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The standard oil company of Ohio was organized in 1870, combining the oil refining and distribution operations of the Rockefeller brothers and others. Within 2 years, they had acquired control of most of the oil refineries in and around Cleveland. By 1882, standard controlled some 90 per cent of the production, refining, and distribution of oil in the United States.

In o ne of the earliest monopolization cases to search the Supreme Court, the government alleged and the Supreme Court accepted that standard oil had employed the following techniques on its way to achieving this market position:

1. Local price wars to drive rivals out of business or to reduce the price paid by standard oil for a merger agreement.
2. Purchase of rivals for the purpose of dismantling their refineries and taking them out of production.
3. Negotiation of preferential rebates, not available to competitors, from rail road companies.
4. Control of pipelines needed to ship oil from oilfields to refineries.
5. Operation of bogus independent companies, actually controlled by standard oil, to maintain an appearance of competition.