This study of the working habits of early American businessmen focuses on long-forgotten details that help clarify methods of the day and suggest that business in colonial times had not yet become an end in itself nor a dominant means for self-expression.

There was an interlude when enchantment with Dollar Diplomacy overcame the reluctance of Washington to become involved in Near East politics. The Chester project, however, was defeated by German imperialism, lack of popular support for business ambitions abroad, and vacillation by the promoters themselves. The time for effective alliance between the State Department and American businessmen was not yet at hand.

The Revisionist trend in American business history has been shaped by values, premises, logic, and procedure that bear certain striking similarities to Marxism, most clearly seen in the Revisionists' acceptance of the inevitability of abuse in capital accumulation.

Personnel management as we know it today grew out of welfare work, on the one hand, and Scientific Management on the other. It came to embrace added functions and concepts, the most important of which was that idealism and realism were compatible in dealing efficiently with human beings.

It was not in the nature of the local American entrepreneur to concede to monopolistic power. Technical competence, good controls, and appeals to local pride were potent weapons in the struggle of a small company to succeed in the face of competition with the giant Bell system.

Like the financial mart from which it derives its name, OVER THE COUNTER is designed for the types of exchanges not handled elsewhere. This feature has its origin in a demand among readers of business history for a place to compare ideas, voice comments on published articles and reviews, and publish research essays. Contributions are invited. The Editor and Advisory Board reserve the right to decide whether, on the basis of general interest, pertinence, and merit, such contributions will be published. OVER THE COUNTER will appear as often as the volume of contributions may dictate.

This bibliography represents an effort to survey and evaluate selected literature dealing with the history of the petroleum industry in the United States. The goal has not been to include everything ever written, but rather, to produce a compact reference work that I hope will be useful to the industry, to students, and to the public.

My research has revealed that only one of the four major phases of this industry has been given anything approaching a full historical treatment. This phase is production.