CHAPTER V. The _royal Dutch-Shell_

THE ROYAL DUTCH-SHELL

In face of the formidable hegemony which the Standard Oil exercised over the oil markets of the world, an opposition arose, at first timid, then bolder in proportion as success attended its efforts.

This was the Royal Dutch allied to the Shell. Thirty years have sufficed to give it a unique position in the world.

It was in 1890, at The Hague, that the Royal Dutch Oil Company was founded, with a capital of 1,300,000 florins. As a result of borings carried out in the Sunda Islands, the Government of the Dutch Indies granted it concessions at Sumatra. After some years, as the sale of crude oil did not give a sufficient return on the capital already sunk, the directors of the young company resolved to erect a refinery on the spot. It was necessary for this purpose to increase the capital to 1,700,000 florins in 1892. A strange fact to relate to-day, this issue was a failure. The capitalists of the day had lost confidence in an undertaking whose net profits for two years had been nil. In spite of these initial difficulties, the board of directors persevered. It even acquired new concessions, whose more profitable exploitation allowed of a first dividend in 1894 of 8 per cent. This distribution restored the confidence of the public, and the Royal Dutch was able to increase its capital without difficulty in 1895 to 2,300,000 florins, with a view to extending its sphere of action. In the same year it was able to distribute a dividend of 44 per cent. Considering the importance of its operations, the company decided in 1897 to increase its capital to 5,000,000 florins, in order to obtain tank steamers to transport its products. The dividends had then risen to 52 per cent., but it could not keep up for long so exceptional a rate. For, from 1898 onward, the Standard, becoming uneasy, tried to obtain control over its rival. To escape from its grip, the Royal Dutch was compelled to issue one and a half million preference shares, which were allotted to friendly groups. A bitter economic struggle followed. The Royal Dutch maintained its independence, but the Standard, to destroy its young rival, did not hesitate to sell in extra-American markets at less than cost, and the steady lowering of the price of oil compelled the Dutch company to reduce its dividend to 6 per cent. It was maintained at this rate the following year, but began to rise again in 1900, and reached 24 per cent. in 1901.

Since then the Royal Dutch has progressively increased its capital to the present fantastic figure, under conditions which were so many windfalls for its shareholders. Its dividends during the great world War rose to the enormous rates of 45, 48 and even 49 per cent. There were some years when it went so far as to distribute to its shareholders dividends in shares of 200 per cent., thus tripling its nominal capital.

The Alliance with the Shell

The early career of the Royal Dutch was as modest as that of the Standard Oil and far more troubled. At its very beginning it found in the East a young British firm, the Shell Transport and Trading Company, which put up a keen competition, the more disastrous because the latter possessed a fleet of tank steamers, while the Royal Dutch as yet had none. The Shell was directed by Sir Marcus Samuel, one of the cleverest business men in London.

Samuel had begun humbly as a trader in sea-shells. His business prospering more and more, he hunted about for some commodity to exchange for the shells which he brought from the East. He decided upon oil, and became himself a producer in Borneo.

In 1897 the Shell was registered in Great Britain, with the view of absorbing the business of Samuel and Company and certain other similar concerns. The new company had a large number of tank steamers and hundreds of depots.

The Royal Dutch had then amalgamated the greater number of the independent producers of the Sunda Islands, but was experiencing some difficulty in getting its oil to Europe, and so decided to negotiate with the Shell.

Hence the agreement of 1902, by which the two companies entrusted the sale of their products to a company which they created specially for the purpose, the Asiatic Petroleum. Its capital was subscribed as follows:--

1/3 by the Royal Dutch, 1/3 by the Shell Transport, 1/3 by the Rothschilds.

This simple alliance became a complete union ten years later. The Royal Dutch and the Shell amalgamated on the following basis:--

On January 1, 1907, the two groups transferred their assets to two companies, one Dutch, one British. These were the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij and the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum.

The Bataafsche, or Batavian Oil Company, which now has a capital of 200 million florins, was specially entrusted with the extraction of oil and with everything concerning its production. Its oil-fields are situated in Java, Sumatra and Borneo, and it exploits them directly or by subsidiary companies. It has interests in the Mexican Corona company and in many Russian companies.

