Modern antitrust law was created to combat the Standard Oil Trust, the massive monopoly run by John D. Rockefeller.

In its later years, Standard Oil formed a business trust that reflected the company's exponential growth. Politicians wanted to prevent such trusts and used the Sherman Antitrust Act to force Standard Oil to break up.

Rockefeller's oil monopoly had a dark side, including cutting oil prices so low that Standard Oil was sometimes temporarily operating at a loss in order to drive competitors out of business.

Standard Oil’s impact on the business world can be clearly seen today in oil giants like Exxon and Chevron. But the journey from the Rockefellers’ trust to the modern firms was a windy road. After the Supreme Court ordered Standard Oil’s break up, the first step saw it separate into many state-based companies like Standard Oil of California and the Ohio Oil Company. Visualize it here.

“Vertical integration” is a modern business phrase that refers to a company taking on multiple stages of production—but John D. Rockefeller pioneered it with his Standard Oil company, employing its own plumbers and handling its own oil transportation.

John D. Rockefeller—the world's first billionaire—once controlled 90% of the US oil refining market, built Standard Oil through vertical integration, and used his fortune to fund universities, museums, and landmarks like Rockefeller Center.

From a young age, John D. Rockefeller knew he was interested in business. He worked as a bookkeeper and sold candy prior to starting the business empire that would help cement the Rockefeller name in history: Standard Oil.

This podcast series traces how the US government's approach to regulating big business has changed over a century—from the DOJ's breakup of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil monopoly, through lawyer Robert Bork's influence on how courts interpret competition law, to the FTC's modern antitrust lawsuit against Amazon.

The Rockefellers built one of the most powerful business empires in US history. By the early 1900s, their company, Standard Oil, controlled over 90% of the US oil market.

The Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division are the regulatory agencies responsible for overseeing antitrust laws. Before deeming any company a monopoly or acknowledging monopolistic power in a market, the FTC conducts thorough research into market competition, price, and even other competitors' business practices.

The Rockefeller Family Fund has been engaged in more than 40 lawsuits against ExxonMobil, a company that John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil created.

William A. Rockefeller Sr. earned his money via various schemes that included pretending to be a doctor to sell “herbal medicines” and posing as a deaf person to peddle for money.

Standard Oil was eventually ordered to separate into 34 different entities, and over the following years, those 34 companies merged into what is now called the “Big Four” in the oil industry.

Many American monopolies popped up during the rapid industrial growth of the Gilded Age. Industries like steel, tobacco, railroads, and telecommunication have all been monopolized at some point in history.

This legally reduced his taxable income under existing laws. Similarly, the Rockefellers leveraged charitable foundations to minimize taxes, allowing them to preserve wealth while directing funds to their preferred causes.

1948's landmark United States v. Paramount Pictures found that the "Big Five" studios violated antitrust laws, effectively ending the reign of the vertically integrated system and the golden age of Hollywood.

The Rockefeller family timeline (as it relates to the business world, at least) starts in 1839 with John D. Rockefeller’s birth. In the nearly 200 years since, his offspring have gotten involved in everything from the Watergate scandal to the McCormick & Company spice business.

The US Department of Justice sued Visa, Mastercard, and American Express in 2010 over alleged anticompetitive contracts with merchants. While Visa and Mastercard settled out of court, American Express went to trial and had its case taken all the way up to the Supreme Court—which ruled that both sides of a transaction business must be analyzed to determine a monopoly.

The US Department of Justice and numerous states accused Google of making exclusionary agreements with Android phone manufacturers to make its search engine the default on those devices, preventing competitors from gaining market share.

In the business world, a monopoly exists when one company controls the entire market. Regulators take issue with monopolies because they have been found to limit consumer choices, raise prices, and hurt competition.

The Rockefellers created the first known single-family office in the late 1800s but the firm has evolved since to serve many wealthy American families.

In 2020, US District Court Judge Analisa Torres overturned the 1948 Supreme Court ruling that broke up the studio system—effectively allowing the film industry to become vertically integrated once again—with companies like Amazon and Disney taking advantage of the relaxed regulations.

In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission sued Meta as part of the agency's efforts to rein in big tech companies. The FTC alleged that Meta overpaid for Instagram and WhatsApp in a "buy or bury" strategy to gain access to those companies' talent and diminish competition. In 2025, a federal judge sided with Meta, citing intense change in the social media landscape.

J.P. Morgan first backed Thomas Edison's direct current system, seeing electricity's potential to usurp John D. Rockefeller's kerosene empire. Despite the investments and smear campaign against alternating current, alternating current ultimately won public support after lighting the 1893 World's Fair, after which Morgan would fund Tesla's wireless transmission tower.

A New York commodities trader who had defrauded the American government over uninspected meat for school lunches, Anthony "Tino" De Angelis, used American Express warehouses to sell soybean oil. However, Angelis had actually filled the tanks with water and placed just enough soybean oil on top of the tanks to pass inspection. American Express was liable for many of the tanks and its stock faced a huge downturn, opening the door for a then 33-year-old Warren Buffett to make his first purchase in the company.

The Radio Corporation of America was the biggest stock during the 1920s. Originally called Marconi Wireless, the company transformed radio technology. The company pioneered broadcasting, created NBC, and became a tech giant. After remarkable growth and challenges, RCA was acquired by General Electric in 1986, marking the end of its 67-year independent existence.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his wife spent millions of dollars restoring Colonial Williamsburg and turning it into the tourist attraction it is today. You can go back in time via video footage from before and after the restoration.

In 1824, the Supreme Court unanimously invalidated a New York steamboat monopoly, ruling that navigation between states constitutes interstate commerce. Chief Justice John Marshall held that Congress has authority over such commerce and that conflicting state laws are void under the supremacy clause.

As chief justice, John Marshall established the principle of judicial review. He reinforced federal supremacy in key cases, defining the Supreme Court as a powerful arbiter between states and the national government under the US federal system.

When regulators and economists evaluate whether a company constitutes an illegal monopoly, they often consider its overall market share or its relatively high price markups. This piece argues that the Olley-Pakes decomposition is a better measure, identifying whether customers within a market are switching to more productive companies.

Distant cousins Jefferson and Marshall advanced opposing constitutional visions—Jefferson favoring states' rights and local majorities, while Marshall defended broad federal authority and judicial review. Through decisions such as McCulloch v. Maryland, Marshall advanced national supremacy over state resistance.

Hear an interview with Harvard Law School employee and labor law expert Sharon Block about how the parallel motivations of workers, employers, and government officials led to the creation of the National Labor Relations Act.

Marshall's jurisprudence emphasized that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, enforceable by an independent judiciary. Through his court's decisions, he affirmed judicial review, broad implied powers for Congress, and federal authority to override conflicting state laws.

The oil crises of the 1970s—fueled by Middle East conflict and OPEC's dominance—triggered inflation, price controls, and policy failure. But they also accelerated fracking, alternative energy, and the rise of free-market economics.