128 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
commerce and languages, to the expense of which the Government
sontributed a third.
Promotion of foreign trade.—Belgium had many commercial
schools which were subsidized by the State, such as the High School
of Commerce at Antwerp, the Commercial and Consular School at
Lidge, similar institutions at Mons and Louvain, and other cities.
These and various industrial institutions the Government subsidized
with more than 5,000,000 francs a year.?
A system of traveling endowments which were awarded annually
to graduates of the Belgian universities and commercial schools was
maintained, whereby the recipients were sent abroad to study economic
 conditions and render reports on the results of their studies?
The Belgian Government maintained a very elaborate commercial
museum which was a division of the bureau of commerce and consulates
 of the foreign office, and had at its service the entire consular
and diplomatic staff of the Government. The museum collected
samples of the products of foreign countries and kept them on exhibition
 for the benefit of Belgian business men. Two lines of goods
were collected—those which Belgium could export and those which
it could import to advantage. Special appropriations were made for
the use of consular officers in purchasing these samples.
The museum also collected samples of goods that superseded those
of Belgian origin, showing why the domestic goods failed to succeed
abroad, on account of poor packing, failure to be finished according
 to the taste and usage of foreign countries, etc. An elaborate
library was maintained by the museum; railroad, textile, and agrisultural
 experts were retained ; and commercial agents were stationed
in the most important manufacturing centers to report on the offerings
 and needs of manufacturers.*
As far back as 1865 Belgium adopted the unrestricted mostfavored-nation
 policy with regard to Germany, whereby every favor,
every immunity, every reduction in import or export duties, which
one of the high contracting parties accorded to a third power, was
immediately and unconditionally extended to the other.
Similar treaties and special treaties looking to the interests of
Belgian commerce have been made with more than 40 different
nations, including the United States, 11 South American countries,
and all the principal nations of Europe, China, and Japan.®

11a Belgique Minist2re de I'Industrie et de Travail, 1905, p. 394.
2 Annuaire Statistique de la Belgique, 1912, p. LXIIL
8N. I, Stone, Promotion of Foreign Commerce in Europe and the United States, 1907.
p. 16.
t Ibid., pp. 16 and 16.
} Fisk, International Commercial Policies, 1911, p, 171. ,
VPraités de Commerce et de Navigation. 8rd ed., Novembre, 1900, pp. 1-427.