35() REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

sould import with the sanction of the Italian syndicate and a payment
of 25 francs on each imported ton.!
The International Steel Rail Syndicate has been successful in obtaining
 control of almost the entire foreign commerce in rails; from April
1, 1909, to June 16, 1910, the works outside the syndicate obtained
only 3.2 per cent of the total rail orders.?
In November, 1904, an agreement was concluded by producers in
Germany, France, and Belgium with reference to the export of beams
for girders. It was finally extended to July 1, 1915.2 The syndicate
fixed participation quotas and prices.
In 1913 an agreement was reported to have been formed by the
French, Belgian, German, and Austrian iron and steel producers
covering T and U beams, which fixed the quotas of shipments from
one country to the other.*
Other international agreements that have been formed in the steel
trade covered galvanized steel, pipe, rods, wire nails, enamel ware,
pig iron, etc. These agreements generally included Germany, France,
Belgium, and Austria. Some of these international cartels or syndisates
 are very incomplete.
Metals other than iron and steel. —There are international combinations
 of producers in metals other than iron and steel. The world’s
available supply of certain metals is confined to a few countries.
Yet every industrially developed country needs these metals to a
certain extent, a factor which gives an international aspect to the
control over the sources of supply and the production and marketing
 of such metals as zinc, lead, tin, nickel, aluminum, antimony,
manganese, platinum, copper, and silver. In the next section, under
the head of “Combinations of foreign buyers,” the organization and
operation of the great syndicates dealing with most of these metals
will be described. (See pp. 857-369.) At this point it is sufficient
to point out that there is a close connection between various cartels
or syndicates of producers of such metals as zine, aluminum, lead,
and nickel and the buying organizations which act in the interest of
‘he large consumers.
Glags.—PrLATE Grass.—The principal international combinations
in the glass industry are connected with the production of plate
slass and of bottles.
The international plate-glass syndicate (‘‘Convention internationale
 des Glaceries’) was organized August 17, 1904, for five years,
i Industry and Commerce (St. Petersburg), Sept. 1, 1910, p. 62. See also Trouser LB, United
States v. United States Steel Corporation, Vol. VIII, pp. 2943 et seq.
23, Riesser, Die deutschen Grossbanken u. ihre Konzentration, 3d ed.. 1910. p. 147; Kartell-Rundschau.
Aug., 1912, p. 793.
2 Riesser, op. cit., p. 147; Kartell-Rundschau, March, 1912, p. 339; August, 1912, p. 703; August, 1913, pp.
110-711; October, 1913, p. 867, and January, 1914, p. 64.
t Daily Consular and Trade Reports, June 13, 1913, p. 1341, and June 23, 1913, pp. 1514-1515,
i ¥. Walker, op. cit., p. 395: and Pt. IL D, 79.