If you are Standard Oil and are vastly larger than whoever it you are trading with, have a huge legal team and no doubt some friendly judges handy.
Mind you - I have worked with very senior people who would avoid putting things in writing and then a few months later always have a notably different account of conversations than I did. At first I thought I was actually forgetting things until I realised it's a trick used by overly political types.
The list (and book) was written by a guy who suffered from his financial dealings with Standard Oil and he is essentially explaining how they were able to get him over the barrel. It is a very cynical list.
Mind you - I have worked with very senior people who would avoid putting things in writing and then a few months later always have a notably different account of conversations than I did. At first I thought I was actually forgetting things until I realised it's a trick used by overly political types.