8 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE,
banking house of Delbriick, Leo &amp; Co., which also was their legal
representative, commissioner, and clearing house. The members are
many firms of the wire and nail industry, who not only produce rod
wire, but also manufacture drawn wire.” To equalize this advantage
of plants combining both stages of wire rolling and wire finishing,
every plant in the syndicate manufacturing drawn wire must buy
a minimum of 1,000 tons from the Rod Syndicate every year.
Nail manufacturers have been organized from time ‘to time, but
no syndicate has held together, so that the wire-nail industry is at
present unorganized.
The Verkaufsstelle der Vereinigten Deutschen Drahtgepflechtfabriken
 G. m. b. H. Koln (Central Selling Office of the United
German Woven Wire Manufacturers, Limited) is contracted to run
until 1916, and includes most of the woven-wire industry.
Related to the wire industries is the Verband Deutscher Federstahlwerke
 (German Steel Spring Union), with headquarters in Hagen.
The steel spring manufacturers cooperate through the bank called
Bergisch-Mirkische Bank.
The Schirmstahlfabriken (Umbrella Steel Factories), who maintain
 their own selling office in the form of a limited liability company
 (G. m. b. H.) in Cologne, are also closely allied.
As a result of the entire tendency to combination, dealers’ unions
for iron and steel products have resulted in every industry in which
there is a manufacturer’s syndicate. A characteristic of these dealers’
unions is that they can thrive only when the manufacturers of the
industry which they represent are organized, and collapse as soon as
the producers’ union dissolves. The aim of the dealers’ union is to
reduce the expense of selling, to stabilize the market, to eliminate
rice cutting in the open market, and to insure to the wholesale
dealers, who are members, that the producers will fulfill their contracts.
 The manufacturing syndicates are glad to deal with the
wholesalers’ union, because it simplifies matters and also acts as a
reservoir to take up the shocks of the unequal demand of the open
markets, i. e., well-organized dealers’ unions offer the factories an
equal flow of orders, thus insuring an even rate of production. Some
of these dealers’ unions are as follows: Westdeutsches Eisenhindler
Kartell ; Bergisch-Mirkische Eisenhiindler Vereinigung; Vereinigung
Hannoverischer Hindler; Verband Schlesischer Eisengrosshiindler;
Rheinisch-Westfilische Trigerhindler Vereinigung; Nordwestmitteldeutsche
 Triigerhindler Vereinigung; Berliner Trigerverkaufscomptoir,
 reorganized 1912 under the name of Eisenbaucomptoir;
0 Stabeisenhiindler Vereinigung; Strassburger Stabeisenhiindler;
 Mittelbadische Stabeisenhindler-Vereinigung, Karlsruhe;
Linksrheinische Stabeisen-Vereinigung Miinchen-Gladbach; Stabeisenhéindler
 Vereinigung Koln; Dortmunder Stabeisen Vereining:
 Vereinigung von Stabeisenhiindler in Hamburg-Altona; Verfr
 fiir Gasréhren in Diisseldorf; Vereinigung
Rheinisch-Westfilischer Gasrohrenhiindler. These organizations of
wholesalers have resulted in the exclusion of all other wholesalers
not having sufficient capital to carry a large stock. Through the
organization of the entire industry these associations of large dealers
have reduced their profits to figures which amount to a fixed commission
 of only 2 to 8 per cent. The function of these dealers’ unions