The Abolition of Cartels and Structural Change in the United Kingdom

Abstract

In 1943 and 1944 two studies on cartels were carried out in the Board of Trade as part of the thinking about post-war reconstruction. The first, on British firms’ participation in international cartels (1) was prompted by discussions with the United States on post-war policies on international trade and payments as these cartels were regarded as a major impediment to trade liberalization, and also the question of restrictive practices had become an important issue of internal reconstruction policy. The second, on internal cartels (2) was a continuation of the first and was intended to collect information on monopoly and restrictive practices to provide a factual basis for legislation and its subsequent implementation. As both reports were assembled mostly from confidential data in the hands of Government Departments they were classified as ‘secret’ and so have not been generally known, but they have now been declassified under the ‘thirty- year’ rule and placed in the Public Records Office in London and are available for use.