Business, finance, and politics: the rise and fall of international aluminium cartels, 1914-45

This article retraces the history of international aluminium cartels from 1914 to 1945, focusing on the factors that shaped their formation and on the dynamics that influenced their work. The main argument of this research is that the fortune of the aluminium cartels resulted from the complex interactions among producers, their financial backers, and political powers. Scholarly studies show that firms and governments often cooperated in the settlement and administration of many cartels during the inter-war period. The case of the international aluminium industry shows that a more complicated interaction existed: financial regulation first, and states’ interventionism second, challenged producers’ views in terms of cartelisation, influenced its path and, sometimes, proposed alternatives. Strategic policies finally put this cartelisation to an end, preventing its resurgence after the Second World War.