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Purpose and benefits

In the course of his long life, US industrialist John Rockefeller (1839–1937), the son of a farmer, progressed from being an office boy earning $25 a month to being an oil tycoon worth over $900 million. Starting work aged 16, Rockefeller had his own firm within three years and by 1862 had moved into the oil business. After buying out most of the local competition, Rockefeller set his sights on building a national oil company with a national delivery network. He accomplished his vision with Standard Oil, which by 1879 controlled 90% of the oil refining in the United States.