Although this last part of its program has not hitherto been productive, the Bataafsche has distributed during the last few years dividends representing annually nearly half its capital. Directly or indirectly, it is responsible for almost the whole production of the Dutch Indies, which amounts to nearly 20 million barrels annually, and is steadily rising. To meet this increase, the Batavian Oil Company is obliged every year to construct new reservoirs. In 1920 their capacity had reached more than 900,000 tons.

The Anglo-Saxon Petroleum, with its head-quarters in London, was entrusted with everything concerning the transport and sale of oil, that is to say, with the commercial side of the business. Unlike the Bataafsche, this company undertakes no direct exploitation, although it controls the production of a large number of subsidiary companies in Ceylon, British India, Malay, Northern and Southern China, Siam, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. For the Royal Dutch-Shell has an almost organic structure. Instead of reproducing itself in new companies, always the same, like the Standard Oil, it only receives new adherents for distinct functions. One company is entrusted with the distribution of its products, another with the exploitation of oil-fields or with refining. The Royal Dutch and the Shell have become to-day holding companies. In 1907 the Royal Dutch ceased to be an industrial enterprise and became an omnium of oil securities.

Forty per cent. of the profits resulting from this co-operation were to come to the Shell, 60 per cent. to the Royal Dutch, which has reserved the lion's share for itself.

At the time of signing this agreement the Shell was not without a certain anxiety. Thus it was agreed, in order to safeguard its interests, that the Royal Dutch would buy, on January 1, 1907, half a million ordinary shares of the Shell at the price of thirty shillings, and would undertake not to sell again without the consent of the board of directors of the Shell.

In case of liquidation or sale by private contract before January 1, 1932, it was stipulated that the net product of the liquidation, up to £9,000,000 sterling, was to be divided equally between the Shell and the Royal Dutch, and that only above this amount the products should be shared in the proportion of 40 and 60 per cent. We see how closely these two concerns are allied. The only difference which exists between them is that, officially, one is Dutch, the other British.

Deterding's First Victory. The Chinese Campaign

Freed from all obstacles in the Dutch Indies and allied with one of the most powerful British firms, the Royal Dutch, under the skilful guidance of Henry Deterding, was ready to attempt a conquest of the world.

But for the second time it came up against the hostility of the Standard Oil, which waged a bitter warfare in the Far East--the famous price-war of 1910.

The Standard Oil of New York considered China as its private property. It had taught the Chinese to use kerosene by distributing, free of charge, lamps inscribed Mei Foo, or Good Luck. When this method became too expensive it sold them at cost price, and when the Royal Dutch appeared as a competitor it was selling, in this way, two million lamps a year. With a population of 400 million Chinese, this produced an unlimited market for kerosene, for which, in comparison with petrol, the American demand is small.

The Standard tried to fight by selling refined oil below cost price in foreign markets, while keeping the price very high in America in the shelter of the tariff wall. It even went so far as to sell in the Far East 50 per cent, lower than in Holland, although the latter market was nearer the American oil-fields. At the same time the refined American oil, which was quoted in England at the end of August 1910 at 6-1/4d. a gallon, fell at the end of November to 5-3/4d., and in December to 5-1/2d. Deterding's receipts from the sale of kerosene were reduced by 3,750,000 dollars. But he would not give way. He did not leave China; he stood his ground and fought. Although his oil was of an inferior quality to that of the Standard, it was near at hand, and had not to be transported for long distances like that of its rival (which involved the latter in great expense). An agreement was finally made. The Standard, which had taken possession of the Chinese market in 1903, gave up 50 per cent, of that trade to the Royal Dutch. The latter's share has even been increased recently to 60 per cent. For the first time Deterding had conquered!

Perhaps he would not have triumphed so easily if the Standard Trust had not been dissolved just at that time by the Supreme Court of the United States. But two such powerful groups could not have continued indefinitely to struggle for the international market without making sure of some stability and limiting their respective zones of operation.

After many attempts they have come to an understanding.

In 1907 an agreement fixed the quota of oil that each group might send to the British market.

In 1912 an agreement of a similar kind put an end to the struggle that had been going on in the Far East.

