5 Most Famous Monopolies Of All Time

1. Standard Oil Company

Topping the list of the 12 most famous monopolies of all time is of course, Standard Oil Company by J.D. Rockefeller. The company was involved in the production, transportation, refining and marketing of oil which came into existence in 1870. When it was in existence, it was the largest oil refining company in the world and was also the biggest company in the entire world until its existence came to an abrupt end in 1911, when it was finally broken up by the Supreme Court.

Initially, the company started to become a monopoly through horizontal integration, before engaging in vertical integration and engaging in domination that has been more or less unparalleled since. It was also a pioneer in establishing a trust, which allowed it to lower costs, under cut its competitors and allowed the streamlining of logistics as well as production. Rockefeller became one of the richest people in the world when the Supreme Court broke the company into 34 companies, and is considered to be the richest man in modern history, adjusted for inflation. Just to understand the absolute behemoth that Standard Oil was, some of its 34 successors are still among the biggest oil companies in the world, including Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX).

See also: 15 largest oil companies in the world and 15 largest energy companies in the world