The Coal Syndicate and Smaller Businesses in Germany, 1919-1920

Abstract

In Germany just after the First World War smaller businesses such as processing and finishing industries were short of coals and suffered from the high price. They denounced the coal syndicate which dominated the production and trade of coals. This criticism of the coal syndicate had an important effect upon the cooperative economy, in 1919-1920. Comparatively little attention was to date given to this affair. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relations between the coal consuming smaller businesses and the coal syndicate and the distinctive features in the cooprative economy in the above period. Conclusion of the analysis mentioned above are as follows: First, before and during the war the smaller businesses had opposed the powers of monopolies, and after the war in the cooprative economy they conflicted with the coal syndicate more fiercely. On the one hand, the smaller businesses were protected by the state which considered the interests of consumers, and on the other hand, the coal syndicate was supported by the colliers whose interests coincided with it's. Then the complicated relation between "anti-monopoly and monopoly" influenced political and economical affairs, especially the Cartel Regulation Act of 1923, in Weimar Era. Second, the cooprative economy tried to reform the coal market. The condition of market, concretely the coal price, was regulated by the Ministry of Economy which attempted to stabilize demand and supply, and furthermore, the producers, sellers and consumers of coals were organizing through various cartels to adjust differences of interest. Then the cooprative economy was characterized as the idea that a market should be organized with the intervention of the state. Already in the prewar period this idea was claimed by the anti-monopoly movement which had an important effect upon the parliament in those days. Thus it is obvious that the cooprative economy cannot be fully understood without the anti-monopoly movement before and after the war.