Competition and collusion in the electricity market in Valencia before the Civil War

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to determine the business strategies in a context of competitive struggle and cartelized market, with a strong performance of tariffs as an instrument of confrontation and/or collaboration in the province of Valencia to the years before the Civil War. The study, using primary source documents, was made based on a wide range of companies operating in the first decades of the twentieth century. The analysis area extends beyond the metropolitan context to those rural areas that are poorly understood. The article begins with the study of regional electricity market integration. Then focuses on the analysis of different pricing strategies they developed the electric companies. And finally, explains the effects on the rates were the intense competition in the electricity market in the thirties.