ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the Leipzig fur industry managed to coordinate local mechanisms of collaboration towards the changing structures of the world market. The transitions of the international economy were a source of collective action and interfirm cooperation as well. The chapter considers two main themes: bank-business relationships in the 1920s and the interfirm cooperation that led to the creation of joint-venture auction companies in Leipzig. It examines how auction companies were formed in Leipzig and in what ways they contributed to the international position of Leipzig as a capital in the fur industry. The chapter also examines the embeddedness of the banks in the district and their role as financers for the fur industry in the 1920s. It shows how local trader's manipulated competition between banks, banks in turn assumed a strong position on the local market in furs and upon processes of interfirm cooperation.
