ABSTRACT
future students of twentieth century economics will be astonished to see how far political and economic theory went astray during this period of history through widespread misunderstanding of obvious facts governing supply and demand in the field of mineral raw materials. They will observe that shortly after the beginning of the Second World War the expanding consumption of minerals and their products soon outstripped the capacity of producers to satisfy the demand with existing facilities. Furthermore, they will note that the long-remembered experience of excessive capacity in the extractive industries following the First World War had made producers reluctant to expand capacity, and they will recognize that this was the main reason for the shortages following the Second World War.
