122 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE,

‘ried involving the rights of comptoirs to limit production and fix
prices, the courts generally upholding the comptoir.?
France attempts no compulsory organization of syndicates such
as those under consideration ; the Government itself, however, maintains
 a very rigid monopoly of tobacco and matches.
Exporr comprorrs.—As has been stated above, the most important
exports of France do not readily lend themselves to combination
among producers. It happens, therefore, that purely export comptoirs
 exist for the most part in industries in which French exports
do not take a prominent part in the world’s international trade, but
some of those developed have been quite successful in extending
French foreign trade.
In the iron industry the Comptoir d’Exportation des Fontes de
Meurthe-et-Moselle operates in close connection with the Comptoir
de Longwy for the exportation of pig iron. . By the end of the third
year of its operation this exporting bureau was handling nearly
three-fourths of the French pig-iron exports.
Within recent years a special export comptoir for the sale of the
various manufactured iron and steel articles controlled by the separate
 comptoirs in this industry has been established and has quintupled
 the export business of its members, having been able to gain a
footing for them in a number of South American countries.
Combinations in particular industries.
Pie tron.—France produces about 5,000,000 tons of pig iron a year,
of which about 3,500,000 come from the department or region of
Meurthe-et-Moselle in the northeast, that is to say, about 70 per cent
of the total. Operating in this region is the Comptoir Métallurgiqué
de Longwy.® (See p. 225.) It has a membership of 18 concerns of
which the aggregate capitalization is about 177,000,000 francs.* The
capacity of their plants is more than 30 per cent of the total French
production and about 45 per cent of that of the region in which they
operate. Figures for the annual domestic sales of pig iron in France
are not available, but they are probably not very large, comparatively,
as many concerns which produce pig iron consume their output by
converting it into other iron and steel products. Hence, the fact that
the comptoir sells between 350,000 and 400,000 tons of pig iron
annually probably gives it a dominant position in the market. .
This comptoir has been in operation since 1876. It is alleged to
have effected many economies in shipping so heavy a product, and to
have cut down general expenses,” besides maintaining prices.

1J. Carlioz, Comptoir de Vente en Commun, Paris, 1905, pp. 38-55.
2P. de Rousiers, Les Syndicats Industriels de Producteurs en France et &amp; 1'Etranger,
Paris, 1912, p, 222.
8 Chastin, op. cit, p T3.
$P, Obrin: Comptoir Métallurgique de Longwy, p. 221.
8 P. de Rousiers, op. cit, pp. 210 and 211