ABSTRACT
After 1945, no formal world agreement came about. Instead, the post-war period was characterised by a fragmentation of the interplay that accompanied cartelisation since the late nineteenth century. On the one hand, in the US, the government assumed the role of regulator of this industry for strategic reasons. On the other hand, the European producers debated the possibility of reviving their old cartel without American participation once the war finished. The new role of governmental controls in the international trade of this metal and new links between each state and national producers, a legacy of the war, rendered the revitalisation of an international cartel impossible. In a certain way, governments worked as a substitute to cartels in regulating international trades in this period. In this context, the liquidation of Alliance, which dragged on until 1953, provided producers with a forum in which to share ideas and coordinate policies.
