[58 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

Another ‘characteristic feature of the industrial organization of
Austria-Hungary is the large number of small producers who belong
io cartels. These producers regard the cartel as a device to protect
their just economic interests by decreasing or eliminating overproduction,
 price cutting, excessive credits, expensive advertising,
numerous commercial travelers, rebates, and large losses through
Jepreciation of stock and through dubious accounts.” Moreover,
many middle-class producers look upon the cartel as a sort of mutual
insurance against trusts. They think it gives a fair chance to all
and prevents the big concerns from absorbing the smaller ones.
The banks have assumed a leading part in the organization of
sartels in Austria. Some bank usually finances the organization
and enforces the agreements entered into by the parties to the cartel.
Such influence of banks is especially strong in the textile cartels.
As early as 1907 the Allgemeine Verkehrsbank in Vienna organized
 a new credit institution, the “ Zentralverkauf,” for the purpose
of selling on commission and consigning merchandise of noncompeting
 firms and uniting of competing concerns into common sales
agencies? The numerous industrial interests of the Anglo-Oesterreichische
 Bank in Vienna chartered in 1863 include railroads, coal,
sugar, electricity, petroleum, canned goods, rice, salt, fertilizers, and
panking enterprises.® The Deutsche Bank is the promoter of the
large, newly organized Ungarische Erdgas Gesellschaft (the Hungarian
 Natural Gas Co.) which is expected to become a member of
the petroleum combination.
Since 1914 there has existed in Austria a special cartel bank, the
so-called Kontrollbank, which is in its turn controlled by the Austrian
 bank cartel.* The function of this Kontrollbank is to regulate
the collection of payments due to the various cartels by the banks.
This function was previously in the hands of the Oesterreichisch-Ungarische
 Bank. Up to the time of the organization of the Kartellhank
 the Oesterreichisch-Ungarische Bank had received no complaints
 from the cartels of irregularities in collections. But it is
supposed that the new bank will handle the matter of enforcement
of cartel agreements with more rigor.
Sweden.—In Sweden industrial concentration has been carried
far, and has taken the form of trusts rather than of cartels and
syndicates. While there are cartels among manufacturers of lime,
brick, beer, etc., and syndicates in the window-glass, artificial fertilizer,
 paper and other industries, nearly all the leading industries
18, Tschierschky, Grundlagen der Kartellentwicklung in Deutschland wi Ussterveioh,
May 14, 1912, Wien, p. 21.
1 Handels-Museum, Feb, 14, 1907.
3. Marowitz, Fiinfzig Jahre Geschichte einer Wiener Bank, Zeltschrift f. Volkswirtachaft,
 Sozialpolitik u. Verwaltung, Wien, V. 23, 1914, p. 660.
s Rartell-Rundschaa, 1914, Heft 3, p. 229.