Multinationals in the Grain Trade: Bunge and Nidera in the Lower Danube Region (1930–1948)

This study presents, in a positivist manner, the evolution in the Lower Danube area of two of the most important grain export companies in the world, by highlighting the changes of the Danube grain market under the impact of the two totalitarian trends and that of World War II. It is in this competitive environment that the Dutch companies Bunge and Nidera also manifest their presence. This paper is based on unedited sources preserved at Brăila County Service of the National Archives of Romania, as well as on news and articles from the Romanian press of the 1930s. This approach has not allowed drafting statistical series able to underline the sinusoidal waves of the commercial trades undertaken by the two Dutch companies in the Danube ports. The archival material at our disposal has allowed the reconstruction of the Dutch company Bunge’s network in the extended area of the mouths of the Danube, precedence having the branches existing in the 1930s on the present-day territory of the Republic of Moldova.