804 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
tariff preference of 20 per cent granted to cement imported from the
United States is offset by the lower shipping-pool freight rates
snjoyed by the German-cement producers, and German exports to
Brazil have increased in recent years. This advantage enjoyed by
the German cartels, together with their dumping policy and their
ability through cooperation to maintain permanent salesmen in
foreign markets, is largely responsible for their extensive foreign
trade.!

[n addition to cartels, other forms of concentration in the nature of
fusions and communities of interest exist in the German cement
industry. There is a general association known as the Union of
German Portland Cement Manufacturers (Verband der Portland
Zement Fabrikanten), through whose work the German product has
been largely standardized as to form and quality and compares
favorably with that of competitors. A number of cement concerns
are interrelated through common shareholdings. This is the case
frequently among members of different cartels, and tends to a certain
extent towards cartel cooperation. Combinations exist also between
cement factories and organizations, and construction companies,
electrical works, barrel factories, and coal mines cither through
ownership or common shareholdings.®
GREAT BRITAIN.

Great Britain is the third largest producer of Portland cement
and the second largest exporter to Latin America. The industry is
highly centralized through two large combinations, viz, the Associated
 Portland Cement Manufacturers (Itd.) and the British
Portland Cement Manufacturers (Ltd.), which are closely connected.
The Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (Ltd.).—This combination,
 organized in 1900, is the leading power in the industry in
Great Britain. It was an amalgamation of 27 firms and it effected
agreements with four other firms which brought them into harmonious
 relations with the combination. The combined output of
these 31 firms in 1899 amounted to 89 per cent of thie total production
 of the Thames and Medway Valley districts, where fourfifths
 of all English cement is manufactured.
Some of the concerns included also produced lime, brick, and special
 kinds of cement, and owned engineering works. Consequently
the combination can supply a varied line of building materials and
can make its own repairs.’ Its issued capital in 1914 was over

1 Part TI, pp. 4345.
2Ibid pp. 42-43.
+E. Madelung, op. cit., p. 56.
'H. Levy, Monopoly and Competition (London), 1911, p. 223.
YH. W. Macrosty. The Trust Movement in British Industry (London), 1907, p. 109,