tion of oil, especially in Roumania. In 1907, 185,000,000 francs of foreign capital was invested in the Roumanian oil industry, of which 74 million came from Germany.64
A struggle began which, in economic literature, is fittingly called "the struggle for the division of the world." On one side, the Rockefeller trust, wishing to conquer everything, founded a daughter company in Holland, and set out to acquire the wells of the Dutch Indies, thus attempting to strike at its principal enemy, the Anglo-Dutch Shell trust. On the other side, the Deutsche Bank and other German banks aimed at "keeping" Roumania and at uniting it with Russia against Rockefeller. The latter controlled far more capital and an excellent system of oil transport, put at the disposal of the consumers. The struggle had to end, and it ended in 1907 with the defeat of the Deutsche Bank which could only choose between two alternatives: to liquidate its oil business and lose millions, or to submit. It chose to submit, and concluded a very disadvantageous agreement with the American trust. The Deutsche Bank agreed not to attempt anything which might injure "American interests." A clause of the agreement cancelled it if Germany should establish a State monopoly of oil.
Then "the comedy of oil" began. One of the German oil-kings, von Gwinner, a director of the Deutsche Bank, began, through his private secretary, Strauss, a campaign for the State control of oil. The whole great machine of the largest German bank and all its "connections" were set in motion. The press showed a "patriotic" indignation against the "yoke" of the American
