The Control of the Non-Ferrous Metal Industries

Abstract

BEFORE the war the world's markets for the majority of the non-ferrous metals were very largely controlled by a group of German metal companies engaged primarily in buying metals and acting as selling agents for producers. How complete this control was few people knew. The outbreak of war disclosed it in all its formidable-ness. The most important of these concerns was the Metallgesellschaft of Frankfort-on-the-Main. This place was the centre of certain German financial interests which had combined to establish the Metall Bank and the Metallurgische Gesellschaft. In one way or another this great organisation had established financial interests in metal undertakings, not only in Germany and Austria, but also in the U.S.A., the United Kingdom, and various parts of the British Empire.