Why Did K.C. Irving Buy a Ship When the Railway Raised His Rates?

Shane Parrish says K.C. Irving bought his own tanker after Canadian National Railway raised the rates on his oil and refused to treat him like Imperial Oil.

In 1932, in the depths of the Depression, the government railway raised Irving's shipping rates and left Imperial Oil's untouched. Irving asked why everyone was not treated fairly. The reply was that Imperial was different because it had a refinery. He owned the gasoline and the stations that sold it, but every gallon still had to move on someone else's tracks, on terms they could change. He argued for two years, then gave an ultimatum: lower the rate or lose his traffic. The railway could assume he had nowhere else to go. He did not own a tanker, and buying one just to move a little gasoline during the Depression looked foolish.

They expected him to come crawling back. He bought a coastal tanker and built a wharf one mile from the railroad's regional headquarters, then turned the first delivery into a public event so the railway would watch. The ship drove itself stern first into the riverbank. Irving picked up a shovel and dug with the crew, covered in mud, until the tide lifted it free at 2:30 in the morning. The next tide, it docked cleanly. He started a shipping company, at first only for his own oil.