134 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE,

tion for the purpose of developing trade in the Orient. The main
office was established in Milan, where a committee of five administer
the work of the syndicate. Its main function is the arbitration ot
disputes. Members who have oriental trade are required to employ
the agents of the syndicate.*
Forms of combination.—It is only in recent years that commercial
sombinations have attracted much attention in Italy. Aside from the
compulsory combinations established by the Government in the sulphur
 and citrus-fruit industries, but three or four other organizations
have come into prominence. These are the Agenzia Commissionaria
Metallurgica, established in Florence in 1896 by a dozen or more iron
and steel concerns; the Unione Siderurgica, a later metallurgical combination
 which was formed, together with its selling agency, Societa
Ferro e Acciaio Laminati, in. 1911; the Istituto Cotoniero Italiano,
2 cotton combination; and the Unione Italiana Concimi, a superphosphate
 combination. All these combinations have followed the French
somptoir plan, as illustrated by the Comptoir Métallurgique de
Longwy, by establishing a central selling agency, apportioning sales,
and fixing prices. They have also taken a step further and placed
limitations upon production, as in the case of the cotton and the superphosphate
 combinations. Special attention has also been paid to the
evelopment of exports, the Istituto Cotoniero Italiano having succeeded,
 during its short period of operation prior to the European
war, in materially increasing its foreign trade. Some account of the
iron and textile combinations is given on pages 235 and 263.
The persistence of economic alignments brought about by the old
divisions of territory, and the slow industrial development of Italy,
are held to have prevented that country from moving forward along
this line as certain other European countries have done.” The movement,
 however, while recent is not the less powerful: Even prior to
1901 the concentration of business within the hands of a few was going
forward by means of mergers in such industries as matches, medicinal
and industrial oils? and the electrical industry.*
Government regulation of combinations.—In the Italian codes,
both penal and civil, provisions are made which are applicable to
the operations of combinations on prices, etc. But the law has been
liberally interpreted, and no decisions have been made against
somptoirs and kindred combinations.’
The Government itself seems to have made no official investigations
 into the operations of such organizations.

+ G. M. Fisk, International Commercial Policies, New York, 1907, pp. 211 and 212.
13. Chastin, Les Trusts et Syndicats de Producteurs, p. 98.
3s Cossa, I Sindacatl Industriali, 1901, p. 56.
+f) Martin Saint-Léon, Cartells et Trusts, 1909, p. 108.
5 Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on Trust Laws and Unfair Competition,
Washington, March 15, 1915, pp. 273-276.