 Boom, depression and cartelisation: Swedish and Finnish timber export industry 1918-1921Elina Kuorelahti Scandinavian Economic History Review, 2015, vol. 63, issue 1, 45-68 Abstract: Historians have often cherished the idea of cartels as the 'children of depression' in the interwar period. However, as this article discusses, recessions did not always boost cartelisation; sometimes they hindered it. This article explores for the first time the Swedish-Finnish timber export cartel between 1918 and 1921, and sketches out why the cartel worked best during rising demand and why the recession of 1921 killed it. The article is based on primary sources in the Swedish and Finnish archives. Research on cartel timing is used as the main theoretical framework in interpreting the material. Besides discussing how the direction of demand affected the dynamics in the Swedish-Finnish timber cartel, this article also analyses the roles that the governments and central banks played in the rise and fall of the cartel. The article shows that the direction of demand played a crucial role in the lifespan of the cartel, and argues that even without the involvement of the governments and central banks the cartel would still have been born and would have ultimately collapsed. Date: 2015 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:sehrxx:v:63:y:2015:i:1:p:45-68 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/03585522.2014.980315 Access Statistics for this article Scandinavian Economic History Review is currently edited by Espen Ekberg and Francisco Beltran Tapia More articles in Scandinavian Economic History Review from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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