The absence of a definite general agreement between the two great Trusts did not exclude the possibility of tacit agreements, which regulated their operations in the international market and assured to both an extraordinary prosperity. The Standard has several times made very tempting offers of close co-operation to the Royal Dutch, leaving this group free to make its own conditions. The Royal Dutch-Shell has always refused, for the future is its own. What will happen to the Standard, an almost exclusively American concern, when the oil resources of the United States are exhausted? Since 1919 it has been endeavouring to acquire oil-fields in the rest of the world, to guard against this danger, but everywhere it finds the "closed door." The Royal Dutch, aided by the British Government, has taken possession of all that remain in the world.

New Struggle with the Standard Oil for the Conquest of the World

One day, to the great astonishment of everybody interested in the American oil industry, Mr. Deterding brought a cargo of oil to the United States and sold it under the very nose of the directors of the Standard Oil. Emboldened by this first success, he tried to establish himself in the United States, and with this aim in view bought oil-bearing properties in Oklahoma. The Royal Dutch rapidly increased its territory.

By a bold policy and without recourse to the sharp practices of the directors of the Standard Oil, Deterding revenged himself for the attack upon him in the Far East. The Royal Dutch sent large quantities of petrol to America and sold them at rates as high as those of the Standard. This enabled it to make good its losses in the Old World and to emerge victorious from the struggle.

During his Chinese campaign Deterding had been handicapped by the inferiority of the oil from Borneo. To remedy this he proposed to obtain possession of various Californian wells.

Of all the wars that Deterding has waged, that of California is the most interesting and perhaps the most strenuous. It required a remarkable audacity for the Royal Dutch to establish itself on the very territory of the Standard in America. Would it not meet there the coalition of this great firm and the independent oil companies? And yet Deterding triumphed. He created the Roxana Petroleum Company in Oklahoma, the Shell Company of California on the shores of the Pacific, and then extended his conquests to Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Montana, Dakota and Nevada. Everywhere the Royal Dutch brings with it its curious methods. It begins by taking an option for six months on an oil bearing property, giving it the right to examine the books of the company and to make an inquiry. At the end of six months it takes an option on another property, and continues in this way throughout the region. After leaving nearly all the options without sequel, the Royal Dutch is ready to begin boring operations on its own account in selected places.

This method, adopted for the first time in California, is to-day the habitual method of the Royal Dutch-Shell. Thus this company rarely makes miscalculations in the oil-fields it exploits. Its agents have orders to report the minutest details to head-quarters.

In order to interest the American public in the success of his enterprise, Deterding was clever enough to place upon the New York market, in 1916, 220,000 so-called American shares. This issue was a great success, and it has thus become against the interest of many Yankees for the United States Government to start reprisals against the Royal Dutch, of which the late President Harding has often spoken.

In 1915 the Royal Dutch already controlled one-ninth of the American output. One-third of its total production comes to-day from the United States. It has obtained for its pipe-lines the right of passage to St. Louis and the river, and its surveys of Virginia and Louisiana are complete. It owns the great refineries of Martinez, near San Francisco, and of St. Louis and New Orleans.

Seventy-five per cent. of the Californian output, which exceeds ten million tons, now escapes the control of the Standard Oil.

But more than this, the Royal Dutch is gaining possession of the deposits of Mexico and Venezuela. The oil-bearing territories of Tampico and Panuco, the railway, and the local oil companies belong to Mr. Deterding. The importance of this region is well known. Its geographical position, a few miles from the sea, and its nearness to the Panama Canal double its value. Three hundred and fifty kilometres by sea, one hundred and seventy-five by pipe-line across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, and the oil can be delivered at a centre which commands the whole South American market.

Not content with conquering the Standard Oil on its own ground, Deterding also caused it to lose its "Algeria." Master of the Mexican Eagle, which he bought from its founder, Lord Cowdray, in 1918 for more than a thousand million francs, he controls to-day the bulk of Mexican production. By this master-stroke he increased by 50 per cent. the quantity of oil that the Royal Dutch can offer to the world.

The Americans felt the loss very keenly, for hitherto all the output of the Mexican Eagle had gone to the Standard Oil.

The Mexican Eagle had a large number of tank steamers, the acquisition of which brought up the fleet of the Royal Dutch-Shell to more than a million tons.

