/en/history-chronology.htm

or the Bouygues Group. They're number 2, after Vinci, and seem to have done more 'great works', as well as private property, which fits the pedia entry. Also Bouygues is a more memorable name than SGE so better for civ (VINCI has only been the name for a few years so it wouldn't make sense to use it)
http://www.bouygues.com/us/groupe/histoire.asp

Thanks, they're great suggestions! Keep them coming. The only one without any suggestions now is Creative Constructions.

I had to search for this one on the internet but maybe Bechtel would be an option. Huge company with a long tradition and business worldwide.

Rince

Hmm, I had a look but I didn't find anything about them producing ethanol fuel, which is what I understand the civ corporation to be doing. I think they'd make a good replace for Cereal Mills though. They're bigger than General Mills, which was the other suggestion.

They're big on Ethanol:

ADM Page: http://www.admworld.com/naen/fuels/petroleum.asp

"The Exxon of Corn": http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/2/2/52324/18981

"Ethanol fueling growth for ADM": http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/16/markets/spotlight/spotlight_adm/index.htm

Cato Institute article on ADM (on corporate welfare): http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-241.html


Cereal Mills is definitely General Mills.

Jewellers: The Beers (from South Africa)

it's De Beers.

Okay here's my official list, which I'm going to mod in my game, based on what I've found out from this thread an my recent research:


Mining Inc > Rio Tinto (British, founded 1873)
Creative Constructions > Bouygues (French, founded 1952)
Sid's Sushi Co > Nissui (Japanese, incorporated 1911)
Civilized Jewelers > De Beers (originally British, now Swiss & South African, founded 1880)
Cereal Mills > General Mills (American, founded 1866, incorporated 1928)
Aluminium Co > Alcoa (American, founded 1888 as the Pittsburgh Reduction Company (changed to Alcoa in 1907))
Standard Ethanol > ADM (American, founded 1878, incorporated 1923)

I thought that Standard Ethanol took its name from Standard Oil, but modernized. I know I could very well be wrong, but it made sense.

I thought that Standard Ethanol took its name from Standard Oil, but modernized. I know I could very well be wrong, but it made sense.

It did, but Standard Oil produced...well...oil, not ethanol. :)

And good find on Bouygues -- I'd not heard of them, but they do seem to fit the Creative Construction model.