BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL PAPERS, 1780-1939
Selected Titles from the Bodleian Library, Oxford
and the British Library Newspaper Library, Colindale
Series Three: Industrial Enterprise

Part 1: Oil News, 1912-1939

Business and Financial Papers, 1780-1939 makes available a diverse array of journals and newspapers providing important source materials for the study of international trade, manufacturing industry, scientific and technological development, banking and finance, railway communications, agriculture and retailing. This microfilm project is divided into a number of different series covering these themes.

By conducting a rigorous search of the card catalogues of the British Library Newspaper Library in London and an analysis of relevant sources at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, it has been possible to unearth a list of thousands of pertinent journals, periodicals and newspaper sources.

Titles from this investigation of the card catalogues have been selected for microfilm publication by Clive Trebilcock, who specialises in international economic and business history, 19^th and 20^th century developments in science and technology, and the 20^th century economy of Japan and the Far East. Series Three concentrates upon Industrial Enterprise.

The history of the Twentieth Century is bound up with the history of oil.

Oil helped to light up the world; it paved the way for the acceleration of road networks; it powered transport; it transformed military capabilities; and it empowered the world’s industries.

Oil News, 1912-1939, is an excellent source for the study of the worldwide oil industry, and the development of derivative products such as asphalt, benzoil, kerosene, lamp oil, bitumen, natural gas and petrol. It charts the widespread impact of oil on the world economy through news reporting, financial and technical analysis, interviews with leading figures, and long articles on issues as varied as the opening of the oil fields in the Middle East, and the strategic importance of oil reserves as war approached.

Founded by J T Smith, a former sub-editor of the Daily News with a specialist interest in the production and uses of oil and petroleum, Oil News started just 53 years after Colonel Edwin Drake drilled the first well at Oil Creek, Pennsylvania in 1859, and 1 year before Henry Ford introduced the first true production line to speed up the building of his automobiles. Oil News was written both for insiders and for potential investors in the industry. Issued weekly, it soon reached a circulation of 5,000 copies - remarkable for a trade journal.

Anyone studying the history of the oil industry in America, Australasia, Canada, the East and West Indies, Japan and the Far East, the Middle East, Rumania, or Russia will want to consult this source. It provides detailed insights into corporations such as Asiatic Petroleum, Anglo-Persian Oil, Burmah, California Oil, Chicago Barstow Oil, Galizische Karpathen A G, Gulf Oil, the Indiana Oil Syndicate, Manitoba Natural Gas Syndicate, Mexican Eagle Oil, Oil Well Supply Co of Pittsburgh, Royal Dutch Shell and Standard Oil.

There are articles on the discovery of fields such as Yates’ pool in West Texas; the exploitation of oil shales in Utah and Colarado; Nigerian production of bitumen; joint ventures between Standard Oil and China; and the building of refineries in Yokohama.

For economic historians Oil News provides the substance behind the roller-coaster price of oil, at $1.80 per barrel in 1912, rising to $6.10 by 1921, and plunging again to $1.15 per barrel in 1936. Strikes by Russian oil workers in the Baku oil fields, the post Revolution impact of Syndicalism on the Russian oil industry, and American efforts to control the price by capping production can all be studied.

Interviews with and articles by leading industrialists include: Herbert Allen, Chairman of 4 companies including Bibi Eybat Petroleum Co.; W H MacGarvey, pioneer of Canadian oil; Thomas Cox, an engineer working in the Californian oil fields; Sir Charles Greenway, Chairman of Anglo-Persian; T B Danckwortt of Union Oil; and Robert E Taylor, Minerals Division, US Dept of Commerce.

The importance of oil supplies in wartime is well documented. On 25 Jan 1913 the paper records a potential Fuel Oil Crisis for the French Navy. On 8 Aug 1914 there is a detailed analysis of the Oil Resources of the belligerent powers, stressing the importance of the Rumanian and Galician oil fields. Controversy surrounds Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum, Standard Oil’s subsidiary in Germany, which subscribed to a number of German War loans and was only sold by the parent company in 1917. Towards the end of the War it is established that German U-boat raids are curtailed and the development and deployment of German tanks is held up by the lack of fuel. There is also the strange disappearance and presumed death of Dr Diesel whilst travelling on the Great Eastern Railway’s steamer Dresden en route for England on 4 Oct 1913.

The war is followed by a massive demand for oil and petrol worldwide and, by the 1930’s, by a slump. But the oil industry weathered the Depression better than most industries and the search for oil continued in areas as varied as Aden, Alaska, Alberta, Barbados, the Dutch East Indies, Oklahoma, South Africa and Venezuela.

Oil News covers technical developments such as deep drilling, capping, the control of oil fires, pipelines, increased tanker size, and more sophisticated refining as well as detailing share issues, dividends declared and company mergers.

J T Smith died in March 1937 and Oil News followed suit as war approached. But not before it had established itself as the weekly newspaper of the trade - commercial, industrial, technical and personal.