per cent, there have for many years been local alliances concerned with settling for the districts concerned all terms and conditions of trade, and recently a federation comprising the two combines and the outside alliances has been formed. With this final stage of development the whole of the combined and associated groups in the trade are brought into close co-operation.'

In discussing British trade organization the above-mentioned report says:2

"In this country great consolidations have hitherto been less formidable than in America, and associations of independent manufacturers have in no single case been developed to anything like the same logical outcome as in Germany. Yet it should not be too readily assumed that British industries lag far behind those of other countries in effectiveness of internal organization. Individuality has counted for more in British manufacture than in foreign, and if amalgamation has proceeded cautiously there has been reason in the caution. British combines and consolidations may not rank as prodigies, but among them are some that can vie in efficiency with any in the world. British trade associations make little parade of their existence or achievements, but there are few corners of British industry in which some kind of trade association is not to be found, and some of them can show a thoroughness of organization not easily surpassed. What is notable among British consolidations and associations is not their rarity or weakness so much as their unobtrusiveness. There is not much display in the window, but there is a good selection inside."

Prevailing Trade Sentiment Favors Combination.

The extent of the combination movement in Great Britain may be realized from the following statement in the Report of Committee on Trusts (page 20):

"Associations concerned with the regulation of price or output, or both, are to be found in almost every branch of British industry. Their number cannot be computed, for many are not registered either as companies or trade unions, and some are purposely carried on as secretly as possible. It may be taken, however, that there are considerably more

11. c. p. 19.

21. c. p. 17.

than five hundred associations, all exerting a substantial influence on the course of industry and price in being at the present time in the United Kingdom."

AUSTRALIA.

The trust movement in Australia offers several distinct and noteworthy features. The centralization of industrial and financial control in a few large cities, the active and intelligent interest taken by the public, so keenly jealous of its rights, in respect of modern industrial movements, advanced anti-trust legislation and frequent public inquiries of monopolies-all these factors combine to make Australia a most satisfactory country to study industrial combinations. Notwithstanding repressive laws and the application of drastic measures for checking monopolistic exploitation of the public, we find that combinations for fixing uniform selling prices, for dividing territories and for suppressing competition generally, honeycomb commerce and trade. The whole of the sea-borne interstate transportation is controlled by a combination consisting of seven shipping companies. The Colonial Sugar Refining Company owns and controls all the sugar refineries of Australia with the exception of the one owned by the Victorian Government and one other small concern. According to the report of the Royal Commission the price of refined sugar is, for practical purposes, fixed by the above-named trust, which also owns about one-third of the canecrushing mills in the State of Victoria and in addition has a complete monopoly of the New Zealand sugar trade. A similar situation exists in the coal industry and trade. The Newcastle Coal Vend, which is a combination of all the principal coal mine owners in the Newcastle district, New South Wales, occupies a particularly strong position in the coal market of Victoria, South Australia, West Australia and Queensland by reason of its close co-operation with the Associated Interstate Shipping Companies. The latter acted originally merely as carrier of coal. Then they established coal depots and became dealers, and finally were made the sole purchasing agents of the Newcastle Coal Vend.

From seven-eighths to nine-tenths of the Australian tobacco trade is in the hands of the British American Tobacco Company, which operates through the British Tobacco Company (Australia), Ltd., and other Australian subsidiaries. It fixes the prices to be paid to the leaf grower and controls the distribution of tobacco to retailers. In addition to the above-named large "trusts" numerous other combinations have been formed, smaller in size but not less important factors in respect of the particular industry in which they operate. The Timber Merchants' Association, the Printers' Combine, the Dried Fruits' Association of Australia, the Victorian Flour Mill Owners' Association, the Nail and Barbed Wire Combine and the Jam Combine are among the combinations which through their organized and concerted efforts to control production and distribution exercise a more or less monopolistic effect upon the commerce and trade of Australia.

FRANCE.

In all the important industries of France combinations for controlling production and distributio have been in operation with more or less success for many years, notwithstanding the fact that the French civil and criminal codes contain provisions against industrial combinations. Prior to 1914 upwards of 100 combinations were known to have been formed in France. Such as have a more highly developed form of organization with a central selling agency are generally known as "comptoirs." They correspond to the German "syndicate." One of the best known. is the Comptoir Metallurgique de Longwy, organized in 1876. It is composed of eighteen participating concerns, the capacity of whose plants comprised more than thirty per cent of the total French production of pig iron prior to the war. Closely cooperating with this combination, the Comptoir d'Exportation des Fontes de Meurthe-et-Moselle handles nearly three-fourths of the exports of pig iron from France. The French coal producers are equally well organized. Prior to the war the French coal producers, just like the German, paid bounties for sales to foreign countries. Numerous combinations flourished in the large

French textile industry, covering cotton print goods, cotton, flax, hemp and tow spinning and various branches of the silk business. Among manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers throughout France price agreements are effected in great number. And this is the case in virtually every line of commerce and trade, including so-called French specialties and quality goods, for example, toilet preparations, perfumery, etc.

OTHER COUNTRIES.

Of the smaller European countries, Belgium was preeminent before the war for the great number of industrial combinations. There were comparatively more combinations in Belgium than in any other country of the world. The fact that Belgium competed so successfully with her former strong rivals in international trade was due in large measure to the effective organization of her business interests and the resulting high degree of commercial solidarity.

The commercial expansion of Switzerland was based largely on a similar foundation. Although handicapped in many ways. by natural conditions in their mountainous country, her manufacturers and exporters, nevertheless, succeeded in placing watches, embroidery, silk goods, chocolate, machinery, etc., in the front rank through efficient co-operation, coupled with indomitable energy, tenacity and skill in commercial organization.

In the Netherlands and in the Scandinavian countries, as well as in Italy and Spain, numerous strong combinations have exercised a monopolistic control of trade and commerce for many years. The strongest organizations are to be found as a rule in the heavy industries, iron, steel, coal, machinery,etc., but also in certain lines of manufactures, like textile goods and food products. Combinations for fixing prices, credit and sales terms, for allotting orders, etc., are found in almost every line of industry and trade in spite of repressive laws.

A similar situation obtained in Canada, in the industrially more advanced countries of Central and South America and in Japan and China.

CHAPTER IX.

Effect of the World War on Industrial Combinations.

The unprecedented and intensive economic mobilization in the leading commercial countries, which set in soon after the outbreak of the great world war, gave a quickened impetus towards co-operation of economic interests throughout the world. While it is true that this movement toward syndication crystallized to a large extent around temporary war measures, most of which have already terminated or will terminate sooner or later, numerous other forms of economic co-operation and syndication of a monopolistic nature have grown up which must be recognized as permanent institutions. Unquestionably this whole modern movement, covering temporary as well as permanent tendencies of monopolistic control, will exercise a marked influence upon national and international commerce and trade in the future. Nationalization of industries, government control and regulation of trade, and voluntary and compulsory trade associations are subjects which the war has shifted from the realm of theory into that of actual experience on a scale that would have appeared visionary but a decade ago.1

Movement in Territory of Central Powers.

In the years before the war, the desire to establish uniform prices and to avoid competition within an industry or trade was, on the whole, the main motive that actuated purchasers and dealers to form cartels, syndicates or trusts. The great increase in the number of trade combinations during the war was due to a number of other considerations which have grown out of wartime conditions. They varied somewhat in the different coun

'See "Cartels during the war" by William Notz, in the Journal of Political Economy, January, 1919, vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 1-38.