THE OIL MONOPOLY. How the Standard Company Has Cut Out Russia as a Competitor.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 408, 5 October 1889, Page 6

THE OIL MONOPOLY. How the Standard Company Has Cut Out Russia as a Competitor.

At Pittsburgh, on July 19th, an oil sensation was unearthed. ]The Russian petroleum interests are controlled by the Government and financially backed by the noted Rothschilds. For two years past Russian oils have made great inroads on fine markets heretofore dependent upon the United States for their supplies. So successfully has the introduction of Russian oil been pushed that the Standard Oil Companyjhave been compelled to adopt extraordinary measures to recover their lost trade, amounting' to many millions of gallons of refined oil. The first move made by them was to secure and place out of reach of the Russians all the second-hand empty barrels on the Continent. These were sent to the Stan- ! 1 dard Oil distribution stations of Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Great Britain, and even' back to the United States. The Russians had laid out a pipe line, but when they went to contract for pipes hone could be had in time for this year's business. Someone had tied up the manufacturers of pipe. Thus were two' avenues of competition blocked, and only one other romained open, namely, the bulkoil steamers plying on the Mediterranean,Black, and Caspian seas in the Russian oil trade. By some means these steamers, have found their way to Amorican ports for Standard oil, and no bulk steamers are now to be found to move the Russian oil, while it is impossible to ship in other vessels, as barrels are necessary for such shipments, and cannot bo had ac Baku or other points for loading Russian oil. Thus ib is that the great I^uasian oil irade, for this year at leasl, ha 3 boon corked up by the Yankee ingenuity of the great Oil Trust. One thing is patent, that many of the Russian bulk-oil steamers a»-e now lying at Philadelphia, New York, and. Baltimore, and more are coming under long charter?.— 'N.Y. Post.'