Cooperative Strategies in the Cork Forest Sector of the Alentejo, a Factor of Development? (1852-1914)

Abstract

In the nineteenth century, Alentejo was already the main region for the raw cork production of Portugal and, consequently, of the world. In this context, dozens of industrial companies acted in the region’s cork forest market with the aim of acquiring raw material, which could have led to the formation of a highly competitive market. However, instead of competing in isolation, both the large multinational industrial companies and the small industrial ones used cooperation strategies that enabled them to obtain advantages in prices, transaction cost, information costs, among other issues. In this article, these cooperative strategies are studied, concluding that they acted as a development factor of the cork industry present in the Alentejo.