Episode 1 of 2
Secret Conveyance of Shares to Trustees
- When
- 1882
- Where
- United States
Existing stockholders conveyed their shares in trust to nine trustees through a secret agreement, consolidating control over disparate companies.
By a secret agreement, the existing 37 stockholders conveyed their shares in trust to nine trustees. This allowed Standard Oil to maintain control over companies spread across dozens of states. The organizational concept proved so successful that other giant enterprises adopted this trust form, highlighting its effectiveness in navigating legal restrictions.
Sources
- Standard Oil Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-30
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.