The early career of the _Royal Dutch_ was as modest as that of the _Standard Oil_ and far more troubled. At its very beginning it found in the East a young British firm, the _Shell Transport and Trading Company_, which put up a keen competition, the more disastrous because the latter possessed a fleet of tank steamers, while the _Royal Dutch_ as yet had none. The _Shell_ was directed by Sir Marcus Samuel, one of the cleverest business men in London. Samuel had begun humbly as a trader in sea-shells. His business prospering more and more, he hunted about for some commodity to exchange for the shells which he brought from the East. He decided upon oil, and became himself a producer in Borneo. In 1897 the _Shell_ was registered in Great Britain, with the view of absorbing the business of _Samuel and Company_ and certain other similar concerns. The new company had a large number of tank steamers and hundreds of depots. The _Royal Dutch_ had then amalgamated the greater number of the independent producers of the Sunda Islands, but was experiencing some difficulty in getting its oil to Europe, and so decided to negotiate with the _Shell_. Hence the agreement of 1902, by which the two companies entrusted the sale of their products to a company which they created specially for the purpose, the _Asiatic Petroleum_. Its capital was subscribed as follows:-- 1/3 by the _Royal Dutch_, 1/3 by the _Shell Transport_, 1/3 by the Rothschilds. This simple alliance became a complete union ten years later. The _Royal Dutch_ and the _Shell_ amalgamated on the following basis:-- On January 1, 1907, the two groups transferred their assets to two companies, one Dutch, one British. These were the _Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij_ and the _Anglo-Saxon Petroleum_. The _Bataafsche_, or _Batavian Oil Company_, which now has a capital of 200 million florins, was specially entrusted with the extraction of oil and with everything concerning its production. Its oil-fields are situated in Java, Sumatra and Borneo, and it exploits them directly or by subsidiary companies. It has interests in the Mexican _Corona_ company and in many Russian companies. Although this last part of its program has not hitherto been productive, the _Bataafsche_ has distributed during the last few years dividends representing annually nearly half its capital. Directly or indirectly, it is responsible for almost the whole production of the Dutch Indies, which amounts to nearly 20 million barrels annually, and is steadily rising. To meet this increase, the _Batavian Oil Company_ is obliged every year to construct new reservoirs. In 1920 their capacity had reached more than 900,000 tons.