HEAVY CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES 5 



heavy chemical industry has held its own in this 

 country, thanks largely to its careful organisation 

 during the last fifty years by acute scientific minds 

 collaborating with the best procurable business 

 intelligence. The industry is mainly in the hands 

 of a few huge organisations with large capital at 

 their disposal; this condition appears essential to 

 success as securing stability and providing the 

 considerable sums of money often necessary for the 

 development of new working methods. During 

 recent years, however., signs have not been lacking 

 that England's strength in the heavy chemical 

 industries was being seriously challenged; the 

 grounds of the challenge were numerous. One 

 main function of the heavy chemical industry 

 consists in providing the raw materials for the fine 

 chemical industries ; these latter have been rapidly 

 passing from English hands and reappearing in 

 Germany vastly increased in magnitude. Early 

 in 1915 Professor Grossmann of Berlin estimated 

 the German exports of fine chemicals at 97,500,000 

 per annum: the profits on fine chemicals are 

 enormously greater than those on the heavy, but 

 it was plain that Germany would only tolerate 

 the English heavy chemical industry so long as 

 it suited her convenience. Again, the fine chemical 

 industry has developed in Germany in such a manner 

 that the standard heavy chemicals manufactured 

 were in many instances unsuitable as raw materials. 

 Thus, by expending some two millions of money 



