On May 15, 1911 the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of John Davison Rockefeller‘s Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, ruling it was an illegal monopoly in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Standard Oil on December 1, 1911 officially ended and was broken up and “reorganised” into 34 separate companies. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
The decision was promoted as a win for the government, but was it? “The trusts have been trying for years to secure an amendment to the anti-trust law which would limit the law to unreasonable restraint of trade”. [6]
Standard Oil Company, Inc. was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company which started in 1863 and incorporated in 1870. “At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its cofounder and chairman, John D. Rockefeller, among the wealthiest Americans of all time and among the richest people in modern history.” In 1916 he becomes the first American billionaire. [6]
How and Why “Big Oil” conqured the world. How the Rockefeller influnce took petro-chemical and transformed them into pharma-ceutical,