236 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

competition of foreigners. Its members are not permitted to purchase
 foreign supplies of certain kinds of goods; but the unusual
conditions which prevail in the Italian market have compelled thera
to seek affiliations with foreign manufacturers and exporters.*
The organizing of the Italian iron and steel industry was held
to be necessary for a number of reasons. The financial condition of
the industry was uncertain; producers. were overloaded with stocks
and were short of funds; and economy in production and distribution
needed to be effected.
However, with the organization of the industry in Italy, production
 was regulated, competition brought to a standstill, and expenses
reduced. The result was an agreement between the Italian syn-Jicate
 and the German combination whereby dumping was reduced,
the Getmans agreeing to sell first at 124 lire and later at a still
higher figure.?

UNITED STATES.

Existing cooperation.—Most of the export trade in blast-furnace
and rolling-mill products from the United States is already highly
organized. One company—the United States Steel Products Co.—
handles a large proportion of the total of such exports. This company,
 a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation, handles
all of the foreign business of the latter corporation. The Steel
Products Co. has, for the Steel Corporation, in respect to its foreign
sales, a somewhat analogous relation to that of the central selling
agency, the Stahlwerksverband A. G., to the large steel syndicate of
Germany.
The United States Steel Products Co. was organized in 1903. In
1904 its export shipments were 1,123,323 net tons, valued at
$31,388,139, and in 1912 the shipments were 2,587,436 tons, valued at
$91,984,289.* In 1913 this company had 268 foreign agencies, in
about 60 countries. About 20 of the larger offices were situated in
cities like London, Antwerp, Paris, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. Tt
also had about 40 foreign warehouses, situated in Antwerp, Johannesburg,
 Sydney, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Singapore, Valparaiso, Rio
de Janeiro, and other places. It ordinarily had under charter from
35 to 40 steamers for the transportation of its goods, which are sold
as far north as Iceland and as far south as the Straits of Magellan
and the South Sea Islands. To develop its foreign business, it
has a corps of men trained for their special work. In Buenos Aires
it maintains engineers and a construction force to design and build
steel structures and buildings. In this way the foreign business has
been increased at a much lower percentage of cost. Prior to the
"1 Some Aspects of the Irom and Steel Industry in Europe, Bureau of Foreign and
Domestic Commerce, Special Consular Report No. 71, p. 18, Laghorn, Italy.
1 Riforma Soclale, 1914, p. 219.
3 Transcript of Record, United States v. United States Steel Corporation, Defendant's
Brhibits. Vol. II. No. 88.