[2] This quickly increased to 20% through the elimination of the competitors in the Cleveland area. Although consolidation did advance the large-scale production and distribution of oil products, many critics believed that the resulting concentration of economic power was becoming excessive. Standard Oil Company was incorporated in Ohio in 1870, but the company’s origins date to 1863, when John D. Rockefeller joined Maurice B. Clark and Samuel Andrews in a Cleveland, Ohio, oil-refining business. This political cartoon drawn during the Gilded Age depicts Standard Oil as an octopus which uses unscrupulous business methods to put the competition out of business. The oil industry in Azerbaijan was the largest producer in the world at that time, but was limited to the Russian market. She wrote a series of articles exposing the corruption of Standard Oil. But, under authority expressly granted to it by the Constitution, Congress could regulate commerce among the several states and with foreign states. The government’s challenge to Standard Oil’s monopoly of refining and the resulting court-ordered break up of Standard Oil one hundred years ago, was motivated to a large extent by the now discredited idea of protecting competitors rather than preserving competition. The former Standard Oil Building, lower Manhattan, New York City, constructed in 1921–28 atop an original building of 1884–85; designed by Thomas Hastings. The Standard Oil Trust’s advantage • Whereas refineries had earlier tried to control output through informal agreements, incentives to cheat prevented these attempts from succeeding. Antitrust 1: Standard Oil : Planet Money At the turn of the 20th century, Ida Tarbell investigated John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. Struggling Upward, or, Luke Larkin's Luck by Horatio Alger Jr. Furthermore, whene… How did Ida Tarbell help end the Standard Oil monopoly? Standard Oil, in full Standard Oil Company and Trust, American company and corporate trust that from 1870 to 1911 was the industrial empire of John D. Rockefeller and associates, controlling almost all oil production, processing, marketing, and transportation in the United States. Is Standard Oil a Monopoly? In 1863, he and his partner invested in another business that refined crude oil from Pennsylvania into kerosene for illuminating lamps. What she discovered changed the economy of the United States. Indeed, many competitors were present and ready to pick up any time that Standard Oil did not meet expectations . It adjudged that Congress had in unequivocal words declared that 'every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of commerce among the several states,' shall be illegal, and that no distinction, so far as interstate commerce was concerned, was to be tolerated between restraints of such commerce as were undue or unreasonable, and restraints that were due or reasonable. Its authority to regulate such commerce was and is paramount, due force being given to other provisions of the fundamental law, devised by the fathers for the safety of the government and for the protection and security of the essential rights inhering in life, liberty, and property. Sources. The Standard Oil Monopoly John D. Rockefeller and his partners in the Standard Oil Company were rich men, but they strove for even greater success. The Standard Oil Trust effectively eliminated competition. The Court's remedy was to divide Standard Oil into several geographically separate and eventually competing firms. In 1879, Standard Oil Company became a monopoly in the oil transport industry after John D. Rockefeller created an oil pipeline company (Baylor 3). Rockefeller bought out Clark in 1865, and Henry M. Flagler became a partner in the venture in 1867. Marriage and Children. He was among one of the richest people in the world. The Origins of Standard Oil • 1870: John D. Rockefeller and partners incorporate the Standard Oil Co. in Ohio • Soon began a systematic program of acquiring competitors. What was the core business that made Standard Oil a horizontally integrated monopoly? This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Standard-Oil, United States History - Standard Oil Trust. The certificate featured in this article represents a tactile reminder of this infamous company and the part it played in financial history. • By 1873, Standard had eliminated most competition within Ohio (1/3 of total US production), and began to spread into the Northeast. In 1914, Congress passed two more laws designed to bolster the Sherman Antitrust Act: the Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act. Still more; in response to the suggestion by able counsel that Congress intended only to strike down such contracts, combinations, and monopolies as unreasonably restrained interstate commerce, this court, in words too clear to be misunderstood, said that to so hold was 'to read into the act by way of judicial legislation, an exception not placed there by the lawmaking branch of the government.' 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