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Copper Capitalism: The Making of a Transatlantic Market in Metals, 1870-1930

Delaney, Nathan
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1526067114476348

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, History.
The following analyzes the development of the transatlantic copper market at a time when copper was a key ingredient of the second Industrial Revolution (1870-1930). Its findings suggest that international metal trading companies (in conjunction with the London Metal Exchange) functioned to effectively check oligopolistic efforts by large copper producers during an era when other producer industries like oil and steel came to be defined by such competition. Time and time again, dominant producers of copper (e.g., Anaconda, ASARCO, and Rio Tinto) sought ways to manipulate supply and prices to their advantage, and time and time again, nimble trading firms – most notable among them Metallgesellschaft – were well positioned to undermine such anticompetitive efforts, and profit in the process. More than just a capitalist game of cat and mouse, the producer v. trader struggle over profits and copper supply is a novel insight as it explains why cartels and monopoly-minded firms struggle to achieve super-normal profits when subjected to the competitive dynamics of futures markets. While the intense competition emanating outward from the London Metal Exchange defined the state of the copper trade through 1914, economic nationalist policies and increased vertical integration in the industry allowed American producer’s to wrestle control of the trade from the international dealers, which ultimately fed concerns of mineral insecurity among European nations by the 1930s.
David Hammack, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Kenneth Ledford, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
John Flores, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
David Clingingsmith, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
224 p.
Economic History; Entrepreneurship; History
Commodities, Futures Markets, Copper, Economic History, Global History, Multinational Trading Companies, Speculation, Monopoly, Oligopoly, Free Markets, Cartels, Markets and Hierarchies, Transnational, World War I, Germany, United States, Trade

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Delaney, N. (2018). Copper Capitalism: The Making of a Transatlantic Market in Metals, 1870-1930 [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1526067114476348

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Delaney, Nathan. Copper Capitalism: The Making of a Transatlantic Market in Metals, 1870-1930. 2018. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1526067114476348.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Delaney, Nathan. "Copper Capitalism: The Making of a Transatlantic Market in Metals, 1870-1930." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1526067114476348

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1526067114476348
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© 2018, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.