ABSTRACT
The pig-iron trade is regulated by separate trusts in Rhineland-Westphalia, in Lorraine-Luxembourg, in Siegerland, and in Upper Silesia. Plates and sheets are controlled by separate syndicates, besides four other syndicates for rolling-mill products generally. In addition to these, there are numerous smaller syndicates or organisations for the regulation of prices and production, in most iron making countries, including Great Britain. Attempts have been made for some time past to establish an organisation described as an Oberreichungstelle, which is designed to reimburse German iron masters and steel-manufacturers for the losses incurred in selling under cost price in foreign markets, but that policy has not been very successful. In Germany the trust movement has perhaps extended as far as in the United States, and the combinations there, speaking generally, exert as great power over prices, over wages, and in other directions, as they do in America.
