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Ida Minerva Tarbell: The History of the Standard Oil Company (Paperback, 2003, Dover Publications) 3 stars

Muckrakers — a term coined in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt — referred to American …

It’s pretty wild how a main part of Standard Oil’s business strategy and success is going “Okay, person who transfers my oil (railroad, pipeline). What if you gave me a steep discount and then also paid me a cut of whatever other people pay you to transfer oil with you. Yeah I know it’s illegal but just be cool.” ... and the railroads and pipelines being like “ok sounds good.”

replied to PrimoJeniture's status

apparently for railroads, they were afraid of Standard Oil taking their business elsewhere (and SO exaggerated the share of oil they owned at the time) and in the case of pipelines they threatened to build their own to compete. meanwhile SO was consolidating oil production and refining under their control. this whole book is pretty interesting as a modern read and reflection on the irrationality and control capitalism, lots of current analogs!