298 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

proportion to the demand and in places where demands are more
numerous.!
Special comptoirs for iron and steel products.—In addition to
the pig-iron comptoirs described above, numerous other comptoirs
have been organized for the sale of the various pig-iron derivatives.
A concern that produces a surplus of pig iron, which it sells at home
and abroad, and also produces a variety of iron and steel products,
such as beams, carriage springs, axles, etc., may be a member of as
many domestic comptoirs as there are separate classifications of its
products. Metallurgy in France has offered excellent opportunities
for the formation of these various selling agencies owing to the concentrated
 condition of the industry, especially in those branches the
products of which do not run to great varieties, such as beams, iron
and steel pipes, etc. These products are, as a rule, manufactured
without the individual mark of the producer, and the articles of one
manufacturer may be interchanged with those of another. On the
whole these comptoirs are modeled after the Comptoir de Longwy,
although with variations in organization and operation which result
from the peculiarities of each branch of the industry.
The more important of these organizations are:
The Comptoir des Poutrelles &gt; (beams), the Comptoir des Aciers
Thomas (basic Bessemer steel), the Comptoir des Paumelles (hinge
plates), Comptoir des Essieux (axles), Comptoir des Ressorts de
Carrosserie (carriage springs), Comptoir des Fers 3 Cheval (horseshoes),
 Comptoir des Toles et Larges Plats (sheets and slabs),
Comptoir des Tubes en Fer et en Acier (iron and steel tubes),
Comptoir des Quincailleries Réunies de I'Est (hardware), Comptoir
des Grillages en Fil de Fer Galvanisé (galvanized iron screens),
Comptoir de la Clouterie (nails). In 1914 another combination
was formed embracing steel products which had been hitherto nonsyndicated,
 especially commercial steel.®
Regarding the steel-rail industry, it can not be said that there is
in France a regularly organized syndicate in the manufacture of
rails; for “those interested, considering that this product was gensrally
 sold: to large railroad companies or to departments and communes,
 feared that the State would take offense at the monopolizing
by the iron masters of an article of such prime necessity for public
administration. Therefore their syndical organization with respect

+ Obrin, op. cit., pp. 157-159.
1 Chastin, op. cit., p. 81.
}H, Prévost, Les Ententes entre Producteurs en France (Charleville), 1904, pp. T4,
20-99, 211; Comité des Forges de France, Annuaire, 1914-15, p. 705.
+ Obrin, op. cit., pp. 122, 123.
I Kartell-Rundschau. May, 1914, p. 428.