CONDITIONS IN PARTICULAR INDUSTRIES. 221

small number of important firms in each district made it comparatively
 easy to secure adherence to the agreements, but the fact
remains that prices were steadier during a year of bad conditions
‘han anywhere else in the iron and steel trade.’
After a successful career of over four years this association in July,
1909.2 collapsed and a sudden depreciation in price was the immediate
consequence. The cause of the failure was attributed to outside
competition? In December, 1913, following a year of low prices,
the association was reestablished, all the producers in the country
joining.* Instead of merely agreeing to a minimum quotation, the
reconstructed association proposed to control prices through the regulation
 of output. The increase in price of galvanized sheets during
1914, when the prices of iron generally remained stationary, is attributed
 to the association. Following the reestablishment of the
association, business conditions in this branch of the industry were
improved and export trade greatly expanded, especially to India,
Argentina, and Australia. Ordinarily 90 per cent of the galvanized
steel manufacture is exported.
South Wales Siemens Steel Bar Association.—Up to 1900 the
Welsh steel manufacturers enjoyed a monopoly in tin-plate bars, but
since that time the English market has been invaded, first by German
 and later by American manufacturers.® For some years dumping
 from Germany had prevented the formation of combinations,
but when this ceased in 1904 the cartel movement began to spread.
In 1906 the tin-plate bar combination, known as the South Wales
Siemens Steel Bar Association, was formed for the purpose of raising
 and regulating Welsh prices; and the conditions of manufacture
and trade were so favorable that its efforts were largely successful
for a time. Production, and consumption as well, is largely concentrated,
 there being, when the association was organized, only 13
firms in that section making tin-plate bars. The association, while
making no attempt to control output, did control prices and succeeded
 in increasing them for a time, but with the renewal of German
 competition and unfavorable markets there came a radical drop
in prices between 1907 and 1909.7
The loss of Canadian and other markets to the American manutacturers
 has necessitated the reduction of the Welsh output. This
was accomplished by an agreement or combination in February, 1914,

1 Levy, op. cit.,, pp. 231, 232.
2 Carter, op. cit., p. 244, gives the date as 1910.
8 Iron Age, Jan. 15, 1914, p. 196.
t Tron and Coal Trades Review (London), Jan. 2, 1914, p. 27, and Jan. 1, 1915, p. 9: the
“hamber of Commerce Journal, Trade Review, January, 1914, p. 15.
5 Iron and Coal Trades Review (London), Jan. 1, 1915, p. 9.
8J. H. Jones, The Tin Plate Industry (London), 1914, p. 156.
1Levy, op. cit., p. 232; Carter, op. cit,, p. 211; Jones, op. cit., pp. 162-163.