Crafting the Global Market for Aluminium. Traders, Technology and Cartels (1886-1914)

Journal title ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA
Author/s Marco Bertilorenzi
Publishing Year 2016 Issue 2016/282 Language Italian
Pages 24 P. 90-113 File size 2664 KB
DOI 10.3280/IC2016-282005
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The international aluminium market represent a specific case in the process of "commodisation" that characterised the pre-1914 period. Unlike the other non-ferrous metals, whose origins are lost in the midst of the time, aluminium was a new and high technology material. On the one hand, the international aluminium market was prematurely born as global, in spite of the national legal monopolies that derived from the patents on its technology. On the other hand, aluminium escaped from the control of the traders that characterized the global trade of other non-ferrous metals. The early aluminium market was developed through a specific marketing activity, settled on the structure of an international cartel. The competitive edge of this metal became the price stability, which was chosen by the cartel board and which make it different from the commercial approaches adopted by other commodities and, in particular, by non-ferrous metals.

Keywords: International Trade, Cartels Oligopoly, Traders, Business History, Aluminium, Non-ferrous Metals

  1. AIAG (1942), Geschichte der Aluminium-Industrie-Aktiengesellschaft Neuhausen, 1888-1938, 2 voll., Zurich, Fretz.
  2. André Louis (2013), Aristide Bergès, une vie d’innovateur - De la papeterie à la houille blanche, Grenoble, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble.
  3. Barjot Dominique (a cura di) (1994), International cartels revisited. Vues nouvelles sur les cartels internationaux (1880s-1980s). Caen, Editions du Lys.
  4. Barjot Dominique (1998), Un Nouveau champ pionner pour la recherche historique : les cartels internationaux (1880-1970), “Revue d’Allemagne et des pays de langue allemande”, n. 4.
  5. Barjot Dominique, Harm Schröter (2013), General introduction. Why a Special Edition on Cartels?, “Revue économique”, n. 6.
  6. Becker Susan (1998), The German metal traders, in Jones Geoffrey (a cura di) The Multinational Traders, New York, Routledge.
  7. Bertilorenzi Marco (2014), Big Business, Inter-Firm Cooperation and National Governments. The International Aluminium Cartel, 1886-1939, in Donzé Pierre-Yves, Nishimura Shigehiro (a cura di), Organizing Global Technology Flows. Institutions, Actors, and Processes, London, Routledge.
  8. Bertilorenzi Marco (2015), The International Aluminium Cartel. The Business and Politics of a Cooperative Industrial Institution, 1886-1978, London & New York, Routledge.
  9. Born Karl Erich (1994), Internationale Kartellierung einer neuen Industrie: Die Aluminium-Association 1901-1915, Munich, Berg.
  10. Cailluet Ludovic (1995), Stratégies, structures d'organisation et pratique de gestion de Pechiney des années 1880 à 1971, Tesi di dottorato, Université Lyon III.
  11. Cailluet Ludovic (1997), Chedde. Un Siècle d’industrie au pays du Mont-Blanc. Grenoble, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble.
  12. Caron François (2010), La dynamique de l’invention. Changement technique et changement social (XVIe-XXe siècle), Paris, Gallimard.
  13. Carr Charles C. (1952), ALCOA. An American Enterprise, New York, Rinehart.
  14. Chandler Alfred D. (1994), Dimensione e diversificazione. Le dinamiche del capitalismo industriale, Bologna, il Mulino.
  15. Di Gregorio Pinella (2006), Oro nero d’Oriente. Arabi, petrolio e imperi tra le due guerre, Roma, Donzelli.
  16. Dux Carl (1911), Die Aluminium-Industrie-Aktiengesellschaft Neuhausen und ihre Konkurrenz-Gesellschaften, Luzern, Albins.
  17. Fear Jeffrey (2008), Cartels, in Geoffrey Jones e Jonathan Zeitlin (a cura di), The Oxford Handbook of Business History, Londra, Oxford University Press.
  18. Fumian Carlo (2009), Commodity Trading, in Iriye Akira, Saunier Pierre-Yves (a cura di) The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History, Basingstoke-New York, Palgrave Macmillan.
