18 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

plus products of the mills abroad which still kept them running ut
maximum capacity. Prior to the formation of the Verband the individual
 plants had been dumping their half-finished products onto
those foreign countries which were the sharpest competitors in
finished products—France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland,
Great Britain, and the United States. This was ruining the German
manufacturers, who must pay more for their materials than their
foreign competitors. The Steel Verband immediately took this situation
 in hand. After the formation of the Steel a the exports
to Great Britain were reduced 44.93 per cent and to Belgium 11.7
per cent, so that the entire German export of half-finished products
to Great Britain was only 3.8 per cent of the total British consumption,
 an almost negligible quantity. The figures are: From January
to December, 1913, “A” products to Great Britain 890,613 tons, 1904
only 215,118 tons; to Belgium, 1903, 105,599 tons, 1904, 93,198 tons.
The total exports of half-finished products dropped 37.17 per cent,
i. e., 638,182 tons in 1903 to 395,990 in 1904. On the other hand,
through the new foreign sales policy of the Steel Verband the sales
abroad of the products of home industries (“ B” products) increased
from 844,000 to 1,188,000 tons. It is needless to add that this policy
of diverting the raw and half-finished materials into, the manufacturing
 plants of Germany and giving the German people the benefit
 of the industry of refining them has strengthened the entire
economic life of the country.
The important point in the reduction of exports of half-finished
products to England and other competing countries is not that
England was deprived of these raw materials, but that the purchasing
 power of the home market was so increased by the selling policy
of the Verband, as regards the disposition of finished products
abroad, that the home market was able to absorb a great deal more
half-finished material, so that there was less left over to be dumped
abroad. The result was that England, instead of buying the supplies
from Germany, bought them from America, i. e., as against 5444
tons of half-finished products bought from the United States in 1908,
in 1904 England bought 814,324 tons. The Steel Verband therefore
shifted the entire movement of half-finished materials, and the ultimate
 result was the struggle for supremacy in finished manufactured
products in South America and the colonies.
No important manufacturers excluded.—The Alktiengesellschaft
Stahlwerksverband includes more than 95 per cent of all steel producers,
 and in higher stages of manufacture controls even a higher
percentage. The outsiders are principally the producers of Martin
steel. This percentage is constantly shifting, bécause the constitution
 or contracts on which the Steel Verband is based are renewed
from time to time and firms may join or resign, as they see fit.
The outsiders are of very little importance. As mentioned, they
are the producers of Martin steel.
Export competition from outsiders—The export trade of the entire
 steel industry is dominated by the Steel Verband. As has been
described in preceding sections, it is becoming increasingly. difficult

t Leigse, Wilhelm, “ Wandlungen in der Organisation der Eisenindustrie und des Risenhandels
 seit dem Griindungsjahr des Stahlwerksverbandes.” Miinchen u. Leipzig: Duncker
* Humblot. 1912 (XII, 208 8S.) Staats-und sozlalwissenschaftliche Forschungen, H, 158.