Internationalization of Capital in the Post-war Boom

Abstract

The post-war years and particularly the period since the mid-fifties has seen an unprecendented internationalization of capital in the motor industry. In the first decade after the Second World War, as in the interwar years, the industry was largely nationally based with its principal production centres in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, West Germany and Italy. Each national industry had its own distinctive characteristics and competition between capitals from different countries was largely confined to third markets (except for the case of US investment in Europe). Since the mid-fifties the motor industry has evolved from a nationally based industry to one based on three major regional centres, North America, Western Europe and Japan, and is increasingly becoming a ‘world industry’. This final development is still by no means complete but the seventies and eighties have seen major steps in this direction.