Moreover, the directors of the Royal Dutch do not hesitate to assert that the oil-bearing district of Venezuela, of which, since their agreements with the General Asphalt Company, they control more than 15,000 square miles, is as rich in oil as the district of Tampico. That is why they have put up enormous buildings, both warehouses and refineries, at Curaçao. The Shell, which has operated for four or five years in Venezuela, has just overcome the difficulties of approaching the coast by constructing a flotilla of tankers of very small draught, thus permitting the transport of oil from Maracaibo to Curaçao.

The Panama Canal itself is seriously menaced. The United States have spent more than 300 million dollars in constructing the canal, and now American vessels are going to be dependent upon the Royal Dutch for oil. Mr. Deterding has a depot at one end of the canal and another at the entrance to the gulf. He dominates American commerce.

This is indeed a work of conquest. Mr. Deterding follows the commercial example of Great Britain. He has stations at all the strategic points of the world. He also controls the Suez Canal at both ends. The capacity of the refinery at Suez has been increased by 7,000 barrels a day, on account of the increase in the tonnage passing through the canal during the War. Mr. Deterding is building a station on the Cape Verde Islands, situated just half-way between Africa and America. He has establishments at the Antipodes, in the East and West Indies, on the west coast of South America, on the coast of Africa, and at the Azores. The European market, in particular the French, is dependent on him. Through the instrumentality of M. Deutsch de la Meurthe, the oil deposits in Asia, owned by the Rothschilds, have come under the Royal Dutch trust, which possesses 90 per cent. of the capital of the oil companies of the Caspian and Black Seas and 25 per cent. of that of the New Russian Standard Company of Grosny. In August 1920 the Shell bought the Mantasheff and the Lianosoff, together with a 40 per cent. interest in the Tsatouroff, fearing to see the Standard Oil acquire the Nobel properties at Baku. The contract was signed in London, but was incompletely carried out, for Great Britain hoped to treat directly with the Soviets at Genoa and to have no more responsibility towards the former owners.

A large part of the Rumanian production is controlled by the Royal Dutch.

In Germany the Royal Dutch-Shell has an interest in the Erdol und Kohle Veränderung Aktien Gesellschaft, the Aktien Gesellschaft für Petroleum Industrie and the Deutsche Bergin Aktien Gesellschaft.

Since 1912 it has established itself in Sweden as the Anglo-Swedish Oil Company, to drive out the Standard Oil, until then mistress of the market. Everywhere the Royal Dutch insinuates itself into the good graces of governments, thanks to its elastic methods and to the cleverness of some of its directors, such as the brilliant Armenian Gulbenkian, who has been well named the "Talleyrand of Oil." In co-operation with the Belgrade Government, it has just formed a new company at Agram, with a capital of 50 million crowns, to exploit the oil of Jugo-Slavia.

As the Financial Times wrote: "Following the creation in France of the Société Maritime des Pétroles and the Société pour l'Exploitation des Pétroles, the Royal Dutch is able to obtain from the French Government an important interest in the oil-fields which remain at its disposal."

Its last triumph was its entry into Spain. The eminently suggestive list of companies controlled by the Royal Dutch will give an idea of the network which it has spread over the whole world:--

