ABSTRACT
Americans in 1870 attributed a great part of their prosperity to free competition. But technical forces were at work which, against the will of almost all the inhabitants of the United States, transformed the economic system from one in which many small firms competed to one in which, in a number of important industries, one or two vast corporations were in almost complete control. The very men who were instrumental in bringing about this change accepted the prevalent competitive philosophy, and achieved their success by following its maxims. To the dismay of those who were not successful, the prevailing philosophy turned out to be self-defeating: the competitors competed until only one survived, and that one could then no longer use competition as its watchword. This happened in many industries, but I shall concentrate attention upon the most important, oil and steel. And of these two oil comes first in point of time.
