ABSTRACT
the history of the many attempts between 1900 and 1910 to make price agreements shows clearly the difficulties involved. Every type was tried, from verbal agreements between small numbers of local firms to the detailed organization of national associations. In tracing the history of these agreements it must not be assumed that because none lasted for more than a very short while, they were of no importance and had no appreciable effect. Although it was a period of severe competition, the picture was not one of perfect competition, but rather one of imperfect competition in which there was much price discrimination; some, but by no means all, sales were made at prices equal to marginal costs. General levels of prices fell, but the intensity of competition has to be measured both by the general level and by departures from it, and also, increasingly, by the extent of freight absorption.
