234 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
mileage of the country it is the largest single user of rails and rolling
 stock, and purchases over 70 per cent of the output of the carbuilding
 factories, locomotive works, and rail mills of the country.
The committee also includes orders placed by private railroads in
‘he quotas allotted to each mill. These railroad-equipment syndicates
 are the “Prodvagon” or railroad-car syndicate, the locomotive-works
 syndicate, and the rail-mill syndicate.
Attempts have been made to build up an export business in iron
ind steel products. Thus far the amount of exports has been pracically
 negligible.
An important feature of the Gvozd, or Provoloka, was the compulsory
 participation of its members in the export trade subject to
the regulations of the board of the syndicate approved by the general
meeting of the stockholders. The agreement! provided that any
losses which the syndicate should sustain in the export trade should
be refunded to the member whose product was exported in proportion
 to his share in the syndicate, but that such refund should in no
case exceed 20 per' cent of the surplus obtained from price increases
and additional payments due to the respective member after the
approval of the annual report of the syndicate by the stockholders.
There is quite a marked difference between the export pricé and
the domestic’ price of many iron and steel products. The export
prices on rails are much lower than the Government purchase prices.
While the Government pays 112 copecks per pood (1 5/9 cents per
pound) for rails, the foreign orders have been executed at 66 copecks
per pood (11/12 cent per pound).? The “ Prodameta ” sells iron
parts of railroad cars intended for export 20 to 30 per cent below
the price quoted for the home market.
The losses sustained in the foreign trade are made up by the
profits secured from the high prices paid by the Government. The
Government representatives have admitted that they are paying 22
per cent more than the export prices, and a representative of the
metallurgical mills has stated that the difference exceeds 25 per cent.*
The railroad freight rates in Russia are fixed for the purpose of
increasing export trade. The export freight rates to the ports of
Nikolaiev and Mariupol, on the Black Sea, are from 4 to 10 copecks
per pood (5/18 of a cent to 7/18 of a cent per pound) lower than
the general freight rates. These lower rates are granted upon the
production of customs certificates of exportation.®* Furthermore, the
Government permits to car-building works producing for export
free importation of the necessary raw materials.

{ Sec. 18, Kafengaus, op. cit, p. 145.
! Promyshlennost 1 Torgovlia (Petrograd), 1908, No. 22, p. 563.
! Stenographlic reports of the Metallurgical Conference, 1907, p. 81. Quoted by Kafengaus,
 op. cit, p. 144,
b Ibid., p. 143.
* Torgovo-Promyshlennala Gazeta (Petrograd), 1907, Ne. 17,
} Ibid., 1908, Neo. B57 ; also Kafengaus, op. cit, p. 142.