MINERAL SUPPLIES BLISS. 255 



Conquest of foreign markets. — In the last section of his book 

 Hauser deals rather briefly with German methods for conquest of 

 foreign markets. He emphasizes the systematic study of the indi- 

 vidual market and clientele by which the German exporter arrives at 

 a complete understanding of the requirements and possibilities of 

 their export business. He notes the acumen and psychological 

 shrewdness of the German commercial traveler who is constantly on 

 the spot, always anxious to satisfy his customer, always ready to do 

 business honestly if possible, dishonestly if necessary. He calls at- 

 tention to the exportation of a business house where it seemed that 

 foreign trade could be better handled through the direct manage- 

 ment of an overseas branch of the German industry, and he laments 

 uncontested intervention of the German middleman in the conduct of 

 French trade. He acknowledges the cleverness of German propa- 

 ganda and publicity methods by which they handle an enormous 

 and skillfully manipulated self-advertising scheme. Most impor- 

 tant of all, he explains the final step in German exportation, which is 

 the transplanting of factories themselves into foreign territory. He 

 disposes of the fallacious argument that such export of industry 

 enriches the country so penetrated by showing that, as in the case of 

 the foreign branches of German banks, capital is not actually trans- 

 ferred from the German source to the foreign country, but on the 

 contrary the minority of the share of capital is frequently the Ger- 

 man portion. Nevertheless, the German skillfully manipulates the 

 distribution of interests so as to retain a controlling hand in the 

 management, and in addition he obtains a corner on the foreign raw 

 materials in which he is often deficient at home. A good example of 

 this was the Thyssen control of Normandy blast furnaces through 

 his institution of a factory and railway in association with the iron 

 mines in Normandy. In return for his cession of all except 20 per 

 cent of his control of the factory to so-called French interests he 

 acquired the right to purchase the complete supply of the Norman 

 furnaces. The last step in exportation is taken in order to escape 

 burdensome taxes on finished products, machinery, dyes, etc., and the 

 German exports his semifinished materials and assembles and perfects 

 them in the country of their ultimate destination. 



Economic factors in causing war. — In conclusion Hauser sums up 

 the conditions which were potent factors in causing the recent war — 

 first, the sudden and daring rise in German industry that has 

 necessitated the organization of a drastic cartel system to combat 

 the dangers of unlimited competition entailed by overproduction; 

 second, the further relief of this congestion of overproduction by 

 means of an overdeveloped system of foreign dumping; and, third, 

 the temptation to stabilize her somewhat shaky financial foundation 



