SPECIAL REPORTS FOR FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, 187

while others are favored. Flour, for instance, imported from Canada
is subject to a duty of 90 cents per barrel, while that from the United
States is assessed $1.15 per barrel, and oils are subject to the same
rate of duty from whatever source imported, the duty on refined
petroleum being 25 cents per gallon.
The assistance derived from the preferential tariff is all that is
rendered by the Government to English and colonial competitors,
but this, together with that natural tendency of local English houses
to patronize their own countrymen, has made it difticult for American
exporters to compete in this market on lines procurable in these
rountries. Sinee the commencement of the war, however, much
merchandise has been imported from the United States that formerly
came from England. Freight rates favor imports from the United
States at all times as against those from England, while Canadian
rates are practically the same.
There are no international syndicates or combinations doing business
 here at the present time.
All importers buy independently, there being no combination of
buyers.
The only foreign capital of importance invested in the country is
that of Americans, chiefly in mining, rubber, and lumber. The mining
and lumber industries purchase their machinery in the United States,
while the outlay on rubber is chiefly for labor and provisions purchased
 in the local market.
Under normal conditions the exchange rates are slightly in favor
of remittances to London, but at the present time the rate fluctuates
from 8 to 5 per cent against the imports of American goods, as all
remittances to New York are subject to these rates. This condition,
however, has not seriously interfered with American imports, as
merchants have been compelled to buy where they could get delivery
regardless of the high cost of remitting.
None of the local manufacturers are assisted by the local government,
 except so far as the import tariff may protect their products.
Dutch Guiana.—Conditions in Dutch Guana are much the same
as in this colony. Both oil companies are represented there on the
same basis as here, also the Singer Sewing Machine Co. The products
 of the Chicago packing houses are also imported under similar
ronditions.

ASIA,
JAPAN.

Special report of Vice Consul Harold C. Huggins, Yokohama, Japan, November
 25. 1915.

In a broad sense there are no cartels, syndicates, or combinations
in Japan whose history as such is readily obtainable or whose
methods of working are so apparent as to be readily studied. The
extent to which the few known combinations of manufacturers,
buyers, and sellers actually regulate prices, methods of distribution,
 the flooding of competitive markets, etc., is unknown to any
but a very few outside the inner circles of such organizations, and
it is practically impossible for the foreign observer to obtain any