CONDITIONS IN PARTICULAR INDUSTRIES, ° 357

$9,000,000 worth of goods in the United States, and their total purchases
 abroad, which are sent to Great Britain, amount to about
$40,000,000 annually. This does not include foreign goods bought
by the society in England—e. g., American grain or flour, or meats
which may have been shipped over by exporters who have to cut
prices in order to make quick sales.
PRINCIPAL ARTICLES PURCHASED IN THE UNITED STATES. —The
principal “articles purchased in this country are wheat, bacon and
hams, lard, leather, dried fruits, and canned goods. The society
always buys from large companies, a course made necessary by the
fact that only such concerns can guarantee the uniform quality and
stipulated deliveries of large quantities of goods commensurate with
the society’s requirements. In many instances it wishes to buy
meats or canned goods that have been advertised in England, are
known there, and are sold by concerns that have studied the English
market and know its tastes and customs. Many such commodities
are sold by the brand, which are already well known and need no
advertising or pushing by the retail cooperative stores. For these
reasons the small American producer can not deal with this organization.

On the other hand, the dealings of the society with the large
American cooperative organizations, such as those among the westorn
 fruit growers, have been very satisfactory. This situation
suggests the desirability of cooperative selling organizations or
combinations for foreign trade among small American producers to
standardize their products, establish central sales depots, share the
expense of foreign advertising, and in other ways fit themselves not
only to do business with large foreign buying combinations, but to
engage in general foreign trade on a larger scale.
BUYING COMBINATIONS IN THE METAL MARKET.

Close interrelation of producers, traders, and larger consumers.—
Before the war the control of the world’s metal market was in the
hands of a group of German metal traders who are primarily engaged
in buying metal, or in acting as selling agents for producers, and in
selling it to European and Asiatic consumers. From the standpoint
of the American metal producers they are to be regarded primarily
in the light of buyers, although in a broader sense they might well
be defined as traders, since they both buy and sell. The description
 of their activities here given is from the American point of view.
In a general way, it may be said that in Germany is centered the
control over many of the largest producers of metals, while the London
 Metal Exchange and silver “fixing board” exercise and control
 the price-fixing power to such a degree that London has become
the international market for almost all metals, and that London