Cartel
late 19th century: from German Kartell, from French cartel, from Italian cartello, diminutive of carta, from Latin carta (see card1). It was originally used to refer to the coalition of the Conservatives and National Liberal parties in Germany (1887), and hence any political combination; later to denote a trade agreement (early 20th century).
wiktionary
In the business sense, borrowed from German Kartell, first used by Eugen Richter in 1871 in the Reichstag. In the political sense, which was the vehicle for this metaphor, the English sense as the German sense was borrowed from French cartel in the sixteenth century, from Italian cartello, diminutive of carta(“card, page”), from Latin charta.
etymonline
cartel (n.)
1550s, "a written challenge, letter of defiance," from French cartel (16c.), from Italian cartello "placard," diminutive of carta "card" (see card (n.1)).
It came to mean "written agreement between states at war" (1690s), for the exchange of prisoners or some other mutual advantage, then "a written agreement between challengers" of any sort (1889). Sense of "a commercial trust, an association of industrialists" is from 1900, via German Kartell, which is from French. The older U.S. term for that is trust (n.). The usual German name for them was Interessengemeinschaft, abbreviated IG.
