How did John D. Rockerfeller gain control of the oil industry?

Answer 1

Rockerfeller was a master of efficiency and inovation. His company, Standard Oil, was able to get the most final products out of a barrel of crude then all of his compeditors. Furthermore, he personally found ways to keep manufactoring costs down by moving different stages of production close to one another. Also, his company invented many new products that were considered waste to everyone else. For instance, gasoline was considered a biproduct of producing karocine. Standard Oil found otherwise.

All of those invovations allowed the company to sell oil products for cheaper then the competition, which allowed it to grow. Over time, he then aquired the compeidtors by buying them out.

Many people bash him for being monopolist, but Standard Oil became a monopoly because is provided its service to the masses better the everyone else. It wasnt big because its prices were too high, but because they were really low. He had stated early on to a friend something to the effect of "we are going to make a lot of oil and we are going to make it cheap."

We now demonize him as being a monopoly and abusive, and an example of properly trust busting with anti monopoly laws. However, it is not monoply that is bad, it is only bad, if a company has the ability to control the market price. He got big becaue his price was very low. If he rraised his prices, he would lose market share. By the time, his company got broken up, compeditors had already started to mimic his efficent practices and Standard Oil had lost market share from about 90% to 60%.

The reality is, anti monopoly laws and cases are rarely about protecting the consumer and usually about protecting the monopoly's competitions o they can charge higher prices. You would never be told this in a high school history class, but Tarbell, the authhor of the famous book "The History of the Standard Oil Company" that everyone has heard of, was the sister of the owner of Sun Oil Company (Sunoco), one of his compeditors. It was all about destrying the Standard Oil company so his competition could charge higher prices and rip off the consumer.

For deatils and a source, read the link.

Answer 2

By improving the efficiency of his operations, pressing for discounts on oil shipments, undercutting his competition, and then buying them out. He gave away a large faction of his fortune and did much good in the world. Bill Gates is a modern day version of him, a mixture efficient and anti-competitive business practices.

Answer 3

Treachery.

Answer 4

By offering a superior product that he could produce more cheaply than his competitors.

Answer 5

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