Map of the Principal Oil-bearing Regions of the World.
Africa and Oceania, on the contrary, seem to possess only small quantities of the precious oil. There is some in North Africa, in Egypt, and possibly in Madagascar. The great British prospecting group, which I have already mentioned in connection with Hungary, is making a thorough search at this moment in Western Australia and New Zealand.
Now nearly all these oil-fields, scattered in the four corners of the world, and in so many different countries, are at the present moment in the hands of two great trusts—one American, the Standard Oil, and the other Anglo-Dutch, the Royal Dutch-Shell—and certain companies controlled by the British Government.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Cp. Part III, chap. xiv, How the United States Lost Supremacy over Oil.
[PART II]
THE STRUGGLE OF THE TRUSTS