The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 16 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Rockefeller: Desperate Competitors Ignorant of Their Costs Are the Most Dangerous
“It is to be remembered that oftentimes the most difficult competition comes not from the strong, intelligent, conservative competitor, but from the man who is holding on by the eyelids, is ignorant of his costs, and anyway has got to keep running or bust.”
Rockefeller Predicted Standard Oil Would Someday Refine All Oil
“The Standard Oil Company will someday refine all of the oil and make all of the barrels.”
Parrish: Standard Oil Volume Freight Rebates Were Not Unfair
“It might sound unfair, but it's not. If I wanted to ship one case of soda from the east to the west coast, I'm going to pay more per case than if I wanted to ship 10,000 cases.”
Flagler: Friendships Founded on Business Beat Businesses Founded on Friendship
“A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than our business founded on friendship.”
Parrish: Henry Lloyd's Anti-Standard Oil Exposés Were Sloppy and Inaccurate
“As reporting goes, it was sloppy. Much of it rested on rumor and innuendo, and when Lloyd came back in 1894 with a whole book of it called Wealth Against Commonwealth, much of that was wrong, too.”
Rockefeller Refused to Publicly Respond to Critics, Trusting Time Over Arguments
“If she is right, we will not gain anything by answering, and if she is wrong, time will vindicate us.”
Parrish: Standard Oil Could Not Have Grown Massive Without Flagler
“Ask anyone today who built Standard Oil, and people will say Rockefeller. They should say Rockefeller and Flagler. The company could not have grown nearly as large without both of them.”
Rockefeller's Fortune Tripled to Nearly One Billion Dollars After Standard Oil's Breakup
“Rockefeller owned roughly a quarter of every new company, worth about three hundred million the day the court ruled. His fortune skyrocketed to nearly nine hundred million just two years later.”
Standard Oil Secretly Retained Acquired Brands to Evade Scrutiny and Accelerate Rollups
“Not only do I think that was a key to how quickly and fast they rolled everything up, but it probably enabled them to keep going a lot longer than they otherwise would have, because it took so long to figure out what was going on.”
Parrish: Rockefeller's Public Role Shielded Standard Oil's Real Operators
“I suspect that because he was such a focal point for the public attention, the company was able to keep going for decades.”
Parrish: Rockefeller installed home telegraph to spend afternoons with family
“He had a telegraph wire run between his office and his house so he could spend three or four afternoons a week at home, Planting trees and playing with his kids, all the while he kept one of the largest companies on earth humming along down the road.”
Parrish: Rockefeller Jr. distributed over $1B after leaving Standard Oil in 1910
“In 1910, Junior made his decision and resigned from the board of Standard Oil and stepped away from the business side for good. His real life's work would be the other machine, the giving one. Over the next half century, he moved more than a billion dollars of…”
Parrish: Rockefeller's Standard Oil stock was worth $18M in 1879
“When a newspaper that year guessed his fortune, it said five million dollars, and he didn't correct them. He never did. But we know now that a standard oil stock alone at the time was worth about eighteen million.”
Standard Oil Secretly Acquired 22 of 26 Cleveland Refineries in Four Weeks
“In four weeks, between mid-February and mid-March, 1872, Standard Oil bought out 22 of Cleveland's 26 refineries.”
Parrish: Standard Oil refined 90% of US oil by late 1874
“Fully nine of 10 barrels of oil refined in the United States was now passing through Standard Oil.”
Parrish: The Mellons Controlled 10% of US Oil Exports in 1894
“By 1894, they controlled 10% of America's oil exports, prompting Andrew to confidently tell one associate, we have every facility possessed by the Standard Oil Company and receive and deliver oil under as favorable conditions in every way.”