Rockefeller had no patience with the liberal pieties of laissez-faire; for him the problem of the age was excessive competition. Oilmen produced, and wasted, too much oil. The existing refineries were small and inefficient, but there were so many of them that they still glutted markets with kerosene, driving prices down. The economy needed order: pools to regulate production and prices and consolidation to yield larger and more efficient refineries.
