COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 97

material imported into China in any one average year. Each of the
firms eritering must agree to work in unison with other members of
the combine in the case of contracts for combined plant, and no firm
will be accepted for more than two lines of its manufacture; and no
two firms in the combine will be accepted for similar plant. For
instance, if A. B. are represented by the combine for textile machinery,
 no other house will be represented for this line.
The organization in China will, we understand, be similar to that
used by the most successful of our competitors, as follows: At each
of the selected ports and industrial centers there will be a godown
in charge of a junior Chinese-speaking European assistant, assisted
by a market compradore, and staff, all of which will be guaranteed
men, which will deal with the local trade and sell mill, builders’,
carpenters’, and general hardware, mining steel, high-speed steel,
bars, etc., mill gearing, shafting, rigging, anticorrosive and other
compounds, plates, sheets, corrugated sheets, electrical stores, engineering
 stores, etc., which materials will be the property of the
material members of the combine, and which will be necessary for
the trade of the particular center; and the selling center will act
as a head office for the district that it is in and as a buying depot
for ores, metals, and country produce, and attached to this depot will
be a senior local asistant, who, together with a local compradore,
will be employed exclusively in endeavoring to obtain plant contracts
in the district to which he is attached. For instance, in the case of
Hankow the senior assistant would be required to know Hupeh and
the surrounding districts thoroughly and would be required to keep
in close touch with the Sino-Japanese directorate of os to
watch the developments of the Chenshih copper area, the Kweichow
and Wuchang mining and industrial districts, the Yingcheng spelter
field, the Hupeh oil, cotton, and other local industries, and to keep
close touch with the local Government officials, and generally, through
his compradore, to use his best endeavor within his district to infAuence
 orders for all kinds of plant. To commence with, it is proposed
 to put such depots at Hankow, Mukden, Canton, Shanghai, and
Peking, and the last named place, owing to its being the seat of the
Federal Government and in close touch with Hankow, Mukden,
Shanghai, and Tientsin by rail, will be the headquarters of the managing
 director in China; and this office will also be the office of the
general compradore, who through his assistant compradores throughout
 the country, will be in a position to obtain information and influence
 orders in the same way as our competitors do. Attached to the
Peking, Canton, and Hankow offices will be competent mechanical
engineer assistants, all of whom have had Chinese experience; and
the whole of the staff employed will be men of experience in the
different localities in which they are used, whilst the general compradore
 will be a Chinese gentleman of high position and ability. In
practice the method used will be to make the selling godowns pay the
ost of the traveling organization of representatives, so that the
profits arising from the sale of plant will be net profits.
The cost of such an organization being considerable, manufacturers
joining will be asked to guarantee the cost, or a proportion of the
zost, during the first period of five years, after which the organization
 will be self-supporting; and as this cost is estimated at £60,000
27241°—16———8