COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 61

To British observers the activities of the German banks in foreign
trade appear as follows:
The banks in Germany, through their branches in foreign countries,
 have strained themselves to help German export trade. The
general policy has been for the foreign branches of the banks to give
all possible particulars to headquarters about business openings
abroad, and this information has always been available for the
manufacturers and merchants in Germany. If a manufacturer of,
say, laundry machinery should wish to compete for business in
Buenos Ayres he could get through a bank all the necessary particulars
 about the conditions of the laundry business in that city, the
number of laundries in operation, whether or not they did good
work, the kind of machinery employed, the character of the water
used, and so forth. Then, if the manufacturer considered the opening
 was a good one, the bank would introduce him, or his representative,
 to the proper people. If business was secured, the bank would
finance it, and ultimately collect the account.
Assertions that information is given of transactions of Americans.—If
 assertions from many sources are to be believed, foreign
banks sometimes go so far as to reveal to their home connections the
details of American foreign business which has been placed in their
hands on the assumption that it would be treated as confidential.
A. manufacturer savs:

Several years ago a small shipment of ours to South America was
handled through a foreign banking house in New York. We got
definite information later that the entire transaction, as far as was
shown by the handling of the papers by the bank. had been reported
to some of our competitors in Europe.
The president of the American Locomotive Co. says:
If we had to deal, for instance, through a German bank, we felt
that practically everything that occurred in regard to our transaction
which could be found out from the outside was known to our competitors
 when the next time came. The amount of money that we
were paid for our locomotives was known to that bank to the last
dollar. * * * They often knew all that we paid for freight, and
everything of that kind, and we felt that at times we saw the evidence
of that knowledge when it came to the next bidding. (Pt. IT, p. 813.)
A manufacturer of glazed kid says that foreign banks often use
the information which they procure through invoices and bills of
lading to the advantage of the foreign competitors. Another manufacturer
 says he is satisfied and knows that German manufacturers
know all about the prices and the names of American manufacturers’
customers in South America; that German banks let out this information
 by sending copies of invoices to German manufacturers.
Conclusive proof of such allegations is hard to obtain and none
has been sought by the Commission. Statements like the foregoing,
however, represent a widespread belief.

1H T. Good. in the Financial Review of Reviews (London), June, 1915. pn. 212.