ABSTRACT
During the mid-1930s, the progressive ‘end of globalisation’ and the rising role of several governments in national industrial regulation contested the former ways undertaken by the aluminium cartel. State-driven markets linked to rearmament programmes and autarkic policies questioned the output restriction scheme and pushed firms to ask for derogations of the cartel rules. This chapter explores how the cartel tried to adapt again to the new given situation. Pragmatic choices of producers to exploit new political opportunities broke cartel cohesion, and in 1936 the restriction of output was abolished because no compromise was possible. In 1937, the starting of a penetrating antitrust inspection against ALCOA stopped further reforms and led firms to put Alliance on hold in 1938. This case shows that the entry of a political dimension into the aluminium industry and on its trade led to collapse, instead of cementing the former interplay of firms.
