According to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_by_revenue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_by_revenue The biggest oil and gas

According to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_by_revenue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_by_revenue The biggest oil and gas companies add up to 3.4T$ in yearly revenue. Considering they've been going for a century at least it seems feasible that they've surpassed the 75T$ mark in total. So if you owned a monopoly on the most lucrative industry on earth maybe you could actually pay off the music industry in 300 years or so[1]... [1] at Exxon Mobil's 9% net profit margin - http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AXOM http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AXOM