1. The meanings and characteristics of some terms used in this paper
Konzern is a kind of industrial combination which relates to its structure, being a weak capital-concentration. We may include vertical, horizontal and circular combinations as well as conglomerates in the vector combination, which indicates not only the direction of the combination, but also the quantity of industrial operations to be combined. The heavy industry is an industry or enterprise which produces iron and steel or manufactures iron-and steel-products.
2. Industrial combination and heavy industry
Industrial combination can accomplish the increase of profits, while heavy industry plays, as a key industry, an important part in promoting the prosperity of the community, and may, as well, affect the development of individual enterprises. Furthermore, industrial combination facilitates the enlargement and growth of a firm operating iron and steel production. Thus, industrial combination is deeply connected with the heavy industry.
3. The fundamental inducements underlying the development of the industrial combination in heavy industry of several countries
Among many inducements for industrial combination, a few are conceived as being worthy of mentioning here. Entrepreneurs or managements resort to industrial combination as a device for achieving the rationalization of their firms or to realize the monopoly of markets. So far as these activities are concerned, industrial combination brings forth a Gesellschaft described by F. Toennies, as a society formed for the purpose of promoting the interest of its members. German cartels may be regarded belonging to this kind of society. On the other hand, most of its members exhibit comradeship-spirit attitudes, which places emphasis on the entity of the group concerned, sometimes even regardless of individual interest of the member. The latter state of the group, fraternitas, leads to building up a society Gemeinschaft called by Toennies, a society which has no particular or formal purpose, existing, so to speak, as natural process. Thus, the German cartel is likely to have contained a synthesis of two characteristics of the society, and this particular feature might have intensified the controlling power of the German cartel before World War I.

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Under German colonialism a series of colonial companies (Kolonialgeselschaft) were organized to obtain basic economic control over German colonies. The establishments numbered 73 during the comparatively short term possession of colonies, from 1884 to 1914, playing an important part in the activity of German imperialism. [After World War I, notwithstanding the loss of all the colonies, 85 companies were newly organized or reorganized and shouldered the task of continuing colonialism without colonies (Kolonialismus ohne Kolonien).] This paper deals with genealogy and types of prewar colonial companies and aims to appraise their historical roles and results.
In German East Africa and in the Pacific colonies, three chartered companies (Schutzbriefgesellschaft) were formed, by means of Schutzbrief copied from the English Royal Charter ; Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft (=DOAG, 1884-1890), Neu-Guinea-Kompagnie (1884-1890) and Jaluit-Gesellschaft (1888-1906). (1888-1906). They were active in the acquisition of colonies and the assumption of territorial sovereignty. Realizing Bismarck's colonial policy, they intended to collect the monopolistic profits. After short lives, they converted into ordinary companies.
Another type of colonial company is the Konzessionsgesellschaft. In the Cameroons, South West Africa and Togo, the Government granted concessions (land or rights) to certain companies for the special purposes of constructing railways or issuing bank- notes. Kamerun Eisenbahngesellschaft and Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Bank are examples of these cases ; they too got exclusive profits.
Various private companies in German colonies were grouped into the third type of colonial companies, participating positively in the accomplishment of colonial policy. Plantagengesellschaft and Handelsgesellschaft are typical of them ; the former had its own function in the production process of colonial economy, and the latter in the circulation process.
From the business historical point of view, the writer investigates many-sided managements of colonial enterprises and analyzes the intensity of native labour.

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The huge Seraing iron and machine works, founded by the Cockerills in 1817, was in the first half of the 19th century one of the largest heavy industry establishments on the Continent, and not only a most formidable rival for the British machine industry, but also something like a model factory and training center for young engineers and skilled workers in Germany and other nations. In this article we attempt to throw some light on the role which the Cockerills played in the course of the industrial revolution on the Continent.
The Cockerill family, English mechanics in origin, started their business in 1799, when William Cockerill with his sons at the request of Simonis, Biolly & Co., the biggest clothier in the Verviers woollen industry district, constructed a set of machines for the woollen industry. Afterwards the Cockerills transferred their workshop to Liège, the iron industry center of Belgium, to take advantage of the entrepreneurial opportunities for machine-makers which the prosperous woollen industries, under the Napoleonic Empire, guaranteed them.
After 1815, when Belgium was cut off from France, the Cockerills were obliged to contend with the economic crisis caused by the fall of the Napoleonic system, and tried to seek compensation in German markets. They founded actually several branch-mills for machine construction and model woollen spinneries in Berlin and other eastern German towns under the auspices of the Prussian Government, besides some similar ones in Russian Poland.
However, John Cockerill, the successor of this family enterprise, dissatisfied with this limitation of his business, ventured into the difficult undertaking of being a steam engine constructor. He converted the Seraing castle, disposed of by the King William I of the Netherlands at a favourable price, into a huge machine factory in 1817.
Moreover, to secure materials suitable for machine-building, John Cockerill was obliged not only to expand his business to iron works and collieries under the auspice of the Netherlands government, but also to form a joint enterprise with the State.
Through several years of hardships and experiments, his business was established in a complete vertical combination, and after 1830, Cockerill was able to take full advantages of the excellent capacities of his factories in the face of new railway age.
It was duly these legacies of John Cockerill that allowed made the Seraing factory to survive to become the best in European heavy industries, after his bankruptcy in 1839 and his death in 1842 followed by a reorganization of the business into a joint stock company.

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