John D Rockefeller Oil Industry Essay

1. What did John D. Rockefeller believe was the key to stabilizing the oil industry? He believed that centralizing the administration, hard-working people that applied themselves and work together, and a monopoly – owning as much as they can – would stabilize the oil industry.

Rockefeller was born into a poor family and could barley eat. He did school but was heavily bullied to the point where he drops out and stated

Oil policies went deep into the personalities and early experiences of Rockefeller and his colleagues. They had heightened uncertainty and speculation about their activities by their secrecy in building the alliance and by their evasive and legal testimony on the witness stand. There tended to be aroused antagonism because the very

Over the course of this paper information regarding John D Rockefeller 's creation of the Standard Oil company will be showcased. First, information regarding Rockefeller’s entry into the oil industry will be presented. Second, how Standard Oil became the largest oil company in the United States. Next, the innovative products and procedures that Standard Oil creates to keep the company relevant throughout the era . Lastly, how the dissolution of Standard Oil paves the way for a diverse oil market with companies specializing in different productions. Now, John D Rockefeller may have been a cutthroat businessman; however, Rockefeller’s vision for Standard Oil creates a period of innovation and advancement of the none existent oil industry that remains relevant today.

Rockefeller, 2015) and had a monopoly on fuel in America. “In order to exploit economies of scale, Standard Oil did everything from build its own oil barrels to employ scientists to figure out new uses for petroleum by-products” (John D. Rockefeller, 2015).

In 1870 him and others began the Standard Oil Company, which swiftly took out others and became the biggest corporation in America. Rockefeller did everything to keep his business on top: running pipelines, buying transportation to control the whole cycle, and even buying land to stop others from piping, nothing was going to stop him from international takeover. (Bio 2014) In merely a decade, John Rockefeller had managed to create a near monopoly of the oil industry from coast to coast. This is when the government stepped in, and in 1890 created the Sherman

Rockefeller was born on July 8th, 1839. He was an American Business man and the co-owner of the ‘Standard Oil Company.’ He created Standard Oil Company with his brother, William Rockefeller, and four other investors in 1870. As the oil industry grew, his company expanded at a fast past, resulting in the Standard Oil Company pushing out competition and taking over their markets. At Standard Oil’s peek, they owned 95% of all oil produced in the USA, making them the first known monopoly in the country. Rockefeller owned nearly the entire oil business in the United States, and he could set prices at will. Companies in other industries quickly imitated this trust model and used their broad market control to push prices higher. Rockefeller soon became the richest man in the U.S., with his wealth growing to more than a billion dollars. At the time of his death in 1937 he was considered the richest person in US history, having earned the equivalent of more than $336 billion according to inflation, accounting for more than 1.5% of the national economy’s

William Avery Rockefeller was a common pitchman “doctor” that sold cancer treatment tonics for $25 town to town and city to city. His wife, Eliza Davison Rockefeller, was a deeply religions and very disciplined woman (Poole). John D. Rockefeller was born into a humble existence but was taught many valuable life lessons from his parents. He learned the basics of business paperwork along with the sacredness of a business contract from his father and the importance of giving money to church and charities at every opportunity from his mother. This less than iconic background brought forth an extremely successful business man and eventual oil mogul, that set the world standard for philanthropy. John D. Rockefeller’s name lives on in American

Rockefeller was a smart business man; he borrowed money to take control of the refinery and buy out its competitors. Standard began using its power to make deals with railroads to ship its oil. They even bought terminals and pipelines. The Standard Oil Company had then consolidated almost every refinery in the nation under the Standard Oil Trust, and Rockefeller was in charge of it all. All of this control lead Rockefeller to become the wealthiest man in U.S. history. This was the first monopoly case in America, pathing the way for more big business leaders in the future. Congress saw this unfair monopoly and passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, the first federal legislation prohibiting trusts and arrangements that restrained

Arguments have raged over Standard Oil and its business practices since its prime in the 1870's and 1880's. Was it a monopoly? Did it severely impede fair competition? If it was a monopoly, did it hurt the consumer? These are the questions that have been argued in debates about Standard Oil and its practices. Whether Standard Oil was a monopoly or not, the more important question to economists is, were the practices of the Standard Oil Company efficient and did it hurt the social wealth of the country? The government's enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act on Standard Oil hurt the country's social wealth and efficiency.

