SPECIAL REPORTS FOR FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, 181
as to the possibility of marketing this product in foreign countries,
in furnishing lists of importers, etc. Otherwise this et is not
in any way under Government patronage.
The meat packing and freezing industry consists of three establishments
 located in the Punta Arenas district, the entire product of
which is shipped to England. The normal value of this export is
approximately $2,000,000 United States currency. These packing
and refrigerating plants can not be said to be a combination. The
most important plant of the three, that owned and operated by the
South American Export Syndicate (Ltd.), of 102 Fenchurch Street,
London, has a capacity of 8,000 carcasses (sheep) per day and a
storage capacity of 12,000 carcasses. The Houlder Bros. Steamship
Co. is a large holder of the stock of the South American Export
Syndicate (Ltd.), and most of the product of the refrigerating works
is carried to England in that company’s steamers. The companies
engaged in this industry enjoy no Government export bounties and
no preferential freight rates other than what may be privately
arranged between the producing and the carrying companies in a
case such as the above in which the carrying company is a large
stockholder in the producing company.
The other export products mentioned are not controlled by any
gombination, syndicate, or cartel and enjoy no Government bounties
or assistance. At times in these products there are temporary and
informal combinations, formed with the idea of raising or maintaining
 prices, but ordinarily these informal combinations are automatically
 dissolved by the individual members becoming disinclined or
unable to hold out for the price aimed at.
One of the largest products of Chile is coal. Up to the present,
however, the country has not been able to produce more than 60 per
cent of the coal needed by the country. While there is no combination
 among the coal producers, there is aptilielly an understanding,
 based for the most part on the knowledge of terms at which
rival producers of coal in Chile would be willing to make coal contracts,
 the general objective sought in the matter of price bein
always to approximate but to undersell imported coals. The
companies receive no bounties from the Government, and coal is not
en export product. In view of the general sentiment developed by
the war toward patronizing and protecting home products, considerable
 discussion has taken place in Government circles as to the advisability
 of placing an import tax on foreign coals, the returns from
this tax to be used principally in developing coal ports of shipment,
improving the railroad service in the coal fields, ete. No tes
action has yet been taken on this subject.
In as far as can be determined by this office there are no cartels,
syndicates, or combinations of manufacturers foreign to this country
which have an organization here to market their exports. The principal
 importing business of Chile is done by large import houses,
ractically all of which are about as largely engaged in exporting
Be Chile. These houses accept agencies and import a very wide
variety of foreign goods on order or for stock. The importations
made by nearly any one of these houses individually would embrace
a variety of articles such as coal, machinery, food products, textiles,
tea, furniture, cement, chemicals, construction and railroad ma-