416 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

abroad. The makers of special brands or other highly specialized
roods often state that these combinations do not exist in their particular
 lines, but it is more frequently .said that nothing is known
of such combinations. In many staple articles, too, it is asserted
that the foreign market is not controlled by any buying combination.
A large lumber manufacturer, exporting 25 per cent of his product,
says:
Qo far as we know, hardwood lumber is sold absolutely on an open market.

The same is true of flour and wheat products; also in many lines
of machinery and tools. But combinations, in local markets abroad,
are found in the general lumber trade and in other industries.
One manufacturer considers the cooperative societies in most of
the countries of Europe as desirable customers, instead of objecting
to them as buying combinations. He says:
There are cooperative societies in most of the countries of Europe, both
retailers and consumers. The plan was established in England as far back
as 1843, and in some sections of the United Kingdom, it has proved quite successful.
 The same Is true in France and Denmark as far back as 1878. There
is also the Russian Zemstvos, who, in addition to the administration of important
 local economic affairs, buy and sell everything from land, agricultural
‘mplements, and seeds, supplies of all kinds, and do general banking, who in
the thinly settled parts of Russia, practically control all trading, very advantageously.
 But in no other case do these cooperative societies control all
business in any line, and these societies under whatever name, are simply to
he considered as desirable customers for the manufacturers or distributors.

An examination of all the replies to this question brings out two
points, which the informants make with almost equal force:
First, that with regard to the great majority of the industries of
this county the combination of buyers abroad is a matter in which
those who are concerned in our foreign trade have taken but little
interest.
Second, that with respect to the producers of certain crude or
partially manufactured materials, combinations of foreign buyers
are of primary consequence, because they compete in world markets
and in products of universal necessity and of restricted sources of
supply. The most important are in the metal industries, and, on
account of the large production and great importance in the arts
of silver, copper, and zinc, combinations of buyers of these metals
receive special mention.
It is further noticeable that foreign combinations of buyers are
thought to be prejudicial to the interests of American producers in
a number of industries where there is a high degree of centralization
in domestic production and an effective control of domestic markets.
BUYING COMBINATIONS IN PARTICULAR INDUSTRIES.—The more important
 industries in which the schedule replies indicate that foreign
buying combinations affect the American export trade are as follows
(arranged alphabetically) :
hemicals, fertilizers, etc—A manufacturer of acid phosphate,
exporting 20 per cent of his product, says that German buyers of
phosphatic material have an association form of contract which
American sellers are obliged to use in dealing with them.