Comptoir Métallurgique de Longwy
This was true, although Longwy lay at the very north of this region and only some kilometers far from the borders to Belgium, Luxembourg and to the German empire of 1871 to 1918.
Because of the high phosphorus content of the ore, the produced pig iron was initially of poor quality and unsuited for many uses.
Thus, on 10 December 1876, owners of four iron smelting establishments founded the Comptoir Metallurgique de Longwy as a common device to operate their sales.
[5] Internally, the Comptoir de Longwy consisted of three main bodies: The number of members varied over the time span.
Also the quality of the members changed: Over the decades, there was a development from pure smelters with concessions of ore exploitation to combined establishments of smelting and further processing.
The Comptoir Metallurgique de Longwy was founded by the four heavy industrialist Jean-Joseph Labbé, Baron Oscar d’Adelswärd (1811–98), Theophile Ziane und Gustave Raty.
[7] In 1921, by consent of the member assembly on January 21, 1921, the Comptoir de Longwy was formally terminated effective for February 1.
[8] Due to the war events and results, the economic environment had strongly changed: The French gains of the formerly German Eastern Lorraine and of the now occupied Sarre region brought along a lot of new competitors.
Also in the old territories, outsider competition came up: Firms formerly being loyal informal members of the cartel began selling below the comptoir prices.
A strong motivation for this came from the war demolitions: The French state was reluctant to compensate the enterprises for this quickly, and so the firms sold off their ore stocks to be able to finance the necessary repairs.
[10] In this concept, the Comptoir de Longwy had been designated for a national instead of a regional approach of regulating the pig iron production.
The purpose of the Comptoir de Longwy was the sales of pig iron that was produced by its members and not needed for exportation or further processing by them.
While some authors suggested a control almost as by setting production quotas,[11] other scholars expressed doubts about such a far reaching impact.
This was limited to the sales of pig iron, while for by-products and further manufactured products the member firms took the initiative, so for instance in 1889 the Acieries de Longwy for slag phosphate.
In June 1916 Edward N. Hurley, vice chairman of the US Federal Trade Commission, summarized the opinions and findings on this in front of an audience of the American Iron and Steel Institute.
It is maintained that the cartel organization also enables manufacturers to equalize supply and demand, to adapt their prices to demand, and to regulate the prices of their products in accordance with the cost of raw materials.”[15] The Comptoir de Longwy was led and operated by a qualified management staff, which was true for the representatives of the member firms as well as for externally acquired professionals.
The foundry entrepreneurs of French Lorrain had the consciousness of a distinct group, but were open for the entrance of technical specialists.
On the eve of World War I (1914–18) eight of the seventeen directors of the comptoir represented German or Belgian companies.
[22] The Comptoir de Longwy was the subject of a heated but inconclusive debate in the Chamber of Deputies in July 1891 about whether the cartel caused any damage.
[23] The socialist deputy Jean Jaurès attacked the pricing fixing practices of the comptoir, which was defended by the moderate right Jules Méline.
[24] The trade-unionist Alphonse Merrheim publicized the power that the Comptoir de Longwy and the Comité des Forges exerted in breaking strikes.
[3] In the scientific and economic-political debates of around 1900, the Comptoir de Longwy was regarded as a prototype cartel of the French economy.
So, renowned cartel authors of that epoch like the German Robert Liefmann or the American James Jeans respectfully mentioned this organization.
[27][28] In France, authors like Paul de Rousiers, P. Obrin and Étienne Martin Saint-Léon[29] more or less concentrated on this entrepreneurial union.
[30] Even among the Socialists, the Comptoir de Longwy was known: In 1914, the Austrian Otto Bauer mentioned it as an example of cartelization by raw material monopolization.
