This volume makes available to English readers the best known and most frequently quoted study of industrial combination from the German point of view. There is an abundance of literature on the trusts, from economists who have lived close to that evolution, and the trusts, by their more challenging position, were for two decades the centre of the discussion which turned on what in industry was safe for democracy. Meanwhile, in Germany, the alternative of the cartel was having a less noticed a controversial development, until in Westphalia there was created, out of lower forms, a working model which was new and unique in the manner in which it related producers to each other and to the market. In only a few industries has this model been fully established; but it presents a rival type to the trusts, and places the problem of combination on a different basis of analysis and tendency.
Introduction PART I: THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF CARTELS 1. Economic Federations 2. The Nature of Cartels 3. The Origin of Cartels 4. Scope of the Cartels in Germany 5. Forms of Cartel Organisation 6. The Cartel Movement Outside Germany 7. General Character of Present-Day Economic Struggles PART II: EFFECTS OF THE CARTELS ON INDUSTRY 8. Effects on Firms Organized in Cartels 9. Effects on the Expansion of Organized Industries 10. Effects of the Cartels on Outside Producers 11. Effects on the Workers 12. Effects on Technical Progress and Rationalization in Industry 13. The Most Important Cartels in the War and Post-War Period PART III: EFFECTS OF THE CARTELS UPON THE CONSUMER 14. Effects Upon the Ultimate Consumer 15. Effects Upon the Subsequent Stages of Production 16. Particular Effects of Cheaper Sales for Export 17. Effects on the Merchants 18. Cartels and Trade Fluctuations 19. International Cartels PART IV: STATE REGULATION OF THE CARTELS 20. Legal Regulation of the Cartels in Germany 21. Legal Regulation in Other Countries 22. Measures of Control 23. Regulation of Exclusive Trading Contracts 24. Possible Improvements in Cartel Law 25. Tariff Policy 26. State Encouragement of Cartels - Compulsory Cartels PART V: CONCERNS AND AMALGAMATIONS 27. General View of the Various Forms of Concern Organisations 28. The Interest Group (Interessengemeinscheften) 29. Financial Participation and Daughter Companies 30. Examples of Concern Formation 31. Amalgamations 32. International Concerns 33. The Significance of Concerns and Fusions: The ‘Concentration Movement’ PART VI: TRUSTS OR MONOPOLISTIC CONCERNS 34. Nature and Origins of the Trusts 35. A Few Examples of American Trusts 36. The Effects of the Trusts 37. Financial Abuses Characteristic of the Trusts 38. Trusts in Germany and Other Countries 39. Trust Regulation in America and Germany 40. The Choice: Open Competition, Private Monopolies, or State Control? INDEX
Biography
Dr. Robert Liefmann was Professor at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau.
