The Rockefeller Oil Empire began with John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil company. John Davison Rockefeller I and his brother William and several other investors founded the Standard Oil company and aggressively monopolized the petroleum industry. The company was eventually forced to breakup into 34 different companies, with several of them still in existence today. It was estimated that in 2007 dollars John Rockefeller's fortune would have been valued at $328.4 billion USD but estimates of his worth vary widely with some publications quoting figures as high as US$663 billion in adjusted value. What is reasonably certain though is that John D. Rockefeller is the richest man to have lived in the United States when one takes inflation into consideration.

The Rockefeller patriarch also started the family tradition of giving very large sums of money away to support a wide range of causes. The Rockefeller family and its many philanthropic foundations and trusts continue to support organizations involved in education, medicine, the arts and many other causes.

• John Davison Rockefeller Quotes - (1839 to 1937) Oil billionaire and famous philanthropist.
• David Rockefeller Quotes - (born 1915) American billionaire banker, philanthropist, art collector and member of the wealthy Rockefeller family.

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A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship.
John D. Rockefeller - Business - Partnership

Populists believe in conspiracies, and one of the most enduring is that a secret group of international bankers and capitalists, and their minions, control the world's economy. Because of my name and prominence as the head of the Chase for many years, I have earned the distinction of the "conspirator in chief" from these people.
David Rockefeller - Power - World - Conspiracy Theories - Economy - Banks - Populist - International - Secret - Capitalism - Control - CEO