A '''compulsory cartel''' or '''forced cartel''' is a cartel that is established or maintained by an administrative order or by a legal directive. The interference of policies on these associations of entrepreneurs of the same trade varied. It ranged from a mere decision to establish a cartel or to maintain an existing one, to a strict state control.<ref>Holm A. Leonhardt: ''Kartelltheorie und Internationale Beziehungen. Theoriegeschichtliche Studien'', Hildesheim 2013, p. 144-145. </ref>

== Disagreement over the nature of compulsory cartels == The understanding of “compulsory cartels” as “cartels” has always been disputed.<ref>Holm A. Leonhardt: ''Kartelltheorie und Internationale Beziehungen. Theoriegeschichtliche Studien'', Hildesheim 2013, p. 146-155.</ref> While the older cartel experts before the 1930s usually insisted in the free entrepreneurial will that constituted a “cartel”, later authors were more tolerant and accepted forced cartels as an exception. In recent times (2007), the economic-historian Jeffrey R. Fear took this stance of the “exception to the rule” that would not contradict the general nature of these organizations.<ref>Jeffrey R. Fear: Cartels. In: Geoffrey Jones; Jonathan Zeitlin (ed.): The Oxford handbook of business history. Oxford: Univ. Press, 2007, p. 271.</ref> The cartel-historian Holm Arno Leonhardt has positioned himself more differentiated in 2013: Forced cartels that were embedded in a totalitarian planning economy or were by other means unable to realize their own will, should be regarded as organs or appendages of another system.<ref>Holm A. Leonhardt: ''Kartelltheorie und Internationale Beziehungen. Theoriegeschichtliche Studien'', Hildesheim 2013, p. 164-165.</ref> Thus, “compulsory cartels” without a permanent political influence could indeed constitute real “cartels”, while others being under strict control acted mainly as servants of an alien will.

==Examples== * German potash syndicate:<ref>Liefmann, Robert: ''Cartels, Concerns and Trusts'', Ontario 2001 [London 1932], p. 267.</ref> This was since 1919 a public-law body and was integrated into a control structure with its customers, laborers, traders and instances of administration. * Japanese steel cartel of the 1930s.<ref>Hausleiter, Leo (1932): Revolution der Weltwirtschaft. München, p. 200.</ref> * Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate, Northwest Germany:<ref>Liefmann, Robert: ''Cartels, Concerns and Trusts'', Ontario 2001 [London 1932], p. 268.</ref> This too was since 1919 a public body and integrated into a similar control structure as the German potash syndicate. * Russian sugar syndicate of the 1890s.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

==See also== *Coercive monopoly *Government-granted monopoly

==Bibliography== * Fear, Jeffrey R.: ''Cartels''. In: Geoffrey Jones; Jonathan Zeitlin (ed.): The Oxford handbook of business history. Oxford: Univ. Press, 2007, p.&nbsp;268-293. * Leonhardt, Holm Arno: ''Kartelltheorie und Internationale Beziehungen. Theoriegeschichtliche Studien'', Hildesheim 2013. * Korrell, Emil: ''Zwangskartelle als Mittel gegen ruinöse Konkurrenz''. Forchheim 1937. * Liefmann, Robert: ''Cartels, Concerns and Trusts'', Ontario 2001 [London 1932]

== References == {{Reflist}}

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Category:Cartels