NATIONAL IDEALS IN IRON TRADE 125 



this considerable disparity in price indicated either the nneas- 

 uro of value in the estimation of the buyers, or an economic 

 struggle amongst Belgian producers themselves to secure such 

 orders as were going. The careful enquirer would ascertain 

 that the lower prices at which Belgian products wore offered 

 were obtainable only by a condition of long working hours 

 and low wages, such as English employers in general would l>e 

 unwilling to see adopted in their own works, and such as Eng- 

 lish workmen in general would never accept without a struggle 

 of prolonged intensity. Recorded mercantile experience shows 

 that Belgian bar iron and sheet iron are giving way in favor of 

 German products. The rapid development of soft steel manu- 

 facturo by the aid of the Bessemer basic converter in Germany 

 has led to German producers offering basic steel bars in mer- 

 chant sizes and shapes, and basic steel sheets at prices equal 

 to, and in some cases lower than those of the inferior Belgian 

 products in wrought iron. The natives of markets like India, 

 China, and Japan, were prompt to discover that German soft 

 steel goods would work up better, and with less cracks, breaks, 

 and failures than were common to Belgian wrought iron. The 

 consigrunents from German steel makers were superior to 

 those of Belgian makers, not simply in that superiority pos- 

 sessed by soft steel over low grade wrought iron, but in 

 greater regularity of working to lengths, sizes, and weights. 

 The eastern importer found, for instance, that the outturn of 

 a parcel of German steel was more likely to accord with the 

 invoice than was the case over an average of transactions with 

 materials of similar shape of Belgian origin. 



It Ls necessary to dwell upon this phase of competition for 

 markets external to England, because it illustrates what will 

 probably happen in any successful American competition for 

 the trade of neutral markets. American competition is al- 

 ready more feared in Germany and Belgium than it is in Great 

 Britain. 



Ordinary- merchant trade is more readily acquired, or lost, 

 than that trade which is built up on specifications to meet 

 engineering requirements, or in material ordered to comply 

 with special conditions. On the engineering side I am doubt- 

 ful of the abiUty of American steel masters to displace the use 



