ABSTRACT
With the formation of the ITC, producers found themselves with a new set of constraints and opportunities which would shape the overall course of development of the industry. One condition governed all producers and that was the prospect of a return to the free market on the expiry of the agreement. Those who wished to survive an inevitable, though perhaps temporary, decline in price could not simply respond to the existing constraints and opportunities without considering their potential implications for the future. The market, albeit in partial suspension, would impose its own dynamic. Miners outside the scope of the ITC, of course, were free to develop without constraint and whether that freedom was primarily granted by the price recovery is one issue that must be considered in more detail. Those subject to its production quotas had to explore such opportunities as remained within an administrative framework that became more politicized as governments discovered they had new powers with which to shape the industry. How well they managed to secure their objectives in the face of these new constraints will demonstrate the extent to which restriction simply preserved the industry or determined a new course.
