SPECIAL REPORTS FOR FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION. 21
sembly of the mine owners. is called by the managers of the Coal
Syndicate. In this assembly each mine owner has one voice for every
10,000 tons of coal of his quota. A quorum requires two-thirds of all
mine owners to be present. The owner may be represented by one or
more persons designated by him. Each owner receives a printed
copy of the minutes of the meeting. The general assembly accepts
or rejects the suggestions of the Coal Syndicate in regard to prices,
quotas, ete. Every mine owner may have a member on a board of
advisers for every million tons of his quota. This board of advisers
has the power to name special committees for investigating various
problems pertaining to the industry. The annual quota is fixed by a
commission, called commission C, which is composed of eight members
 and is elected by the mine owners. In this commission a member
 has no voice concerning decisions concerning the mine to which
he belongs.
The mines which are members of the Coal Syndicate obligate
themselves to sell their entire product of coal, coke, and briquets to
the Coal Syndicate, which guarantees to market these products in
accordance with the policy adopted by its administration. Excluded
from sale to the Syndicate are coal, coke, and briquets which are
used in the plants of the members in such a way that they are no
longer marketable (i. e., a firm must actually use, in its own plant,
coal, coke, or briquets not sold to the Syndicate). The Syndicate
is always required to sell to the furnace mines on demand for the
actual individual use of such furnaces. A firm exceeding its quota
of use or consumption must pay 1.50 marks (35 cents) fine per ton
to the Syndicate. Mine owners may not use in their furnaces any
coal not produced from the mines of a member of the Syndicate.
Every member of the Syndicate binds himself to sell no coal or
briquet to anyone except to the Syndicate. The members of the Coal
Syndicate are 67 in number. Of these there are 46 coke firms and 30
briquet firms.
The contract as it is in force to-day expires on the 81st of December
 of this year. Already a so-called “Transition Syndicate” has
been formed to run for one and one-fourth years, i..e., to April 1,
1917, which includes 85 firms. Its composition may be seen from the
accompanying list (p. 29), taken from the Handelszeitung des Berliner
 Tageblatts, Berlin, September 27, 1915. The importance of this
list will become apparent in the following paragraphs. Many outsiders,
 including the Government-owned mines, which threaten to
disrupt the Syndicate, have joined this “ Transition Syndicate,” the
new members on the list being marked with an asterisk (*). The
list shows the quotas for coal, coke, briquets, and also the amount
assigned to furnace mines for the use of their own furnaces.
Foreign markets—The Coal Syndicate has an almost absolute
monopoly of the exports of coal. ' It has sold coal in large quantities
to northern France, especially to the gas works at Paris, for many
years. Aside from this and the bordering district in Holland, and
also some convenient parts of Belgium, the Coal Syndicate has no
important foreign markets. In 1909 Holland took from the Syndicate
 a total of coal, coke, and briquets amounting to 4,942,233 tons;
Belgium, 8,713,294 tons; France, 8,597,025 tons; Switzerland, 758,558
tons; Italy, 527,303 tons; Austria-Hungary, 402,888 tons; Russia,
186,646 tons: United States and Mexico. 169.166 tons.