Between 1890 and 1914 Australia became the world’s largest
market for wool. Wresting this title from London required local
brokers to create an ordered market with a central auction room,
a uniform sale contract and standard arbitration procedure
across a number of separate selling centres. This paper explores
the various governance structures created by the Associations in
Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, to bind co‐operative behaviours.
We argue that the dual objects of the Associations, adherence to
a uniform price and the operation of a central auction, provided
different levels of incentives to firms to co‐operate in each
centre. Firms took calculated rational decisions whether to
co‐operate with respect to ‘price’, and different behaviours
between centres depended heavily on structural and environmental
situations. However, co‐operative behaviours towards supporting
the auction system were driven by a combination of pecuniary and
altruistic factors. The latter arose from a deep rooted sense of
service to