  19. Gignoux Claude Joseph (1955), Histoire d’une Entreprise Française, Paris, Hachette.
  20. Gille Bertrand (1978), Histoire des techniques, Paris, Gallimard.
  21. Graham Margaret B. W., Pruitt Bettye H. (1990), R&D for Industry. A Century of Technical Innovation at Alcoa, Cambridge, University Press.
  22. Grinberg Ivan (2003), Un si léger métal, Paris, Découvertes Gallimard.
  23. Grinberg Ivan, Hachez-Leroy Florence (a cura di) (1997), Industralisation et sociétés en Europe occidentale de la fin du XIXe siècle à nos jours. L’Âge de l’aluminium, Paris, Armand Colin.
  24. Hachez-Leroy Florence (1994), Le cartel international de l’aluminium du point de vue des sociétés françaises, 1901–1940, in Barjot Dominique (a cura di), International cartels revisited. Vues nouvelles sur les cartels internationaux (1880s-1980s). Caen, Editions du Lys, p. 153-162.
  25. Hachez-Leroy Florence (1999), L’Aluminium Français. L’invention d’un marché, 1911-1983. Paris, CNRS Editions.
  26. Kossmann Wilfried (1911), Über die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung der Aluminiumindustrie, Strasbourg, Straßburger Druckerei.
  27. Knoepfli Adrian (2010), From Dawn to Dusk, Alusuisse – Swiss Aluminium Pioneer from 1930 to 2010, Zurich, Jetz.
  28. Kudo Akira, Terushi Hara (a cura di) (1993), International Cartels in Business History, Tokyo, Tokyo University Press.
  29. Landes David (1969), The Unbound Prometheus Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present, Cambridge, CUP.
  30. Le Roux Muriel (1998), L’Entreprise et la recherche. Un siècle de recherche industrielle à Pechiney, Paris, Editions Rive Droite.
  31. Leslie Christopher L. (2004), Trust, Distrust and Antitrust, “Texas Law Review”, n. 3, pp. 571-580.
  32. Morel Paul (a cura di) (1991), Histoire de la technique de la production d’aluminium, Grenoble, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble.
  33. Nappi Carmine (1994), L’Aluminium, Paris, Economica.
  34. Olson Mancur (1966), The Logic of Collective Action. Public Goods and the Theory of Group. Cambridge, HUP.
  35. Perchard Andrew (2012), Aluminiumville. Government, Global Business and the Scottish Highlands, Lancaster, Crucible Books.
  36. Rauh Cornelia (2009), Schweizer Aluminium fur Hitlers Kriegs? Zur Geschichte der Alusuisse 1918-1950, Munich, Beck.
  37. Rispoli Maurizio (1987), L’Industria dell’Alluminio in Italia nella fase di introduzione. 1907-1929, “Annali di Storia dell’impresa”, n.3, pp. 281-322.
  38. Schröter Harm (1996), Cartelisation and Decartelisation in Europe, 1870-1995: Rise and Decline of an Economic Institution, “The Journal of European Economic History”, n. 1, p. 129-153.
  39. Schröter Harm (2011), Das Kartellverbot und andere Ungereimtheiten. Neue Ansätze in der internationales Kartellforschung, in Muller Margrit, Schmidt Heinrich R., Tissot Laurent (a cura di), Regulierte Markte. Zünfte und Kartelle. Marchés régulés. Corporations et cartels, Zurich, Chronos, p. 199-212.
  40. Schröter Harm (2013), Cartels revisited. An Overview on Fresh Questions, New Methods, and Surprising Results, “Revue économique”, n. 6, pp. 989-1010.
  41. Smith George D. (1988), From Monopoly to Competition. The Transformations of ALCOA, 1888-1986, Cambridge, CUP.
  42. Stigler George (1964), A Theory of Oligopoly, “Journal of Political Economy”, n. 72, p. 44-61.
  43. Stuckey John A. (1983), Vertical Integration and Joint Ventures in the Aluminum Industry, London, Harvard University Press.
  44. Suslow Valerie (2005), Cartel contract duration: empirical evidence from inter-war period, “Industrial and Corporate Change”, n. 5, pp. 705-44.
  45. Suslow Valerie, Margaret Levenstein (2006), What Determines Cartel Success?, “Journal of Economic Literature”, vol. 46, pp. 43-95.
  46. Wallace Donald Horace (1937), Market Control in Aluminium Industry, Cambridge, HUP.

Marco Bertilorenzi, La strutturazione del commercio mondiale dell’alluminio Tecnologia, traders e cartelli (1886-1914) in "ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA" 282/2016, pp 90-113, DOI: 10.3280/IC2016-282005