of £2 2s. ($10. 20) to carry the goods across the ocean.

Mr. Halstead wrote to the National Association in regard to the matter and their reply says, in part:

This particular case only shows how little our manufacturers realize the importance, in opening foreign trade, of availing themselves of the proper facilities for getting their goods to destination.

Had this shipment passed through our hands, we would probably have delivered the goods from Minneapolis to Birmingham under contracts at not over $4.50, possibly $5, and perhaps for very much less. A recent report of the association shows a net saving of over 13 per cent upon all shipments made by it.

BRITISH SHIPPING TRUST.

Consul Marshal Halstead, of Birmingham, in transmitting a clipping from the Sunday Chronicle, says, under date of August 15, 1899:

Once in a while, a voice is raised in England against a British trust, but generally any protest is in low tones, and trusts are accepted as a necessary modern condition. The inclosed article gives the facts of the way this particular trust injures British trade and helps foreigners.

The article reads, in part:

The Board of Trade has undertaken to make an inquiry into the effect of the shipping rings upon our trade.

The ring, or conference, as it is also called, is a combination of two or more lines of ships to control the freights on a particular ocean trade route-in other words, to secure a monopoly of a particular freight market for the benefit of the members of the ring. This system is so widely extended that there are few ocean trade routes of importance which are not in the grasp of a combination of the kind, and the result is seen, not merely in the artificial enhancement of freights from British ports, but in the preferential rates given to foreign competitors with British traders at foreign ports. The ring may not be designed with that object, but its result is to give the German and other continental and American traders a tremendous pull in the markets of Asia and Africa by reason of the cheapness of freights granted to them for the carriage of their goods by the same steamers as carry the goods of the Englishmen at very much greater rates. This system is pursued by mail companies which receive subsidies from the home and colonial governments, and have not apparently a keen sense of their obligations. At any rate, these cheap freights are granted to the foreigner by the steamers which carry our mails and draw our money, and at the same time charge our traders more for the accommodation they get in the vessels than they charge their rivals.

Let us see first how the ring, or conference, works. The various lines sailing to and from certain ports agree upon certain minimum charges from British ports, and, having secured a virtual monopoly of the carrying capacity, they seek to prevent competition by an ingenious and effective weapon. They agree to pay to every shipper a certain rebate on the net amount of the freight he has paid the line during a period of six months, and this sum is only payable after the lapse of a further period of nine months. But there is a very important condition: The shipper must

not send a single consignment by any line not in the ring for the sake of a lower freight during the whole of that time, and if he breaks this stipulation he loses all the rebate which is accumulating to his credit in the companies' hands. The rebate for fifteen months will amount to a substantial sum, and the shipper will hesitate a long time before he agrees to sacrifice that bird in the hand for the sake of the two cheaper freight birds in the bush.

The rebate is not an ordinary discount, nor is it intended as such; it is not payable for nine months after it has accumulated, and that stipulation alone shows that it is intended to be kept in hand as a sort of bond or recognizance for the continuance of custom at the rates fixed, without competition by the monopolists. Of course, the conditions vary; but the rebate is in all cases a deferred payment, so that the shipowners hold at all times hundreds and thousands of pounds of the shippers' money on such terms that if they fail to comply with the mandates of the monopoly they lose every fraction of it. In the South African ring, the rebate is 10 per cent on the net freight received during a period of six months, and it is not payable till nine months after that period has been completed. If during that period of fifteen months, even after the commission has become due, the shipper falter in his allegiance to the monopoly, he loses all that is due to him, and you can see at once how strong is the hold of the lines on the customer in such circumstances. It is contended that by these means the rings have (1) benefited foreign shipowners at the cost of British shipowners outside the ring; (2) maintained artificially the high rates of freight now in force at British ports; (3) deprived manufacturers and merchants of a free freight market and restrained the free course of trade; (4) enabled foreign traders, notably German and American, to get lower rates at foreign ports than can be obtained by British traders at British ports; (5) prevented other steamship companies from tendering for the conveyance of mails upon equal terms with the present mail companies.

The rings prevent, or at any rate have prevented, by various means up to now the starting of any rival lines from the British ports. The Bucknall Line to the Cape was intended to carry goods at lower rates than the ring ships and in competition therewith; it was boldly declared that it would not give in, and that it was not to be bought out.

