SPECIAL REPORTS FOR FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, 179
Stowell &amp; Co. for the British market and Messrs. Suter &amp; Co. for
the American market, the latter firm claiming to be owned by a
citizen of Switzerland. Since the separation of Zarges, Berringer
&amp; Co. and Zarges, Ohliger &amp; Co. from Heilbert, Symons &amp; Co. the
two firms have been changed and are now known as Berringer &amp; Co.,
of Para, and Ohlinger &amp; Co., of Mandos. Both are shipping rubber
to the United States, but their largest business seems to be in the
capacity of bankers. Pralow &amp; Co. are the successors of Messrs.
Scholte, Hartje &amp; Co., of this ity and Mandos, and who went into
liquidation. Messrs. Sempre &amp; Co. are located at Mangos. They
have a number of correspondents in the United States, but I do not
believe that they can from any point of view be considered as trust
representatives. This inability to control the market was very clearly
demonstrated in the attempt of the Brazilian Government, through
the Bank of Brazil, to valorize rubber.
The nearest approach to a trust is the present, or rather last year’s,
agreement between certain American houses to control the Brazil nut
trade by placing their orders with two local firms (Alden &amp; Co. and
Sydney Fall &amp; Co.). I do not know if this agreement extended to
Manios, but I doubt it, as several shippers were doing business,
hotably Sempre &amp; Co. Unfortunately for the agreement in question,
 the local supply was short of the demand, and a number of
producers have preferred to consign their stocks of Brazil nuts. The
result was that prices were very high, much higher than the preceding
 year, and the parties to the agreement derived little or no benefit
trom it.
(Note.—Consul Maddin Summers, of Sio Paulo, was iif the United States
at the time the commission’s inquiries were sent to the consuls and therefore
did not have an opportunity to prepare a report on the topics submitted. He
conferred at length with representatives of the commission, however, and in
this manner furnished much information of value in the preparation of the
report.— FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION.)

ARGENTINA.

Special report of Vice Consul in Charge John S. Calvert, B Ai "
tina, December 8, 1915. » Buenos Aires, Argen

After making a very careful investigation it could not be found
that there existed in Argentina any cartels, syndicates, or combinations
 of manufacturers either engaged in the domestic trade or in exporting
 to other countries.
Argentina, it may be said, practically has no manufacturing industry.
 It is primarily an agricultural and stock-raising land, and its
exports comprise almost entirely the products of agriculture and
live stock and the by-products therefrom.
Argentina’s imports are comprised of almost everything in the
manufactured line, as the little that is produced domestically is capable
 of supplying but a very limited part of the demand. Nearly all
the leading European nations and the United States enjoy a portion
of Argentina’s import trade. There is and always has been a keen
competition hetween the international merchanfs established here
in the import trade, and it can not be learned that there exists any
syndicate or combination of importers, either foreign or native to the
country, who exercise an absolute control of any branch of this trade,
27241°—p1 2—16—-12