358 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
metal quotations set the standard for the metal business the world
Ver.
With regard to the fixing of prices in the metal market the national
and international metal cartels and syndicates are of primary importance.
 The metal trade is notable for the extraordinary degree
in which it has been concentrated in the leading metal-producing
and metal-consuming countries of the world. A comparatively small
pumber of firms control this trade the world over, and most of them
are more or less closely interrelated. These combines fix the price
and regulate the production of the metals and metal products controlled
 by them in their respective territories, and thus indirectly
have an important bearing on the price question as it affects the
metal market. The part played by the banks in the control of the
metal business is largely responsible for the internationalization of
the metal trade. Through syndicate agreements, price cartels, and
interlocking directorates, certain banks of England, Germany, Holtand,
 Switzerland, -and Belgium have managed to secure control
pver the largest metal plants and metal-selling agencies of the
world.
Another interesting feature of the metal combines consists in the
fact that a number of large and important industries are dependent
apon the metal trade for their supply of raw materials. Among these
the electrical and the chemical industries rank foremost. Almost
half of the total copper production is used for electrical purposes.
This close interdependence as well as manifold other common intereste
 have been instrumental in bringing about a far-reaching system
of cooperation among the leading metal firms and industrial cartels
and syndicates. Thus, the Metallgesellschaft of Frankfurt a. M.,
before the war was the common selling agency for the French Aluminum
 Syndicate, and it serves in a similar capacity, together with Beer,
Sondheimer &amp; Co., of Frankfurt a. M., and Aron Hirsch und Sohn, of
Halberstadt, for the German Zino Syndicate. Aron Hirsch und Sohn
are members of the German Copper Sheet Syndicate and of the Combine
 of German Copper Wire Works. The Deutsche Gold-und Silberscheideanstalt
 is closely allied with the chemical industry and is a
member of several chemical cartels. In 1900 it organized and managed
 a syndicate of calcium-carbide manufacturers. In the latter
industry the Siemens-Schuclkert concern, one of the groups that control
 the German electrical business, is heavily interested. By means
of the Metallurgische Gesellschaft the Merton interests, which are
the chief factor in the metal buying combination, acquired large
holdings in the German potash industry through the Gewerkschaft
Rastenberg.! On the chart (opposite p. 366) the number and extent
of these interrelations is presented.

1H. A. Giebel Die Finanzierung d. Kalilndustrie ( Xarlsruhe), 1912, p. 120 fol.