94 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

The war has caused such‘an increase in demand and sich a rise in
prices that apparently the producers have not deemed it necessary to
form another general combination since the dissolution of the British
Salt Association.
Organization for foreign trade.—Great Britain has the most
comprehensive organization for foreign trade of any nation. As
already stated, it includes a network of foreign trade banks, the
great British merchant marine, and all the hundreds of enterprises
in foreign countries all over the world which ar® under British control
 or management by virtue of British investments. The British
manufacturers, also, have the specialized knowledge of foreign customs,
 demands, markets, and trade conditions that are slowly built
up from years of experience in export business.
The special agencies for the development of foreign trade are
chiefly of two kinds—export merchant houses and combinations
among manufacturers to provide direct representation and organizations
 of their own in foreign markets.
Export MERCHANTS. —British export trade has been built up, in
general, by merchants; men not concerned with manufacture, but
with buying and selling only. In various lines, strictly mercantile
houses still control the business. In others, manufacturers have
gone more or less into the export trade. The newer branches of
manufacture may perhaps have a greater tendency toward direct
representation, while the older lines, with channels of trade long
established through the export houses, tend to continue in them.
Electrical manufacturers, for instance, representing the newest great
industry, appear to look after their own foreign interests, while the
export trade in cotton goods passes almost wholly through the hands
of Manchester merchants. (For a description of conditions in
the cotton trade, see p. 248.) There are also, however, inherent differences
 between these two industries which strengthen the divergence
 of exporting method. A very important part of the electrical
 trade consists of special installations, furnished on bids, which
only the men directly concerned in such work can intelligently make;
while cotton goods are made for the market and must reach their
consumers through mercantile channels.
The movement toward a more direct connection of British manufacturers
 with foreign buyers has taken two general directions; on
the one hand, manufacturers, as in electrical and other engineering
trades, have themselves gone after foreign business; on the other
hand, export merchants have added to their mercantile business
some financial interest in manufacturing.
This second development is especially noteworthy in such great
merchant houses as Jardine, Matheson &amp; Co. This is one of the
oldest houses in the China trade, with an organization extending