EVOLUTION OF THE GELATINE INDUSTRY 267 



uses of gelatine and glue, it will be seen that general 

 prosperity in trade is conducive to better trade conditions 

 in the gelatine and glue industry. It is similarly true that 

 a general trade slump affects the glue trade adversely. The 

 severe trade depression which commenced in 1920 has had 

 this effect, and has made economic production much more 

 difficult as well as more essential. As often is the case, the 

 larger factories and firms can better face the difficulties, and 

 there can be little doubt that if the depression be long 

 continued there will be a tendency for the smaller factories 

 to be closed down and for the larger firms to unite. As in 

 the leather trade, both the War boom and the Peace slump 

 have caused the gelatine and glue trade to develop along the 

 lines of the great trusts. It may be reasonably expected, 

 moreover, that these will be intimately connected with the 

 leather trusts. This fact, together with the heavy freight 

 charges on the raw material, tends also to make the skin 

 glue factories gravitate towards the leather centres. 



