CONDITIONS IN PARTICULAR INDUSTRIES. 331

organization of a number of combinations among producers. Each
basin except that in Namur had its own distinct syndicate. In the
basin of the Centre there was the Comptoir de Vente des Charbons
du Bassin du Centre, a selling organization for five companies whose
total output in 1907 was 1,870,000 tons. The comptoir purchased
coal from its members (assigning quotas at intervals) and sold to
the market, fixing its selling and buying price. In the Province of
Liége the Syndicat des Charbonnages Liégeois was similarly organized
 as a comptoir or selling company. Its annual sales amounted
to about 3,850,000 tons. The Association des Producteurs de Charbons
 Maigres du Bassin de Charleroi et de la Basse Sambre was a
combination of soft-coal producers in the region of Charleroi. It
sold all the soft coal produced by its members, except certain specified
grades. In the basin of Mons there was a more or less secret and informal
 combination of mining companies known as the Association
Houillére du Couchant de Mons, which fixed prices and unified conditions
 of sale.
Between a number of these regional organizations there were inter-syndicate
 agreements, such, for example, as that of the syndicate
of the Centre with the syndicate of Liége whereby prices for common
 markets were fixed upon and stipulations were made that each
would refrain from selling in the territory of the other.
In addition to these regional and interregional combinations in
Belgium there were other still more comprehensive which became national
 in their extent. The Société Générale de Belgique has 11
members, who together produced more than one-fourth of the coal
in the country. This organization, together with the Syndicat des
Adjudications, apportioned among the several regional syndicates
the Government contracts for coal for the State railways. In the
allied coke industry the Syndicat des Cokes Belges comprised nearly
all the producers in the country and controlled all the sales operations
 of members for coke to be used in blast furnaces, steelworks,
lime and cement works, and carbonate of lime factories. The last
agreement term expired December 31. 1915.

FRANCE.

In 1912 France produced 45,534,448 short tons of coal, over 67 per
cent of which was mined in the two adjacent Departments of Pas-de-Calais
 and Nord in the extreme northern part of the country. The
single important coal cartel which down to 1911 had been organized
and successfully operated in France was formed in these two Departments.
 Before the war the Office de Statistique des Houilleres du
Nord et du Pas-de-Calais controlled about 67 per cent of the total
production of the region. This organization is classed among the
looser forms of cartel associations, as no central selling agency or