the united states supreme court helped bring about the breakup of the standard oil monopoly.
the united states supreme court helped bring about the breakup of the standard oil monopoly.
who helped bring about the breakup of the standard oil monopoly?
the united states supreme court
john d. rockefeller was a forceful driver of consolidation in the american oil industry. beginning in 1865, he bought refineries, railroads, pipelines, and oilfields and ruthlessly eliminated competition to his standard oil. by 1879, he controlled 90% of oil refined in the us. standard oil used pipelines to directly connect the pennsylvanian oilfields with the refineries in new jersey, cleveland, philadelphia, and baltimore, rather than loading and unloading railroad tank cars, which enabled huge gains in efficiency and profitability. given the unprecedented scale of standard oil's network, the company developed novel methods for managing, financing, and organizing its businesses. because laws governing corporations limited their ability to do business across state lines, standard oil pioneered the use of a central trust that owned and controlled the constituent companies in each state. the use of trusts by other industries to stifle competition and extract monopoly prices led to the 1890 passage of the sherman antitrust act. in the 1911 case of "standard oil co. of new jersey v. united states", the supreme court ordered the standard oil trust be disbanded into competing companies that would become exxon (standard oil of new jersey), mobil (standard oil of new york), and chevron (standard oil of california).
technological and industrial history of the united states
the standard oil trust was dissolved under the sherman antitrust act in 1892; however, it reemerged as the standard oil interests. in 1893, the chinese and the whole asian kerosene market was assigned to standard oil company of new york in order to improve trade with the asian counterparts. in 1898, standard oil of new jersey acquired controlling stake in imperial oil of canada. in 1899, standard oil company of new jersey became the holding company for the standard oil interests. the anti-monopoly proceedings against the standard oil were launched in 1898. the reputation of standard oil in the public eye suffered badly after publication of ida m. tarbell's classic exposé "the history of the standard oil co." in 1904, leading to a growing outcry for the government to take action against the company. by 1911, with public outcry at a climax, the supreme court of the united states ruled that standard oil must be dissolved and split into 34 companies. two of these companies were jersey standard ("standard oil co. of new jersey"), which eventually became exxon, and socony ("standard oil co. of new york"), which eventually became mobil.
exxonmobil