It's the method that was employed successfully against Standard Oil as they were initially building their monopoly. Wildcatters would strike oil and look to dum

It's the method that was employed successfully against Standard Oil as they were initially building their monopoly. Wildcatters would strike oil and look to dump their oil into the market, which would drop and or destabilize the price of oil. It was understood they could 'ransom' Standard Oil using this tactic and get sums far beyond what their operations would otherwise be worth. Rockefeller in his letters talks about buying up the worst possible operations, in rickety condition, for princely sums to prevent the wildcatters from tanking the price of oil by dumping supply. It apparently was quite the annoyance to the extremely frugal Rockefeller, the monopoly could more than afford it of course.