Jeremiah W. Jenks
Published: 2016-08-13
Total Pages: 352
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Excerpt from Report of the Industrial Commission on Industrial Combinations in Europe, Vol. 18 In Austria the situation is nearly the same, so far as the extent and power of the combinations are concerned. On the other hand, there is more disapproval of the combinations on the part of the public, and three decisions of the courts made Within the last three years, which render the contracts among the different parties to the combination non-enforceable, seem to have weakened in many respects the strength of the combinations within themselves. So far these decisions have pro duced little effect, but it is practically certain that if this attitude of the courts is not changed and if there is no new legislation the combinations will be likely to take on a new form in certain particulars. In England the movement toward combination has not gone so far as in either Austria or Germany. There were in earlier days very many local combinations to keep up prices, and in some cases these rings have proved very successful. Within the last three years, however, a very active movement toward the concentration of industry into large single corporations, quite after the form which has been common in the United States, may be observed. Nearly all of the feeling that one notes in England on this subject has reference to the later great corporations formed by the buying up of many different establishments in the same line of business, corporations that through combination have succeeded in acquiring in many particulars a good8 industrial commissioni - combinations IN europe. In France one finds the movement toward combination much less pronounced than in any of the countries mentioned before. The reasons for this are perhaps two: first, France is less developed industrially than the other three countries, especially England and Germany, and as French industry has not yet entered so much into international competition as has been the case in other countries, the same pressure toward the savings and toward the added power that came from combination has not been felt. In the second place, the French criminal code is very severe against fraudulent or monopolistic attempts to control the market. This code was doubtless passed with reference to conditions entirely different from those now existing, but if a combination Should apparently be able to increase prices, and should attempt to do so, its Officers might be in danger of imprisonment. In consequence, while the movement toward combination is very evident, the managers of combinations are much less inclined to let their movements appear in public. The combinations in France, also, with few exceptions, are less firm in their method of organization, much more being made dependent upon mere verbal agreements. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.