But the ring got the better of it because of the hold it had in its rebate system. The rivals gave in, and later on began to run their fine new boats to India against the older and slower boats of the mail lines. But there, competition is just as severely discouraged. The strangest conjunctions are seen in this alliance; for instance, the Peninsular and Oriental, the Austrian Lloyd, and the Rubattino Line combined, it is asserted, to throttle a small competing line running from Bombay. The English line, in fact, offered to carry cotton to Japan for nothing, so that the new line might be run off the route. This is the mail line to which we pay a subsidy exceeding £1,000 a day. Nor is this the first time the Peninsular and Oriental has reduced its freights for such a purpose only to put them up again when the competition which had been feared had been killed. To deprive some competing line of a chance, the freights have been reduced to a nonpaying level, and when the competition has gone they have been put up again to a high figure. It is objected that no part of the revenues of the country should be used for the purpose of helping a line to crush out all competition in this ruthless way, and the argument is hard to meet.

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Take an illustration of the working of the rebate rule given me by Mr. Clarke, a member of a firm of South African merchants. Recently, an Austrian house offered his firm a consignment of goods for shipment to South Africa by an Austrian steamer entered outwards for Durban at cost, freight, and insurance 20 per cent under the prices which had been paid previously at Hamburg. The reduction was

distinctly due to the low rate of freight it was able to get from the Austrian steamer.. But, as Mr. Clarke says, "we were, of course, unable to accept the consignment because had we done so we should have lost approximately a sum of £1,500, being the amount of commission or rebate that would have been payable under the rebate circular of the British ring, had its terms been adhered to." Therefore, the goods were shipped by the firm to a German agent at Durban and put upon the market in that way. * * *

The present position is that the British shipper to South Africa has to pay a much larger freight from his own ports by British lines than the German manufacturer or shipper has to pay at German ports by the same lines.

The result is very easy to illustrate. A firm of Portland-cement makers puts it in a few words: "In our particular trade, we have experienced to the full the effect of the South African shipping ring, as, owing to the low freights ruling from German and Belgian ports, we can not at the present time compete in the South African markets except at an actual loss." This is a sensational statement, but it is merely true. The same state of affairs was shown in South Africa some time ago. Then the members of the ring, while they were charging high rates to the British exporters, were actually loading steamers in America for South African ports and running them a longer distance at lower rates. The effect was put in a few words by a South African public man:

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"Supposing England produces an article as cheaply as America, we are bound to go to America for it because of the difference in the freight. If we buy goods at the same price in America as we do in England and land them 10 to 15 per cent cheaper, can we go to England for them?"

At that time, clocks were carried from America at 22s. 6d. and from England at 45s., and other illustrations could be given. Since then, American rates have been raised, but the traders had got a strong hold in the market and are still enabled to carry on a big trade, mainly by the help of preferential freights. By these means more than by any other, the foreigners have been getting our trade in South Africa in furniture, carriages and wagons, girders, nails, wire, glass, zinc, twine, and many other commodities.

TRADE NOTES FROM THE MIDLANDS.

The following extracts are from a report to the Treasury Department* by Consul Marshal Halstead, of Birmingham, dated September 9, 1899. Mr. Halstead summarizes a trade report in a local journal as follows:

There are still signs of summer-holiday slackness in several branches of trade in this city and general Midland district; but the volume of business continues to improve, and there is a confident feeling in regard to autumn prospects. Manufacturers, both in the textile and metal-working branches, are well, if not fully, employed; and in many cases are still in arrear with their engagements. In the cotton trade, there is room for improvement, business having been checked to some extent by the rise in prices consequent upon the advance in raw staple; but orders are coming in again rather more freely, and there has been such a great depletion of stocks lately that buying on a large scale can not be much longer deferred. In the woolen and worsted trades, business is strong and active, in sympathy with a further advance this week in the price of wool. Manufacturers are well engaged,

*The full text has been transmitted to the Treasury Department.

both for home and export trade, and in most cases are able to make a favorable report of the outlook. There is rather more doing in the foreign produce market, with an upward tendency in provisions. The metal market is strong, more especially as regards tin and spelter.

