In 1879 the Tidewater Company first began to pump their oil, and the American press hailed their achievement as something that ranked with the laying of the Atlantic Cable and the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.

But in less than two years the Rockefeller interest had entered into agreements with the Tidewater Company that practically placed this great seaboard pipe line in its hands.
Thus in less than ten years Rockefeller had realized his ambitious dream; he now controlled practically everything concerned in the manufacture and sale of petroleum.

The change had come about so stealthily, so secretly, and even so remorselessly that it impressed the public almost as the work of some uncanny genius.

What were the forces, personal and economic, that had produced this new phenomenon in our business life?
In certain particulars the Standard Oil monopoly was the product of well-understood principles.

From his earliest days John D.
Rockefeller had struggled to eliminate the middleman.