ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses on both the patterns and impact of resource substitution and the restructuring of local business networks because of pressures of the state-led war economy. Rabbit skins continued to serve as an important resource for the Leipzig fur industry after the war whilst the industry was still isolated from the world market. The chapter discusses how new production processes did or processes of resource substitution affect the fur industry in Leipzig? And what were the effects on the business organisation in the district? It also discusses the war lead to the institutionalisation of new forms of local collaboration? The chapter places emphasis on War Fur Ltd and the impetus the war corporation gave to collaboration between agricultural science and the fur industry and to resource substitution. It examines the Leipzig fur cluster during the First World War. In particular, emphasis has been placed on the ramifications of the war on local production regimes and business organisation.
