COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 103

According to the official report of the investigation (Enquéte) of
industrial cartels made by the German imperial department of the
interior in 1903-4, there existed 385 cartels at that time in Germany,
which were distributed among the different industries as follows:?

Tarre 8-—Cartels in various German industries.

Coal meee
Iron. eee mmm
Metals (excluding iron) ..————.—
Chemicals momma
TRE LI E8..  m mimirsish imiirmsig m s sms
Leather and rubber meee
WOO eee mem me meme
Paneer ——__.

Cartels.
19
62
23
AR

1088... covery sioner
Bricks ee—-Stones
 and earths. oo cece
0) FX 2 ————
Foodstuffs vem
Electrical meme
Ot hOrS eee ee me mmm nnn

Cartels.
eee 10
mmm 132
- 27
4
7
2
7

These 385 cartels comprised about 12,000 plants, not including
the numerous brickyards. With regard to extent, size, and output
capacity, the mining and the chemical industries ranked first.
In 1911 a German cartel expert, Dr. Tschierschky, editor of the
Kartell-Rundschau. estimated the number of German cartels at from
550 to 600.
The number of cartels in any country gives only the most general
indication of the degree to which competition is restricted. A single
cartel in an industry may mark the highest degree of concentrated
control. On the other hand, in a local industry like bricks, a large
number of local cartels may control each its local market. The importance
 of cartels in general, or in any particular industry, is not
shown by their number.
The large German banks have played a potent part in the development
 of cartels and combinations, particularly in the mining, the iron
and steel, the electrical, the potash, and the chemical industries. The
four great Berlin banks, viz, the Deutsche Bank, the Dresdner Bank,
the Darmstidter Bank, and the Disconto-Gesellschaft, dominate the
German banking world? Until recently there was a fifth, the A.
Schaa ffhausen’scher Bankverein, now absorbed by the Disconto. The
A. Schaaffhausen’scher Bankverein was formerly particularly active
in organizing cartels, and maintained a special organization, the
“ Syndikatskontor d. A. SchaafThausen’schen Bankvereins G. m. b.
H.,” to act as selling agency and clearing house for industrial combines.t
 With their extensive system of directors among industrials,
and with their participation in financing such enterprises, the great

1 Denkschrift ber d. Kartellwesen, 1906, v. 24.
1S. Tschierschky, op. cit.,, p. 52.
31, Pohle, Die Entwicklung d. deutschen Wirtschaftslebens 1m letzen Jahrhundert.
1913, pp. 31 and 145.
&amp; Otto Jeidels. * Das Verhiiltnis 4. deutschen Grossbanken zur Industrie,” pp. 123-125.