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Standard Oil in Indonesia, 1898–1928

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Peter Mellish Reed
Peter Mellish Reed
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Asian History at Sarah Lawrence College
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Abstract

For many years Americans engaged in business abroad at their own risk, unaided in any important way by the backing of their government. When confronted with the forces of national self-interest, they faced frustration. Then the policy of the United States, aware of its economic responsibilities and opportunities and dangers, swung to their support. The new diplomacy was not always adept, but it produced remarkable changes. These are exemplified in the thirty-year history of American efforts to gain an entry to the oilfields of the Netherlands East Indies. The files of the Department of State provide an intimate and unique view both of motivations and the mechanisms of change.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1958 , pp. 311 - 337
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1958

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References

1 Kraemer, A. J. and Lane, E. C., Properties of Typical Crude Oils From the Fields of of the Eastern Hemisphere (Washington, 1937), p. 109.Google Scholar

2 Illustrated Petroleum Products Dictionary and Manual (Los Angeles, 1952), p. 32.

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5 Ibid. See also Gerretson, F. C., History of the Royal Dutch (Leiden, 1957, translation), Vol. II, pp. 58–76Google Scholar, for a detailed description of the negotiations.

6 Frederick D. Asche to State Department, Petroleum-Dutch East Indies (hereafter referred to as PDEI), April 3, 1920.

7 Gerretson, Vol. II, pp. 64–73.

8 Hidy and Hidy, op. cit., p. 78.

9 Gerretson malees the following pertinent points (Vol. II, pp. 329, 330; Vol. III, pp. 11–14): Marcus Samuel, head of the British Shell interests and a power in British politics, urged upon the government the importance of fuel oil (which was the main product of Shell's fields in Borneo). At the same time, however, there was reluctance on the part of the British government to become deeply involved in support of a business enterprise. The Royal Dutch-Shell was decidedly opposed to political pressuring, and Deterding was sensitive to excessive British influence. The British fleet, moreover, did not convert to fuel oil until 1917. From these various factors cited by Gerretson, the tentative conclusion may be drawn that prior to World War I the role of the British government in Royal Dutch affairs was minimal. However, historians generally agree, and the author's own research confirms, that there was certainly official British interest in overseas oil reserves prior to World War I. Both Sir John Fisher and Sir Winston Churchill, as First Sea Lords of the Admiralty, vigorously urged the acquisition of an adequate source of petroleum supply for the British navy prior to World War I. The British government's purchase of a large share of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1913 is an example. The absence of conclusive documentation precludes any final judgment of this question at this time.

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