268 'REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

to win the market, whether they made a profit in the first year’s
business or not. This association of manufacturers, however, broke
up in 1912}
Tue MancHURIAN CorTOoN EXPORTERS’ ASSOCIATION.&gt;—This organization
 was formed April 1, 1914. Its declared object was to enhance
the reputation of Japanese cotton goods in Manchurian markets by
stopping the export of goods of inferior quality and to maintain
standard prices. The members of this association were favored for
a time by the Government with rebates in freight and steamer rates
and also by a remission of duties and charges assessed against traders
of other nations.! The Mitsui Bussan Kaisha, known as Mitsui &amp; Co.,
is connected with this association as it was with the Export Syndicate.
 Through it and its branches the Japanese merchant and
exporter is kept in touch with all variations in market conditions.
The company and the members of the association get a 10 per cent
freight rebate on the Mitsui Co.'s ships on cotton piece goods to
various points in Chosen and China. Moreover by a special arrangement
 between the Mitsui Co. and the tax officers located in the principal
 markets of Manchuria the former by paying to the latter a stipulated
 amount per annum become exempt from the payment of the
local taxes, thereby obtaining an advantage over foreign competitors
who pay the local taxes.*
Thus the development of Japanese commerce in Manchuria is
stimulated not only by an efficient organization but also by the cooperation
 of the Japanese Government, Japanese merchants and Japanese
financiers, whereby subsidies are allowed to steamship companies, rebates
 made to Japanese shippers by the railways, and capital provided
 by the Government on advantageous terms for merchants.
The South Manchuria Railway Co. will, it is stated, grant a reduction
in freight rates of 10 per cent to customers who will guarantee a certain
 number of loads of freight per year. The Exporters’ Association
is in a position to take advantage of this offer while the ordinary foreign
 firms are not.
A large American manufacturer of cotton goods ascribes the competition
 he has met in China to Japanese combination. He says:

The Japanese combination fostered by the Government has seriously
 interfered with our business in China, and has practically supnlanted
 us in that market.
In Japan practically every branch of the textile industry, including
 cotton goods, has its guild of manufacturers, buyers, and sellers,
t Pt. II, p. 224; and Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Special Agents Series, No. 86, 1914.
3p. 124, 125, 256.
© Also referred to as Japanese Colton Exporters’ Association.
sCommerce Reports, July 22, 1015, p. 355, and Pt. II, p. 225.
$Pt. 11, pp. 225-227: Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Special Agents Series. No. 107,
1916. pn. 106-107: and Special Agents Series. No. 86, 1914, pp. 145, 148, 240, 256.