EARLIEST DESIGNS FOR CONSOLIDATION INCLUDE PLANS TO HOLD UP THE PRICE OF OIL—SOUTH IMPROVEMENT COMPANY SO INTENDS—COMBINATION OF 1872-1873 MAKES OIL DEAR—SCHEME FAILS AND PRICES DROP—THE STANDARD'S GREAT PROFITS IN 1876-1877 THROUGH ITS SECOND SUCCESSFUL CONSOLIDATION—RETURN OF COMPETITION AND LOWER PRICES—STANDARD'S FUTILE ATTEMPT IN 1880 TO REPEAT RAID OF 1876-1877—STANDARD IS CONVINCED THAT MAKING OIL TOO DEAR WEAKENS MARKETS AND STIMULATES COMPETITION—GREAT PROFITS OF 1879-1889—LOWERING OF THE MARGIN ON EXPORT SINCE 1889 BY REASON OF COMPETITION—MANIPULATION OF DOMESTIC PRICES EVEN MORE MARKED—HOME CONSUMERS PAY COST OF STANDARD'S FIGHTS IN FOREIGN LANDS—STANDARD'S VARIOUS PRICES FOR THE SAME GOODS AT HOME—HIGH PRICES WHERE THERE IS NO COMPETITION AND LOW PRICES WHERE THERE IS COMPETITION.
IT is quite possible that in keeping the attention fixed so long on Mr. Rockefeller's oil campaign the reader has forgotten the reason why it was undertaken. The reason was made clear enough at the start by Mr. Rockefeller himself. He and his colleagues went into their first venture, the South Improvement Company, not simply because it was a quick and effective way of putting everybody but themselves out of the refining business, but because, everybody but themselves being put out, they could control the output of oil and put up its price. "There is no man in this country who would not quietly and calmly say that we ought to have a better price for these goods," the secretary of the South Improvement Company told the Congressional Com-
