BOOK REVIEW: A CENTURY IN OIL
BOOK REVIEW: A CENTURY IN OIL
Wednesday, 29 November 2006 08:56
With fuel prices having steadily climbed to a level where motor vehicle transport is slowly but surely becoming a punishment to the pocket, I thought I should consult history for answers to how we got to a level where oil almost literally rules the world. “A Century in Oil: The ‘Shell’ Transport and Trading Company 1897-1997” authored by international historian, Stephen Howarth, is essentially the story of the oil industry. In the history of the oil industry there hasn’t been a force more dominant than Shell. The book tells its story. The book stands out as its treatment of detail is exceptional. The author had the fortune of having unrestricted access to Shell’s archives. The author, by threading the Shell story with world history events, is able to create a seamless link between the history of the world and the history of Shell, in this way managing to demonstrate how the latter played an instrumental and even sometimes pivotal role in the fate of the former.
One first has to understand the interesting structure of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group. Strictly speaking, the book is about “Shell” Transport and Trading Company, one of the parents of the group. The oil industry as we know it today was born on Sunday 28th August 1859. When Edwin Drake “discovered oil” in Pennsylvania it was the first time that anybody in America had shown that by drilling, instead of digging pits or skimming natural seepings from the surfaces of streams, oil could be produced in commercially viable quantities. It is of course the normal dramatic nature of historians, Stephen Howarth being no different, to look for momentous historical events they can pin point to an exact time and day yet in this case we know that even Florence Nightingale was using an oil lamp to perform her heroics during the Crimean wars of around 1854. At the time of Drake’s “discovery”, commercial viability meant enough oil to fill 25 barrels, each of 42 gallons every day. In those days, a barrel was a literal container, it is now not easy to contrast that quantity with the 60 million barrels produced around the world every single day!
The story of the origins of Shell, probably the largest organization to come out of Britain is an interesting and the author manages to tell it in an amazingly simple manner. Marcus Samuel Junior, a Briton of Jewish origin and his younger brother Sam, who were sons of a merchant trading with the Middle East and the Orient, decided to diversify the family business in 1890, twenty years after their father’s death. Their father, Marcus Senior had traded in everything from rice to exotic sea-shells. The major decision in their diversification programme was to go into transporting illuminating oil to the Far East with the first series of ten tankers in a new revolutionary design taking off in 1892. That is when the “Shell” brand was born, so named in memory of Marcus Senior’s most popular merchandise at the peak of his trading days. Marcus junior became the first chairman of newly formed The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company at the age of 44 in 1897. The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company was formed on 18th October 1897.
The story of the initial formation of the Shell organization we know today isn’t complete without the entry of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company into the fray in 1907. This resulted in the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of companies now known simply as Shell, a brand universally identified by its yellow pectin, or scallop shell, on a red background. The alliance cut down to size the then dominant Standard Oil, now known as Esso, which was ran by the ruthlessly filthy rich John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller’s story is one that would proudly grace a complete chapter in the corporate history of the world.
Before I degenerate into making a futile attempt at rewriting a nearly 400 page book into a mere 1000 words let me share with you some of the highlights on this landmark publication.
The author dedicates entire chapters to the stories of how Shell was able to survive the turbulence of both the first and Second World Wars. Since most oil is extracted from the Middle East, the organization has always been caught in the fiery politics of oil including the OPEC cartel days. Most notable was the Second World War when Shell launched itself fully into the war under Chairman Walter Samuel, a war veteran himself. While Shell had German operations, it had to practically sabotage its own operations by providing the Royal Air force with all information on its German oil fields. Those became the first targets for bombing in the all out military operation. The patriotism of Shell was selfless to a fault. There was even a long period when Shell had to de-brand itself and work together with competition in a Petroleum Board or “Pool” as it came to be known in those days. Shell branded products were actually unavailable even some years after the war.
The Shell story is in many ways the story of the twentieth century. Even just picking on the Shell pecten as an example, through the book, Stephen Howarth shows us the various developments in the logo up to where it gets to its current form. The first logo was more of an illustration of a Shell rather than what we call a logo today. That was however indicative of the art movement of the time where there was more attention to detail and a love for intricacy. By 1904 the logo as it appears today was already developed though in what one could call a crude form as the scallop still did not have today’s graphic simplicity and sharpness. The 1904 logo saw many minor variations and one departure from the norm was the introduction of the word “SHELL” on the pecten in 1948. The word has since been incorporated in the logo though it is possible to have the pecten independent of the name in some representations. The current logo was actually designed in 1971 and its quality is such that it has endured over thirty years while still remaining modern.
The book does address the ugly side of Shell which was brought to the fore by the Nigerian fiasco of the 1990s that saw the unjust execution of Ken Saro Wiwa by Sani Abacha’s regime. In a vintage public relations move, the author tells the good that Shell does while not quite addressing the real issues that ruthless capitalism raises like the oppression of societies where companies like Shell make their wealth from. This is instead blamed on the Government yet we know that the might of brands like Shell is way beyond that of many Governments. I’m afraid that is an issue that shall not go away as long as brands like Shell thrive while the communities upon whose backs they ride continue to suffer debilitating poverty.
The book is very well compiled, orderly and proved to be an easy to follow primer for anyone interested in world history. It is an invaluable reference book as it tackles much more than the Shell story. I especially liked it for its historical contextualization of what was happening at the Shell organization in relation to world events such as the world wars, the Middle East and various technological developments such as the automobile and aeroplane, many of which Shell had a hand in.
© Brandscape
First Published in SOKONI magazine
