Standard Oil Monpoly Debate

In the early 1900s, most entrepreneurs would do anything they could in order to control competition threatening the growth of their business. Most of them enforced horizontal integration, where companies that produce similar products merge in order to achieve a monopoly. However, John D. Rockefeller, head of the Standard Oil Company, took a different approach to mergers. He decided to join with competing companies in trust agreements. Participants in a trust turned their stock over to the people who ran the separate companies as one large corporation to gain dividends on profits earned.

Standard Oil had a good relationship with the railroad industry in the late 19 and early 20th century. Standard oil was trying to gain control of the railroad companies so they could get the most out of their money. Their goal was to make max profit out of everything they were getting. They used vertical integration or the combination of one or two stages of production, that started as two separate companies. Standard oil did this by taking control of the railroads, so they didn’t have to pay for shipping cost, making them more money in the end.

Ida did not hesitate to criticize Rockefeller for stooping to unethical business practices in quest for his numerous successes. Her writings were credited with the eventual breakup of Standard Oil, which came after the U.S Supreme Court rule in 1911, that the company was violating the Sherman Antitrust act. The Sherman Antitrust act allowed only Congress to regulate interstate commerce. Ida Tarbell and Ida B. Wells have much more in common than just their names. Both have exposed underlying issues in American society through pieces of writings, persistence, and course of actions they took.

While there are many robber barons that have existed throughout time, one of the most famously remembered robber baron, during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, was John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller was easily one of the most influential industrialist in his time. Aside from building Standard Oil into America’s largest company, he formed what was arguably the first modern multi-national company. He was innovative with how Standard Oil was structured, leading the U.S. governments changing their corporation codes and passing anti-trust legislation. His company was purposefully named, to assure customers that the oil being purchased was professionally processed to a standard.

Those who knew him personally described him as an "exact and honest" man. In 1864, Rockefeller had gotten married and dove into the oil refinery business one year later. It wasn't until the year 1870, however, that he and five other men founded the Standard Oil Company. Said company was able to make the price of oil drop a whopping 85%! In its first year, the company only controlled 2-3% of the nation's crude oil, but that drastically changed in a decade.

The US was under heavy control of a lot of trusts that were ran and were worth a lot of money. Standard Oil had a ton of products they were producing which made them have better control on the railroad, because they were the biggest lube manufacturer for the railroads. In the first presidential election of the 19th century the biggest issue in the election was trusts. The main reasons Standard Oil was broken up was because of the Sherman Antitrust Act and Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States.

John D. Rockefeller John D. Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839 into humble family and over time became owner of the Standard Oil Company. As a young boy, one could tell he was a business man at heart; John was always trying to sell small things to gain money. He had a passion for discovering the secrets of business and understanding how to obtain a successful life. He thrived in the business and became the most powerful monopoly at the time. With the wealth that came with his business, also led to controversy over his actions.

Ultimately, this forced The Standard Oil to break off into different branches in 1911 (Oil & ideology). Some of these branches are still going strong today, like Exxon Mobile and Chevron Corporation. Even after the company had to be broken into smaller branches, Rockefeller became even more wealthy. The smaller branches were actually worth more separately then as one

Following this, he would then buy out his competitors and gain control over their production lines. This allowed Carnegie to become one of the top producers of steel in the nation. Following his example was John Rockefeller who founded the Standard Oil Company. However, instead of dominating his competitors, he joined up with them utilizing trust agreements. This was the first time a corporation ran by more than one person was created, allowing a monopoly to form over the Oil industry.

Among the most aggressive of these tactics were predatory pricing, vertical integration, and most rigorously, horizontal integration. Rockefeller added every one of his competitors to his mega-industry, some through secret deals. This resulted in his creation of one of the single greatest monopolies in history, the Standard Oil Trust. Eventually, the Supreme Court found Standard Oil guilty of illegal monopoly and had the company broken into 34 separate companies. Aside from business practices, Rockefeller engaged in questionable treatment of workers, the most striking of which was his reaction to the Ludlow Massacre.

John D. Rockefeller Sr: How did John D. Rockefeller impact the Industrial Revolution John Davison Rockefeller Sr. once stated “If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success” (John D. Rockefeller Quotes). John D. Rockefeller was the founder of Standard Oil in which then became one of the wealthiest men in the world. Rockefellers ongoing funding as a philanthropist and trust in oil is how the man's name still lives on to this day (The Rockefeller Archive Center). For thousands of years oil has been a main resource for human consumption, and remains the same.

Rockefeller: The Captain of Industry that has helped our country thrive “The best philanthropy” he wrote, is constantly in search of finalities- a search for a cause an attempt to cure evils at their source” - John D. Rockefeller John D. Rockefeller was the richest man of his time but, used his wealth to improve our country. Rockefeller entered the fledgling Oil industry in 1863, by investing in a factory in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1870 Rockefeller established the Standard Oil Company. With the establishment of the oil company Rockefeller controlled 90% of the oil business in America by 1880.

The first enterprise Rockefeller started focused on hay, grains, meats, and other goods and was founded in 1853. He founded the Standard Oil Company in 1863, which grew exponentially. Rockefeller was incredibly competitive, and actively worked towards running competing companies out of business. Rockefeller owned iron mines and timberland and invested in numerous companies in manufacturing, transportation, and other industries.

The Standard Oil Trust had an infamous reputation in the country, which increased the inhabitants hostility towards it (Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 1999). The Ohio Supreme Court held that the Standard Oil Trust was a monopoly, which is illegal in that state and forced it to disband. Ohio’s Supreme Court’s ruling for Standard Oil forced Rockefeller to disperse the empire, however the top members of his company were still the leaders of the splitting companies. Rockefeller, however, could not escape the United State Supreme Court, according to the Sherman Antitrust Act, an act where trusts were found to be illegal, Standard Oil was forced to split and placed under new ownership of the smaller

So many businessmen of his time were dependent of investors but that’s where Mr. Rockefeller differed. He believed to invest in yourself in order to really profit. Here in lies the beginning of the end in Rockefeller’s empire was when he invested his entire fortune into the Standard Oil Company, a company that would ultimately lead to his empire crumbling beneath his