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Royal Dutch Shell: Risks in Transnational Markets
About Shell
The origins of Shell date back to the 1800s to a businessman in London named Marcus Samuel (Samuel), who owned an antique shop that also sold boxes decorated with shells that were imported from the East. Samuel’s sons continued to trade with the East. The brothers established shipping and trading enterprises after they started importing oil in bulk from Russia in steamers through the newly opened Suez Canal. In 1897, the two brothers named their company The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company. Eventually, Shell ventured Far East through a venture in Borneo that placed it in direct competition with Royal Dutch Petroleum Company. Royal Dutch was founded in the 1890s to develop an oil field in Sumatra, which was then controlled by the Dutch. Both the companies merged in 1907 to form Royal Dutch Shell, with two separate holding companies – Royal Dutch and the “Shell” Transport and Trading Company. In the next few years, the assets of the company grew rapidly. |
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After World War I, as automobile companies started to expand, so did the demand for gasoline. New oil sources were discovered in the US, South America, and the Middle East, and new drilling technologies were invented. In 1929, the company ventured into chemicals by establishing N.V. Mekog in the Netherlands and Shell Chemical Company in the US.
