CONDITIONS IN PARTICULAR INDUSTRIES. 223

Combinations in the Scottish malleable-iron trade have been
mown for nearly thirty years, but these combinations were of a
ose and temporary character. In 1910 an agreement was reported
to have been concluded among the Scottish malleable-iron makers for
the regulation of output for both home and export trade and for an
advance in the export price.!
British Rail Makers’ Association.—The history of the combination
 of British manufacturers of steel rails is intimately connected
with that of the international rail pool or agreement (discussed under
 the head of International Syndicates, pp. 348-350), which had its
beginning in 1883. This international agreement, generally, left
the home and some of the colonial markets exclusively to the British
 manufacturers. The protection given by the agreement to the
English makers is seen in the statistics of imports and prices. In
1900 and 1901, when the United States works were not included in
the syndicate, a difference of less than $4 per ton in the average*
prices of the two countries led to an export of over 20,000 tons from
America to England. In 1907, after the United States works were
alleged to have entered into the agreement to respect the home markets
 of the other members of the syndicate, only 474 tons were exported
 from America to all Europe, notwithstanding a greater difference
 in price and about the same quantity of total exports.®
The first form of the combination in Great Britain was a temporary
 one which proved unable to restrict competition between English
rail-making firms, and so a form of joint sales agency was adopted.
The number of firms which manufacture rails is about 20, but
only about a dozen manufacture all classes of rails, and most of these
are large concerns, engaging in all the steps, from the raw material
lo the finished article.®
Practically all of the rail producers of Great Britain belong to
the combination. The regulation of production has been very effective,
 and the combination has succeeded in maintaining the price of
rails at a remunerative figure when the potential output was largely
'n excess of the demand.
While rails are not as important an item as they once were in the
British steel output,® England still enjoys an extensive foreign trade
in this product because of a practical monopoly of colonial markets
and sometimes in countries in which a great deal of railway construction
 is carried out by means of English capital.

1 C. Hood, Iron and Steel (London), p. 135. :
2H, Levy, Monopoly and Competition (London), 1913, p. 262,
1 Carter, op. cit., pp. 209, 253.
t Levy, op. cit, p. 261; Carter, op. cit, p. 258; Hood, op. cit, Dp. 141,
JIron and Coal Trades Review (London), Jan. 2, 1914, p. 27.