The Standard Oil Trust
Back in the late 19th century, many state laws were making it illegal for a company to assimilate with another state to operate in their jurisdiction. This meant that Standard Oil operated dozens of corporations across various states, a managerial nightmare, to say the least. To fix this management shortage, in 1882, Rockefeller generated what was essentially a corporation, created from several corporations. He named it Standard Oil Trust.
John D. Rockefeller Sr. Photo by Granger / Shutterstock
The Trust was formed by 41 individual corporations, with a board of nine members managing it, one being John D. Rockefeller. The result: Standard Oil became the largest and wealthiest entity on the planet. This only encouraged enemies to double their efforts to portray Rockefeller as the ultimate robber baron.