Standard Oil Trust

The First Monopoly of America

http://74365165.nhd.weebly.com

Nathan Reagan, Mostofa Hisham, Darling Hernadez Senior Di ision !roup "e#site

$ecause our initial interest %as in consumer protection, #ut %e realized the topic %as too #road to thoroughly research, %e #egan to narro% our focus into antitrust la%s& 'pon researching the most prominent cases, %e found that many of the early acts, such as the Sherman and (layton Acts, %ere directed to%ards monopolies, and that one corporation in particular instigated the founding of these) Standard Oil& Through a #etter understanding of the early oil #usiness and the impact of Standard Oil, %e concluded that Standard Oil %as an interesting topic that also tied %ell %ith the theme& "e started our research #y familiarizing oursel es %ith the topic, so %e scoured %e#sites for any facts pertaining to the topic& After getting a #asic understanding of the history of the Standard Oil (ompany, %e then created a document to hold and categorize the general information& This helped us to form a small outline and *no% e+actly %hat to research for future reference& "e then narro%ed our research to *ey indi iduals %hom %ere rele ant to #oth the creation and destruction of Standard Oil& ,da Tar#ell-s The History of the Standard Oil Company pro ided an in.depth first hand account of the monopoly at the pea* of its reign, and further #rought the issues %ith their #usiness tactics to perspecti e& Due to the lac* of images and surplus of information, %e decided that a %e#site %ould #e the #est method of portraying our *no%ledge of the topic& The %e#site also allo%ed for more interacti e displays of information, %hich %as necessary for the timeline& $y starting %ith categories, this allo%ed for us to determine the su#categories, %hich ser ed as a #lueprint for researching the crucial information %hile disregarding the unimportant facts& "e then #egan adding the te+t %hich %e found to #e the most rele ant to the topic, and then completed the research portion #y filling the pages %ith supplements, such as pictures and /uotes& To enhance the structure of the %e#site, %e added the

timeline, as %ell as enhancing it to #e more isually appealing& Our topic tied to the NHD theme #y the fact that Standard Oil had disregarded the rights of other #usinesses to ha e the chance to compete for economic prosperity, and the rights of people to ha e freedom in their choice in their oil pro ider& This also stressed the responsi#ility of (ongress to ensure fair competition for all trades, and to also stop monopolies from rising& Also, since the Standard Oil (ompany had the po%er to modulate oil prices, they could set a price ery high in order to ma+imize profit, #ut then they %ill #e #reaching consumer rights, since the consumers ha e no po%er to re#el against the prices gi en #y a monopoly&