COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 159
are controlled by trusts with holding companies. By merging together
 nearly all of the manufacturing plants in the country in
their respective industries, some of these trusts have obtained what
amounts to virtual monopolies. In the metal industry, for example,
whose exports in 1913 were valued at 16,412,512 kroners (over
$4,000,000), two concerns produce approximately 80 per cent of the
total annual output, and operate under a price agreement. The
sugar trust (Svenska Socker Fabriks) controls 59 per cent of the
sntire Swedish production of beet sugar—raw and refined. It is
capitalized at 135,000,000 kroners. In the canned fish business, one
of the important export industries, a trust has absorbed 15 companies
 and has agreements with still others. Its capital stock
amounts to 1,000,000 kroners. The textile trust has succeeded in the
building of a very powerful organization. It combines 18 companies.
 The cork trust has a capital of 6,840,000 kroners. Its exports
 go chiefly to Russia, Finland, and Denmark. The coal trust
completely controls the Swedish output of coal, and in addition
it has succeeded in controlling the deposits of fire clay in Sweden.
Its capital amounts, to 15,000,000 kroners. - One of the largest and
most powerful trusts is the iron-ore trust. It controls 80 per cent
of the entire production of iron ore in Sweden. Its capital stock
amounts to 91,000,000 kroners.
The Netherlands.—The people of the Netherlands are engaged
largely in commerce and excel in special lines of agriculture and
intensive farming, while manufactures have not been developed to
the same extent as in the neighboring countries. Consequently, the
movement toward industrial combination is not so pronounced
among them and has less influence upon their economic activities.
In 1912 the imports of articles of food and live animals amounted
in round numbers to $435,000,000, and exports to $420,000,000; raw
materials imported, $640,000,000; exported, $470,000,000; manufactured
 articles imported, $305,000,000; exported, $255,000,000. The
total imports reached $1,450,000,000, and total exports, $1,250,000,000.
Manufactures, therefore, constituted only about one-fifth of the total
sxports.
The Government maintains a tolerant attitude toward industrial
and trade combinations, forbidding fraudulent agreements affecting
prices, but recognizing the validity of cartel contracts. International
 syndicates exert a considerable influence upon the industries
of the country. The Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate, controlling
 coal dealers’ cartel associations,’ sold in Holland in 1909 nearly
five million tons of coal, coke, and briquets, or over one million tons
1 British Statistical isteact for Foreign Countries, 1912, p. 102. The figures are for
# gpecial trade.”
3 Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on Trust Laws and Unfair Competition
Mar. 15, 1915, pp. 283-284.
s Baumgarten &amp; Meszlény, Kartelle und Trusts, p. 176, and PF. M. Wibaut, Trusts en
Rartellen, Amsterdam, 1903, v. 108.