Umbrella cartel

An umbrella cartel , or earlier often called the general cartel or also the central cartel, is a cartel that itself consists of cartels , that is, mergers of companies that influence the market. International cartels were often umbrella cartels. But regional sales syndicates were also able to come together to overarching national agreements via umbrella cartelization. The situation is similar when it comes to coordinating or uniting neighboring industries that are growing together. Examples:

the 'general cartel' of the German powder and dynamite factories, to which the cartel groups of both related industries merged in 1889; In 1890 it was developed into the 'General Syndicate' with a central sales organization.
the 'Centralverband deutscher Holzstofffabrikanten' from 1893, which comprised four regional syndicates.
the International Steel Cartel from 1926 to 1939.

Individual evidence

↑ Ulf-Peter Busse, Between Political Constraints and Economic Opportunities. Nobel's dynamite factory on the Krümmel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in: William Boehart / Wolf-Rüdiger Busch (eds.), A dream without end. Articles on the life and work of Alfred Nobel, Münster 2004, p. 100.
↑ Oscar Reuther, Holzstoffsyndikate, in: Verein für Sozialpolitik (Ed.), About Economic Cartels in Germany and Abroad, Leipzig 1894, p. 169.

[1] Ulf-Peter Busse, Between Political Constraints and Economic Opportunities. Nobel's dynamite factory on the Krümmel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in: William Boehart / Wolf-Rüdiger Busch (eds.), A dream without end. Articles on the life and work of Alfred Nobel, Münster 2004, p. 100.

[2] Oscar Reuther, Holzstoffsyndikate, in: Verein für Sozialpolitik (Ed.), About Economic Cartels in Germany and Abroad, Leipzig 1894, p. 169.