ABSTRACT
By the 1880s, the Rhine was largely normalised, creating the technical conditions for utilising the potential economies of scale from the liberalisation of international river navigation in the preceding decades. Only after 1900, however, did Rhine transportation closely integrate the German Ruhr region with the Dutch Port of Rotterdam, giving rise to Europe’s largest industrial region and its largest seaport, respectively. By zooming in on the largest transnational entrepreneurs that were active in the raw material supply chain, this chapter shows that the emergence of the strong interdependent relationship between Rotterdam and the Ruhr was neither a matter of course, nor systematically planned for.
