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PREFACE •The study of the Standard Oil Company — of which this book is the outcome — was undertaken by the author while Ricardo Scholar in Economics at Harvard Univer- sity for the year 1 900-1 901. The results of this study were reported from time to time to the Seminary of the Department of Economics, and eventually were printed in the Quarterly Journal of Economics pub- lished for Harvard University. The peri- od from 1865 till 1879 was treated in the Quarterly for February, 1902, in an article 'entitled “The Rise and Supremacy of the Standard Oil Company” ; and in the Quar- terly for February, 1903, under the title of “The Later History of the Standard Oil Company,” the narrative was continued to
