At first in Europe, then in India and in the Ori ent, Russian oil steadily invaded the markets so long dominated by the Americans. Negotiations were begun to bring about a division of the world's market between the two rivals, the Standard to supply seventy per cent. and Baku thirty per cent. of the quantities taken by importing countries. But Russian prospects were too promising for any such agreement ; if they could get thirty per cent. of the trade peaceably they could get more than that by fighting for it. Within fifteen years, the modest beginnings of fifty and hundred-barrel lots to one place were swelled to hundreds of thousands, and the total was mounting rapidly toward 10, 000,000 barrels a year. Only 500 barrels of Rus sian oil found their way to Great Britain in 1883 as compared with over 3,300,000 barrels from America. Fifteen years later the Russian figure had risen to over 900,000 barrels, or fully one third as much as the American imports.
The Russian success in other localities was even more rapid and striking. A very few years were enough for the deluge of Baku oil to break Ameri can control in the Levant and in the Mediterranean countries. Austria-Hungary, one of the leading buyers up to about 1887, practically ceased en tirely to be a market after that date, partly as the result of Russian competition and partly through the tariff barrier adopted to protect the infant Ga lician industry. Importations into Turkey and Greece also dropped suddenly to nearly nothing. The Standard at one time had enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the oil trade to the far East—to India, China, and Japan. Russia first entered that field in 1887 and immediately proceeded to capture it bodily. So successfully and thoroughly was this done, through the advantage of proximity and ease of shipment via Suez, that the American trade has steadily decreased. Russian imports, on the con trary, have just as steadily increased, until in re cent years they have amounted to ten or fifteen times the quantity sent from this country. Rus sian activity in foreign markets, it is true, has re cently been temporarily checked by the unsettled condition of the industry at home. But, as soon as it regains the ground lost during the uprisings of 1905, the campaign for world markets is sure to be pushed more vigorously than ever. A large measure of success has crowned the Russian efforts in European and Asiatic markets in the past; to what extent they will drive out the American products in the near future is an absorbing ques tion at the present time for the operators in this country. Whatever the outcome it will be a battle of giant interests for an enormous prize.
Russia, however, did not long remain the Stand ard's only rival. When the Burmese industry began to grow, the Standard feared the same fate for its Indian trade that it had met previously in Rugsia. Already foreign oil had to pay a duty which might at any time be raised to a prohibitive scale. The Indian markets were altogether too valuable to be lost, for the local industry could then supply only a small part of the enormous de mand. There was, however, no way of telling how much it might grow, so the Standard sought to get a hold on the Burmese supply by buying leases. But unexpected governmental opposition pre vented the Standard from getting any sort of in terest at all in the local industry. At the same time, a powerful British company was granted a practical monopoly of the field, thus adding a third highly favored rival for the Indian markets, where Russia was already making serious inroads on American profits.
Galicia and Roumania became competitors to a small degree in the markets of Europe nearest to these fields. Japan for a time threatened to repeat the history of the Burmese field, leading to the un profitable venture in the International Oil Com pany, purchased by the Standard to operate fields which never materialized. The Dutch Indies are the latest and one of the most dangerous rivals to appear. Through their location so near the im portant Chinese markets, they have very rapidly secured a stronghold on the trade of that country. This Dutch industry is all the more to be feared because the quality of the oil is but little, if any, inferior to the best grades of American manufac ture, and consequently it is able to compete on an absolutely equal footing.
It must not be supposed, however, that the ap pearance of strong competitors in the world's mar kets has resulted in a curtailment of American ex ports. Quite on the contrary, they have increased steadily since the very first, most rapidly, of course, during the early years, but none the less surely all_ the time that this struggle has been going on. Be ginning in 1861, the total had risen to over 2, 500,000 barrels in 1870; to five times that quantity in 1880; doubled again by 1900; and now equal to some 30,000,000 barrels annually, worth upward of $85,000,000. Such an increase, in the face of steadily growing supplies from other districts, has been made possible by the enormously greater de mand in all parts of the world and the untiring efforts of the Standard Oil interests. Strong competition has merely changed the direction and character of American trade.