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John Rockefeller's Impact On The Oil Industry

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John Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York on July 8, 1839. At the age of just 14 he moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio. At the age of 16 he got a job as an assistant bookkeeper with Hewitt & Tuttle, commission merchants and produce shippers. By the age of 20, Rockefeller went out on his own with a friend of his, working as a merchant in hay, meats, grains and other goods. At the close of the company's first year in business, it had grossed $450,000.
Later on, Rockefeller sensed that the oil business was the best business to be a part of in the early 1860s. With oil production going through the roof in western Pennsylvania, Rockefeller decided to take a risk and established an oil refinery near Cleveland which would turn out to be a great business move. In 1863, he opened his first refinery, and after just two years it was the largest in the area. …show more content…

Due to the increasing demands in oil for all new types of technology, Standard Oil immediately prospered. After much success, Rockefeller started to buy out all of his competitors. Within two years Standard’s controlled the majority of the refineries in the Cleveland area. Standard then used its size and name in the region to make favorable deals with railroads to ship its oil. With all of this success, Rockefeller wanted to make sure that he was making as much money as possible, so he bought almost all the aspects of the business. This would mainly include the transportation used to move around all the oil. Over time Standards footprint got bigger, and started to buy out competitors in other regions with a goal of controlling the whole oil

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