Shell Transport and Trading Company. Asiatic Petroleum Company. Anglo-Saxon Petroleum. Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij. Erdol und Kohle Veränderung Aktien Gesellschaft. Aktien Gesellschaft für Petroleum Industrie. Deutsche Bergin A.G. Anglo-Swedish Oil Company. Asiatic Petroleum (Ceylon). Asiatic Petroleum (Egypt). Asiatic Petroleum (Federated Malay States). Asiatic Petroleum (India). Asiatic Petroleum (Northern China). Asiatic Petroleum (Philippines). Asiatic Petroleum (Siam). Asiatic Petroleum (Southern China). Asiatic Petroleum (Straits Settlements). Anglo-Egyptian Oil-fields. British Imperial Company (Australia). British Imperial Company (New Zealand). British Imperial Company (South Africa). Astra Romana. Caribbean Petroleum. Dordesche Petroleum Industrie Maatschappij. Dordesche Petroleum Company. Sumatra Palembang. Nederlandsche Indische Tanks Troomboat. Vereinigte Benzinwerke, Hamburg. Home Light Oil Company. British Petroleum Company. Norsk Encelska Mineralojeanie Colaget. Shell Marketing Company. Italian Company for the Import of Oil. British Tanker Company. Moebi Hid. Ceram Petroleum. Ceram Oil Syndicate. Société Bnito. North Caucasian. Russian Standard of Grosny. Mazut Company. Ural-Caspian Company. Grosny Sundja Oil-fields. New Shibaïeff Petroleum. Commercial and Industrial Oil Companies of the Caspian and Black Seas. Mantasheff. Lianosoff. Tsatouroff. Kotoku Oil-fields Syndicate. United British Refineries. New Orleans Refining Company. Simplex Refining Company of Panama. Panama Canal Storage Company. Shell Company of California. Californian Oil-fields, Ltd. W.V. Oil Company. Volley Pipe-Line Company. Roxana Petroleum Company (Oklahoma). Trahola Pipe-Line Company (Oklahoma). Shell Corporation of Martinez. Shell Company of Canada. Roxana Petroleum Maatschappij (Texas). Tampico-Tanuco Petroleum. La Corona. Mexican Eagle. Eagle Oil Transport. Venezuelan Concessions Company. Curaçao Petroleum. General Asphalt Company. Burlington Investment Company. United British Oil-fields of Trinidad. United British West Indies Petroleum Syndicate. Turkish Petroleum. Roxana Petroleum Corporation of Virginia. Ozark Pipe-Line Corporation. Union Oil of Delaware. Société Maritime des Pétroles. Photogen (Austria, Hungary, Poland). Jugo-Slav Petroleum.

This list is certainly not complete, and it grows longer every day. Is it not eloquent by itself?

The Royal Dutch has penetrated every State in the world, assuming everywhere the national colour of the country it desires to conquer.

It has travelled far since it began in the Dutch Indies, with a tiny capital of a million florins and seven small tank steamers. Its annual production, which was then 25,000 tons, to-day exceeds 15 million tons. Its fleet of tankers is one of the most powerful in the world. Last year it amounted to 1,400,000 tons. And the Royal Dutch controls a capital of twenty-two thousand million francs.

Partial Decline of the Standard

The Standard Oil is certainly no longer the colossus of the world. It has never completely recovered from the last judgment delivered against it in 1912, which compelled it to separate from its subsidiary companies. Although the sentence of the Supreme Court could not put an end to the community of interests which united these--since Rockefeller himself possessed 25 per cent. of the shares of the various affiliated companies--it has certainly hampered the development of the Standard during the last few years. The very heavy taxation imposed upon it has also contributed to limit its powers of expansion. The American Government takes 44 per cent. of its income in the form of taxes. In 1920 Rockefeller paid an ordinary federal tax of 12 per cent. and a super-tax of 65 per cent. In fact, Rockefeller and all his associates are being driven out of the business by the federal taxes. If Rockefeller is the person who paid in 1920 the largest sum in income tax (14,800,000 dollars), it is clear that the greater part of his money is passing from the coffers of the company to be invested in Government, State and municipal securities which are not taxable.

Up to about 1890 the Standard Oil reigned as absolute mistress of the oil market, both in Europe and America. But in 1890 the oil from the Caucasus, Galicia and Rumania began to break up this monopoly. Purely European financial groups, the Rothschilds of Paris and Vienna, the Nobels of Sweden, the great German banks, and those of Lille and Roubaix which later were to form the "Consortium du Nord," became progressively more and more interested in the new oil enterprises that were taking shape in Eastern Europe. Germany had formed an actual Trust, the Europeanische Petroleum Union, which, but for the War, would certainly have led to German control of all European oil. Instead of only two great Trusts fighting for world supremacy for the benefit of Britain or the United States, we should see a third, claiming Europe and Turkey in Asia for its share in the name of Germany.

But this group, expanding rapidly when war broke out, found itself opposed from that moment by another organization, the Royal Dutch-Shell, which was also advancing by giant strides and which concentrated all its power throughout the world against that of the Standard Oil.

The most skilful part of the policy of the Royal Dutch was to establish itself wherever there was any oil, while the Standard confined itself almost exclusively to America. This was a great mistake. To dominate the production and sale in America was defensible as a commercial policy so long as the United States were the greatest producers of oil. It became an error from the day on which important oil deposits were discovered in other parts of the world.

