ECONOMIC REFORM CLUB & INSTITUTE-Cartels: The Menace of Worldwide Monopoly London, 1944. Privately circulated wartime edition.

ECONOMIC REFORM CLUB & INSTITUTE
Cartels: The Menace of Worldwide Monopoly
London, 1944. Privately circulated wartime edition.

A scarce wartime study of international cartels, monopolies and the emerging post-war economic order, privately circulated by the Economic Reform Club & Institute of London. An abbreviated version of a special section issued by The New Republic, New York, on 27 March 1944.

The study examines the growing influence of international cartels through control of patents, prices, production and markets, with particular attention to the rubber, chemical and steel industries.

Of particular historical interest is its concluding “International Program.” Published only months before the Bretton Woods Conference, it proposes a “World Trade Board” to stabilize international trade and address international monopolies, alongside a “World Investment Agency” and international reconstruction finance.

Although not a direct blueprint for the institutions subsequently established, these proposals strikingly anticipate aspects of the post-war international economic architecture: the proposed trade body parallels ideas later embodied in the International Trade Organization, GATT and ultimately the World Trade Organization (WTO), while its investment and reconstruction proposals foreshadow functions associated with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other modern day International Financial Institutions (IFIs).

An unusual piece of wartime economic ephemera documenting contemporary thinking about the international institutions that would shape the post-war world.

Good condition. Original stapled wrappers; mimeographed typescript; Toning, folds, handling marks and minor edge wear. Scarce.

Subjects: Political Economy · International Trade · Economic Thought · International Institutions · Monopoly & Antitrust · Post-War Reconstruction