Academic book titles are often presumptuous, and this one is no exception. The book does not really investigate the transformation of the world market, as the reader might assume. Rather, as the subtitle suggests, it is a thorough study about the international connections of the Leipzig fur industry from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. It is a welcome addition to a curiously neglected topic; small and medium-sized firms in the German city of Leipzig dominated much of the world trade in furs for about half a century, yet there is very little scholarly literature about it.

This study draws on the literature about industrial districts and commodity chains as a theoretical background. Robrecht Declercq argues that industrial districts have mostly been studied as closed internal circuits and that their relations to the wider world have been neglected. In particular, his thesis is that the institutions of industrial districts enabled small firms to take part in processes of internationalization. He places particular emphasis on “lead firms” in these districts.

The book is structured in a roughly chronological order. The first part deals with the emergence of the Leipzig fur cluster in the period from 1850 to 1914, the third with the restructuring of the world market for furs in the interwar years. Only the second part cuts across the chronological divide and looks at different examples to find alternatives to the world market (e.g., in fur farming). While overall the author paints a positive picture of the adaptability of the Leipzig fur district, in the final chapter he emphasizes the limits of collective action in the face of external changes, such as the collectivization in the Soviet Union (an important supplier of furs until the 1930s) and the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of personal connections and transnational entrepreneurship as an alternative to firm branching in processes of globalization.

The book is well written and easy to read. It is above all thoroughly researched and provides a valuable contribution to the literature both on German economic history and on industrial districts in general. However, there are certain limitations with regard to the sources used in this study. As company records of the fur companies are only fragmentary, the study draws on published literature and on other sources, such as files from financial companies. While the ingenuity of the author in working around this problem is to be admired, many questions cannot be answered satisfactorily—for example, the nature of the interaction between firms or the internal development of companies. Maybe these shortcomings should have been addressed explicitly. But give the author credit for making the most of the available material.