The Development of International Cartels after World War II

During the Second World War, most international cartels were interrupted or disintegrated because of the war. The monopoly organizations of the United States, Britain and Germany held secret negotiations during the war and kept in touch in various ways. In the early postwar period, the United States became the overlord of the capitalist world. Many international cartel agreements before the war can no longer meet the needs of economic expansion and world domination of American monopoly organizations, so they try their best to block the recovery of those international cartels that pose a potential threat to them. However, cartel agreements concluded in various forms between some of the largest international monopoly organizations still play an important role after the war. The international oil cartel, which consists of five major oil companies, including Exxon, Mobile, Texaco, Gulf and California, and seven oil monopolies, including Shell and BP, has a great influence in the contemporary international economic field. With the gradual economic recovery in Western Europe and Japan, the competition between monopoly organizations in various countries for the capitalist world market, raw material producing areas and investment places has further intensified, making the wave of restoring and establishing international cartels come back after the war. 1957 ~ 1958 capitalist world economic crisis has greatly promoted the recovery of international cartels. By the early 1960s, most international cartels before the war were active in an open or hidden form. According to a rough estimate, from 1957 to 1962, at least 3,000 cartel agreements have been signed between western Europe and monopoly organizations in market countries, about half of which are between France and the Federal Republic of Germany. The most agreements are steel, electric power, machine building, aviation, automobile and arms industries, among which the largest are European steel export cartels and European aluminum. One of the characteristics of post-war international cartels is that their activities are more hidden. At the end of 1960s, European economies restricted private monopoly organizations in many countries from participating in open international cartels through laws and regulations restricting cartel activities, and more and more people used tacit agreement, secret agreement or "gentleman's agreement" to compete for and carve up the world market. They also cover up cartel activities by concluding agreements on patents, concessions, production specialization, research on the use of new materials and other scientific and technological cooperation agreements. Therefore, judging from the general trend of the post-war capitalist world, the activities of international cartels still exist, just changing the way of activities.