One instance, from real life, of the US government acting to promote competition and break-up monopolies occurred in 1911 when the United States Supreme Court ruled that Standard and Oil was an illegal monopoly. Standard and Oil Co Inc. was an American oil company established in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller as a corporation in Ohio which by early 1880 controlled some 90 percent of US refineries and oil pipelines and dominated the oil products market through horizontal integration and later through vertical integration. Standard and Oil gained a monopoly in the oil industry by buying rival refineries and forming several companies for distributing and marketing its products around the globe. In 1882, these various companies were combined into the Standard Oil Trust and It became the largest oil refinery monopoly in the world. Rockefeller became the richest man in the world which consequently made him a target of critics and politicians. These powerful politicians accused him of under-cutting and destroying his competitors by engaging in unethical practices, such as price fixing and colluding with railroads to eliminate his competition and to ultimately gain a monopoly in the industry. Other accusations by critics and politicians included: getting rich on rebates from railroads, bribing men to spy on competing companies, of making secret agreements, of coercing rivals to join the Standard Oil Company under

John D. Rockefeller chief of industry, was the leader of the Standard Oil Organization and one of the world's wealthiest men. He utilized his fortune to finance continuous altruistic causes. American industrialist John D. Rockefeller was conceived July 8, 1839, in Richford, New York. He assembled his first oil refinery close Cleveland and in 1870 joined the Standard Oil Organization. By 1882 he had a close restraining infrastructure of the oil business in the U.S., however his business hones prompted the death of antitrust laws.

In 1853, the Rockefeller family moved to the Cleveland, Ohio, area, where John attended high school then briefly studied bookkeeping at a commercial college. It was the very first moment young John Rockefeller stepped into the world of business. In 1859, Rockefeller went into the produce commission business with a partner, Maurice B. Clark, and they raised $4,000. That same year, America’s first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The oil price at that time stayed unaffordably high since the industry was in infant level, demand wasn’t very high and, most importantly, the technology at that time couldn’t efficiently refine the crude oil. In 1863, Rockefeller and several partners entered the new oil industry by investing in a Cleveland refinery. Unlike other oil companies searching for another well, Rockefeller and his partners focused on the efficiency of refining process and its byproducts. They could stabilize the oil price, and could have price predominance to other companies. The timing was also perfect. The war was ending, the vibe of great expansion was booming and it was based on the expansion of railroad and oil-fueled economy.

Rockefeller was a smart man and knew he could not jump headfirst into oil on his own. He was not interested in the drilling of oil, he was interested in the refining and shipping of oil (Aaseng 25). Seeing an opportunity, John pressed Clark to use borrowed money to expand their empire. A fight ensued and Rockefeller ended up winning. At age 26, after eliminating Clark, Rockefeller gained the largest oil refinery in Cleveland (Derbyshire 127). With this new refinery, he looked to create a brand, a brand that would crush

By establishing these set shipping rates with the railroad companies, it not only made it impossible for his competitors to stay in business, but it also allowed Rockefeller to establish a strong relationship with a key method of transportation for shipping products (Biography). By establishing a strong relationship with the railroad companies, Rockefeller was able to use his successful business practice to “control over 90 percent of the nation’s oil-refining industry by 1880” (The New Tycoons). As time continued on and his business became more successful, he also applied another clever business strategy known as vertical integration. This process consisted of a company purchasing and controlling each and every step of one’s industry production process. Rockefeller’s company used this process very efficiently as they “became known to manipulate crude oil prices to drive refineries to bankruptcy, allowing him to buy them cheaply” (Epstein). By controlling each production step, he was able to minimize costs by removing any companies from the middle that were previously completing steps on the way to the finish product. Rockefeller was also known to manipulate prices of crude oil in order to drive his competing refineries into bankruptcy which allowed him to buy them cheaply (Epstein). However, his economic beliefs and ideas were not the only strategies which John Rockefeller used to elevate his business and personal profile to a national level and