LOCAL INDUSTRIES.

The apprehension excited by the crisis in connection with the Transvaal affairs is exercising a depressing effect in several departments of trade and finance. The holidays and the hot weather have caused some restriction of production in several of the metal-working branches, and there has been a lull in export orders for goods of this class. owing chiefly to the recent great advance in prices. The volume of work under execution, however, is still considerable, and the inquiries arriving from various quarters leave no room to doubt the revival of demand as soon as the temporary disturbing causes have passed away. The revival of the American demand is slow, but progressive, both for metallurgical and textile goods. India and Burma have been excellent customers of late for galvanized iron, railway material, tools, implements, and machinery; but the high price of copper has evidently checked Indian demand for that metal, and exports, both of copper sheets and yellow-metal sheathing, compare very badly of late with those of twelve months ago. On the other hand, the demand for brass goods in the colonies, South America, and the Mediterranean continues very satisfactory. Although Germany is not taking so much pig iron as usual at this season, the German orders for hardware and machinery are rather above the average, and Belgium is also a good and growing customer for the same class of products. Brazilian orders continue to disappoint expectation, owing probably to the disturbed political condition of the country; but a marked improvement of trade is reported both with Chile and the Argentine Republic. In Cuba, merchants appear to be rapidly recovering the ground they lost during the American war, and there are some large special orders under execution for other West Indian islands, to repair the damage caused by recent hurricanes.

WOLVERHAMPTON AND DISTRICT.

A very steady business is being carried on by the hardware manufacturers in the neighborhood of Wolverhampton, and the general condition of the trade can be reported to be of a satisfactory character. Producers of general ironmongery articles for building purposes are fully occupied, and makers of naval ironmongery goods are in receipt of orders which keep them well employed. The output by the cast iron hollow-ware manufacturers is of a regular character, and the electrical engine factories continue to be working overtime in order to clear off the numerous contracts on hand. The iron-plate department is fairly busy, and there is a considerable amount of work under execution by the stamped hollow-tinware makers for shipment to the colonies. Makers of edge tools and horseshoes are in receipt of work sufficient to carry them on for some time, and the heavy trades are all displaying considerable activity. Galvanized-iron manufacturers have plenty of orders on their books, and the producers of enameled advertisement plates have so much work that double shifts have to be kept going. A fair trade is recorded in steel toys.

THE IRON AND STEEL TRADES.

There has been a further recovery in the iron and steel markets this week, and pig-iron prices in the north are again advancing. In the Midlands, business is again fairly active. Manufacturers are heavily behind with their deliveries. Apprehensions are expressed in some quarters that prices have now advanced to such a point as to discourage many schemes dependent upon large and cheap supplies

of iron and steel. There is a rather stronger tone in Midland pig, but the backward movement noted a fortnight ago has not yet been fully recovered, sellers being no longer in the independent position they held a month or two since. The output of finished material is still contracted by reason of the oppressive temperature. There is an active demand for black and galvanized sheets. Standard quotations are as follows:

In the north of England, there has been a further stiffening of prices this week. Cleveland has advanced 2s. 2d. (52.7 cents) and west-coast hematite 2s. 71⁄2d. (53.9 cents). To-day's quotations are somewhat easier, at 67s. 3d. ($16.36) for No. 3 Cleveland and 64s. 6d. ($15.69) for gray forge, the market generally being somewhat disorganized. The advances lately declared in manufactured iron and steel are well supported, more especially as regards bar. In South Wales, the steel and iron works generally are well employed and prices are strong. Light rails are up to £7 10s. ($36.50), but tin plates are easier at 15s. 3d. ($3.71) for Bessemer steel coke and 15s. 6d. ($3.77) for Siemens coke finish. There is a firm market at Glasgow, closing at 68s. Id. ($16.56) for Scotch.

SHEFFIELD TRADES.

Information obtained at the large iron and steel works is to the effect that every department is in full swing and likely to be for many months to come. Most of the machinery in the armor-producing shops is running continuously to meet the pressure for deliveries at the shipyards. The works engaged on shaftings and other heavy forgings are very fully occupied, and the Government is making inquiries with a view to placing contracts for the shafting and other heavy work required for battle ships in course of construction. The prosperous state of trade