ABSTRACT
Morska Agencja Szczecin (MAS) is a multi-functional port agency related organisation also offering a variety of services including average adjusting, shipbroking and crew supplies from their headquarters in Szczecin. MAS originated from the state owned monopolistic regime of the old system in a structure that resembled that of many other parts of the maritime sector including C. Hartwig, Polfracht and Baltona as well as the strictly defined shipping and ports industries. Both MAS and Morska Agencja Gdynia began operations in 1951 under the new Communist state government originating from the range of existing private sector agency companies that had dominated in Poland during the 1930s and immediately after the end of the war. The result in MAS’s market was an immediate proliferation of competitors looking to take a small piece of the Szczecin port and shipping agency market, commonly ex-state employees and frequently ex-MAS employees.
