Acceso usuarios
Mika Kallionen
This article examines the use of the concept of competition by three Finnish cartels in the period between the two world wars. Cartels were designed to restrict the scope of competition in the economy by controlling it. Their existence rested on the concept of competition, underscoring the importance of defining their relationship with it. A distinctive vocabulary of competition evolved within cartels as part of an anti-competitive discourse reflecting the view that competition was fundamentally detrimental. First, competition was seen as a threat comparable to a disease, an idea reflected in value judgments branding it as “destructive”, “depressive”, “unhealthy” or “insane”.
But the cartels also employed moral judgements to legitimize cooperation, not justifying their position primarily on the basis of rational arguments, but stressing the “fairness” of excluding competitors from the market. The anti-competitive discourse was employed as a tool of the cartels’ strategy to attain two objectives: first, to restrict competition in the domestic market and, eventually, to secure their own existence by legitimizing their monopolistic nature
