COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TBADE. 83

Journal. Certain important information is distributed confidentially
 to chambers of commerce or individual firms. A special register
 is kept in which are entered the names of British firms desirous
of obtaining confidential information on trade openings abroad in
regard to specific branches of trade.
In deciding on applications for admission of names to the register
the chief consideration is whether the business of the firm making
the application is carried on mainly in the interest of British trade.
Confidential information is generally placed at the disposal of the
chambers of commerce of the United Kingdom, when, in the opinion
 of the Commercial Intelligence Branch, reasonable discretion
will be used in its distribution.
Exhibitions branch—This is the other subdepartment of the commercial
 department, and is comparatively new. At the head of if is
a director who acts as secretary for royal commissions specially
named for each exhibition. He superintends the preparations for
exhibitions and the details of organization, and later controls the
staff and gives exhibitors the benefit of his advice. At other times it
is his duty to make the records of past exhibitions available for refsrence,
 to keep himself informed in regard to prospective exhibitions,
and to keep in touch with principal manufacturers and traders and
with chambers of commerce and other trade associations. It is also
his duty to provide information for the India office and the Colonial
office, when required by the Government of India or any of the
Colonies.
The organization of British industry.—A survey of the development
 of English industry and commerce reveals many forias of organization,
 which have held supremacy successively, according as
they seemed to answer the needs and conditions of the periods to
which they belonged.! The fact that English industry was becoming
 in the eighteenth century dependent for its markets and to some
axtent for the supply of its raw materials on distant countries, required
 the initiative and energy of the individual employer to maintain
 the quality of the materials and workmanship and to decide on
the fashion of the goods worth while to produce.” In the old days of
guild regulation and trade monopoly there had been little room for
the personal skill and judgment of the individual manufacturer. But
with the spread of the Industrial Revolution the individualistic character
 of English industry asserted itself most vigorously. English
manufacturers obtained greater freedom from Government restriction.
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century a spirit of independence
 had permeated British trade organizations, making them
distinct from the merchants’ and manufacturers’ guilds of France

1G. R. Carter, The Tendency Toward Industrial Combination, London, 1913, p. 2.
3'W. Cunningbam, The Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times,
ot. 1. The Mercantile System, Cambridge, 1903, p. 4986.