CONDITIONS IN PARTICULAR INDUSTRIES. 359
Through banks, holding companies, affiliations with syndicates and
cartels, interlocking directorates, joint-share holdings, and other
means of interrelation, a world-wide ramification has taken place in
the metal trade.
The following examples will illustrate how some of the more important
 metal concerns are allied through interlocking directorates. Of
the Merton family, of Frankfurt and London, five members are
directors in most of the companies controlled by or affiliated with the
Metallbank of Frankfurt a. M.; R. Merton is connected with the
Merton Metallurgical Co., London; the American Metal Co. (Ltd.);
the Australian Metal Co. (Litd.); and the Compagnie des Minérais de
Liége. Walter Merton is a director of the Metallbank &amp; Metalluroische
 Gesellschaft, Frankfurt a. M.; the Metallgesellschaft, Frankfurt
 a. M., and of the Merton Metallurgical Co., London. H. Gardner
is on the board of directors of Henry R. Merton &amp; Co. (Ltd.); the
Australian Metal Co.; the Merton Metallurgical Co., London; the
Mines de Pierrefitte (Litd.), and Williams, Foster &amp; Co. A. Ladenburg
 is a director of the Metallbank and of the Schweizerische
Gesellschaft fiir Metallwerke. Walter vom Rath is a director of the
Metallbank, the Metallgesellschaft, the Lahmeyer electrical concern,
 the Hochster Dye Works, and the Allgemeine Electrizitits
(Gesellschaft.
The Frankfurt metal firms are also connected with some of the
leading German banks through interlocking directorates, viz, the
Hirsch concern with the Deutsche Bank; the Deutsche Gold-und
Silberscheideanstalt with the Metallbank, Frankfurt, a. M., and the
Oberschlesische Zinkhiitten A. G., Kattowitz, with the Nationalbank
fiir Deutschland.
SiLver.—According to the statement of a large American concern,
 which exports about seven-tenths of its silver output to London,
 the silver trade of the world is dominated by the London Metal
Exchange:

The price of silver is fixed in London by what is termed publicly
the “fixing board,” which consists of four banking or brokerage
houses dealing in silver and eastern exchange. This board of four
representatives meets at a quarter Past 2 every afternoon. This
penvie prices to be made in New York at the opening of business
ere, on account of the difference in time. Since virtually the
entire silver business of London is in connection with exportations
from the United States, it will be seen that the Toi time in
London is after the members of the fixing board know the full receipts
and demands in London, but before business opens in New York.
All silver in London is sold through these members of the fixing
board. The distribution of silver in London is, as stated above,
approximately 75 per cent for shipment to the Kast, which is sold
entirely to eastern banking representatives, both English and continental,
 for coinage purposes, and, to a minor extent, to the manus