SPECIAL REPOETS FOB FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, ' 183
ECUADOR.
Special report of Consul General Frederic W. Goding, Guayaquil, Ecuador,
October 5, 1915.
The information given in this report covers the Republic of Ecuador
 only.
There is but one combination of business men in this country,
Associacion de Agricultores, which was approved by the Executive
January 25, 1913, with its principal office in Guayaquil.
The object of the association is to unite the .growers of cacao
against speculators, to sustain reasonable prices, promote the acreage
devoted to the growing of cacao, and the marketing of it in both the
old and new centers of consumption; in other words, to defend the
planters against the imposition of ruinous prices.
It is a semiofficial organization, as it is permitted to collect a tax
of 1 sucre (48 cents) on each 100 pounds exported.
The only product handled is cacao, which, on occasions, is shipped
to the world’s markets, the proportion so exported varying with the
price, as only when the offers are below a certain price is the association
 active. Sometimes for months it will export all the cacao, at
other times none. The plan for selling followed is to offer cacao in
the world’s markets on its own account or through banks, the fund
created from the 1-sucre tax being utilized in equalizing the difference
 between the price paid and that received.
The organization is strongly supported by the public, as it never
enters into competition with the independent exporters, buying only
when low prices prevail when the latter are excluded from the
markets.
Possibly this association should not be classed with those combinations
 referred to in the present inquiry; but as it is the only commercial
 combination in Ecuador, it has been thought best to forward
these data, especially as the subject has not been extensively treated
in reports from this office.

Nore.—Consul General Goding transmitted with his report a copy of the
Regulations and Constitution of the Association. For a translation of this see
Pt. II, pp. 504 to 508.—FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION,

PERU."

Special report of Consul General William H. Handley, Callao-Lima, Peru,
January 24, 1916.
General business conditions in Peru—The general scope of the
investigation now being made by the Federal Trade Commission
concerning combinations of foreign manufacturers and merchants
and other conditions in foreign countries affecting the foreign trade
of the United States applies to Peru only to a minor degree. This is
largely due to the fact that Peru is essentially an agricultural and
mining country, the few manufacturers being confined principally
to several small cotton and weolen mills. There are undoubted]
some agents of European syndicates or cartels operating on a small
scale in Peru. The potash syndicate of Germany has an agency here,
and there is possibly a considerable quantity of European manufac-