108 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE,

Cartels in particular industries.—The adaptability to cartelization
 is greatest in the field of raw materials and semifinished prodacts.
 In general, staples and bulk articles or goods manufactured in
large quantities, and not subject to frequent and wide variations in
quality, are most readily covered by cartel agreements. Products of
art and articles of style showing individual skill, technique, and
taste are but infrequently syndicated.! On the other hand, in the
manufacture of glass, cellulose, printing paper, leather, skins and
furs, food products, and beer, flourishing cartels exist. Even in
“ specialties produced by artistic handicraft,” where it was impossible
to establish a uniform price list, a price cartel was organized by
having an expert appraiser establish the price of each individual
article.?
The mining industries, the coal, iron and steel, the chemical and
iye-color industries, lend themselves readily to cartel organization,
and in such industries cartels have been highly developed. The
Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate is the chief feature of the
German coal mining industry. The Stahlwerksverband dominates
the steel industry and has been one of the chief agencies in the rapid
axtension of Germany’s foreign trade in steel products. These
:artels, as well as those in the textile and chemical industries, are described
 in detail in the discussion of competitive conditions in these
industries in Chapter V. Moreover, the special report of Consul
General Lay, Berlin, contains descriptions of the more important
sartels. (See Pt. II, pp. 3-89.) -
The only cartel discussed here is the potash combination (Kali
Syndikat). It is different from other German cartels because a
special law of the Imperial Government with regard to this indus
try facilitates its organization, but it illustrates the attitude of the
Imperial Government toward combination, the regulation of ouput,
the fixing of prices, etc.
The Potash Syndicate.*—The German Potash Syndicate occupies
a unique position in that it has virtually an absolute monopoly * as
no commercially important deposits of potash have yet been discovered
 in any other country. The capital invested in this industry
up to 1912 has been estimated at 766,535,000 marks [$190,000,0001].°
Potash being more or less indispensable in agriculture, medicine,

1 8. Tschierschky, op. cit., p. 48,
1Tbid., p. 34; Kartell-Rundschau, 1908, p. 323.
1 Tor a discussion of the production and sale of potash salts, with special reference
to the German industry and the German potash syndicate, and to sales in the United
States, see Report of Federal Trade Commission on the Fertilizer Industry, 1916, pp.
104-119.
+ H. Bonlkowsky, Der Einfluss d. indastriellen Kartelle auf d. Handel in Deutschland,
1908, p. 45.
sH. A. Giebel. Die Fimanzierung d. Kaliindustrie, 1912, p. 20,