The Standard still has the preponderance in the United States, where the Shell only appeared in 1900, but it is far from controlling 86 per cent. of the output, as it did at the height of its power in 1911. It has been much too negligent about extra-American oil deposits.

In 1890 a representative of the Standard Oil was in Java, studying the oil situation in the Far East. He urged the Standard to establish itself there before any competitor appeared. Hypnotized by the American market, it refused.

In a similar way it came into Rumania too late, and controls only 10 per cent. of the total output, while the Royal Dutch controls 31 per cent. In Mexico the Standard also met with the competition of the Royal Dutch, which, in combination with British interests, takes 40 per cent. of the production. In Russia its rôle is insignificant.

This state of affairs has been brought about by the errors of judgment of the directors of the Trust. The power of the Standard Oil has diminished, and it no longer exercises a really effective control except within the United States. Even this control the Royal Dutch is striving to filch from it. The latter has just formed a new trust, uniting the companies hitherto independent: the Doheny group and the British Pearson syndicate, the Associated Oil, the Oklahoma Producing and the Oil Union of Oklahoma, with six or eight other undertakings which have been successfully conducted during the last few years. The Shell is trying to bring in the Mexican Petroleum Company of Delaware, a sister company to the Eagle and the greatest producer in Mexico, which has up to now remained faithful to the Standard Oil. That is why it bought up large quantities of Mexican Petroleum stock in May 1919 on the New York Exchange. If it succeeds the Standard will see its remaining share in Mexico yet further diminished.

This new Trust has the financial support of the Morgans. It is particularly directed against the Standard Oil.

These facts are very little known in France. The Royal Dutch is about to launch a new attack on the Standard, or to acquire an interest in a Trust destined to combat it, which will perhaps end by grouping under its ægis all Rockefeller's competitors.

The Pearson syndicate, under Lord Cowdray, has joined the Royal Dutch. Now, Mr. Doheny himself is coming in too.

The great oil International develops continuously. Where will it end? Already the Standard Oil produces no more than 17 per cent. of the oil of the United States--it is true that it has always disdained the extraction of petroleum--but it refines only 49 per cent., which is a much more serious matter.

Rapid Increase in the Activities of the Royal Dutch

Production

1910 1,600,000 tons 1913 7,000,000 tons 1920 15,000,000 tons

Net Profits

1907 13,000,000 florins 1915 29,000,000 florins 1920 130,000,000 florins

Dividends

1907 27-3/4 per cent. 1915 49 per cent.

Authorized Capital

1890 1,300,000 florins 1902 7,500,000 florins 1910 50,000,000 florins 1911 100,000,000 florins 1916 150,000,000 florins 1918 230,000,000 florins 1919 400,000,000 florins 1921 600,000,000 florins

Financial Results of the Royal Dutch since its Agreement with the Shell.

-----+----------------+----------------+----------------+------------- | Gross Profits | Prior Charges | Net Profits | Dividends Year | (in | (in | (in | (per cent.) | 1,000 florins) | 1,000 florins) | 1,000 florins) | -----+----------------+----------------+----------------+------------- 1907 | 13,657 | 242 | 13,415 | 27-3/4 1908 | 13,592 | 66 | 13,526 | 28 1909 | 12,978 | 66 | 12,912 | 28 1910 | 14,644 | 92 | 14,552 | 28 1911 | 13,693 | 2,652 | 11,041 | 19 1912 | 26,680 | 302 | 26,378 | 41 1913 | 30,554 | 384 | 30,170 | 48 1914 | 30,937 | 571 | 30,366 | 49 1915 | 30,419 | 440 | 29,979 | 49 1916 | 32,823 | 193 | 32,630 | 38 1917 | 49,740 | 5,367 | 44,373 | 48 1918 | 96,877 | 24,487 | 72,390 | 40 1919 | 118,169 | 18,169 | 100,000 | 45 1920 | 138,736 | 9,286 | 129,450 | 40 1921 | 107,170 | 3,071 | 104,098 | 31 -----+----------------+----------------+----------------+-------------

FOOTNOTES:

Mexican Petroleum of California, Huasteca Petroleum, Tamahua Petroleum, Tuxpan Petroleum, Mexican Petroleum Corporation. ]