extend just and lawful commerce.” It was the prototype of all the other chambers of commerce and boards of trade which have since been established in the United States, and which are said to exceed 1000 in number. American trade organizations are associated in a National Board of Trade, which corresponds to the Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom. The objects of this institution are to secure unity and harmony of action in reference to commercial questions, and to obtain, through its representative character, more satisfactory consideration of the matters which it brings under the notice either of the Federal government or of the local state administrations. The ex nses of the National Board of Trade are defrayed out of a fund formed by the subscriptions of the various associations belonging to it. The United States has a number of chambers of commerce established in foreign countries. The first institution of this kind was started so long ago as 1801, when the American Chamber of Commerce in Liverpool was established. This chamber is the only one representing American commercial interests in the United Kingdom, there being no association of this nature in London. The American Chamber of Commerce in Paris is one of the most active, important and representative foreign associations on the continent of Europe. In some places where neither the American nor the British element is strong enough to maintain separate associations (notably in Brussels), they have joined hands to support an Anglo-American Chamber of Commerce, which is found to work fairly satisfactorily The American commercial museums, although of recent foundation, have attracted much notice owing to the practical and businesslike manner in which they are conducted, and are considered.to be among the best equipped institutions of this nature. Those in Philadelphia and at San Francisco are the best known. The Philadelphia museum, which came first and is better known, was established by an ordinance of the municipality in 1894, and is supported by subscriptions and by municipal subsidies, administered by a board of trustees, who are appointed for life and serve without remuneration. The work of the museum is supervised by an advisory board, composed of representatives of the principal commercial organizations in the United States. Its objects are to assist American manufacturers and merchants in securing wider foreign markets for their products, to aid them in forming connexions abroad, and to bring foreign buyers in touch with them. One of the chief ways in which this is done is by means of an index file of foreign customers supplied to American manufacturers, and vice versa. In addition to the regular service to members, the museum also maintains abroad, in various cities, index files covering some sixty American trades or trade divisions, containing the names of American manufacturers of standing, with full particulars of their various lines of manufacture. These files are generally entrusted to chambers of commerce, or similar commercial institutions, and are placed gratuitously at the disposal of foreign manufacturers and merchants. The Philadelphia museum has also a most valuable library and a museum of samples.
B.—State Departmental Organization.
The American state organization for dealing with commercial matters lacks the theoretical completeness of the organization of most European states, but is nevertheless found to give satisfaction. Official control is exercised through various bureaus placed, for the most part, under the treasury department. The most important of these are: the interstate commerce commission, which deals with matters affecting the inland trade; the industrial commission, which looks chiefly after manufacturing; and the fishery bureau. Foreign commercial matters come within the cognisance of the bureau of foreign commerce, a section of the state department which also controls the consular body, and sees to the publication of their reports and to the dissemination of foreign commercial intelligence. The state department corresponds to the British foreign office.
The Pan-American Union, until 1910 called the Bureau of American Republics, was established in 1889, as a result of the Pan-American Conference called together in that year by the late James G. Blaine, secretary of state at that time. This bureau, which had its office in Washington, is supported by a contribution from all the republics of North, Central and South America, which is fixed at the rate of 1000 dollars a year per million inhabitants. Its object is the dissemination of trustworthy commercial information concerning the republics of the American continent, and in pursuance of this object it has issued a large variety of publications.
The American consular service has been frequently pointed out as a model to be followed in connexion with commercial matters. America, contrary to the European practice, has no consuls de carrière. Her consular representatives are appointed for a period of, as a rule, four years, andConsular Service. are selected in preference from commercial circles. Their work, as compared with that of British consuls, is rather limited, and they have nothing to monopolize their time like the shipping interests with which the British consular body is entrusted in most cor1r1trics=. Since 1898 the bureau of foreign commerce issues consular reports daily, as fast as they are received, and circulates them in advance sheets, printed on one side of the paper only, like printers’ proofs. They are afterwards republished in permanent form. The American consular body, which numbers some 400 members, and is exclusively composed of American citizens, is distributed according to the commercial importance of towns.
III.—France
A.Commercial Associations.
The French government was the first to elaborate a regular system of trade organizations, which it endeavoured to make as complete as possible. This system comprises:—
a. Chambers of commerce;
b. Consultative chambers of arts and manufactures; and
c. Syndical chambers of trade and industry.
a. Chambers of Commerce.—Chambers of commerce owe their origin to the city of Marseilles, where, in 1599, the town council, which had hitherto looked after the commercial interests of the city, found it no longer possible to combine commercial with municipal functions, and established an associationOrigin. which it called the “Chamber of Commerce” to take up the commercial part of its duties. This seems to be the first time that the title was used. The new chamber soon became a most important body, and in 1650, during the minority of Louis XIV., lettres patentes were granted to it. It settled the law merchant and the customs of the port, was entrusted with the appointment of consuls and the control of French consulates in the Levant, fitted out expeditions against corsairs, owned fleets, sent embassies to the Barbaresque countries, organized commercial missions, &c. Its ordinary budget, aft one time, amounted to over one million livres. Louis XIV. conceived the idea of a system of organizations which, whilst not being allowed to become so dangerously powerful as that of Marseilles, would nevertheless be useful in other towns, and in 1700 he caused an arrêté to be published, ordering the creation of chambers of commerce, which were entrusted with the nomination of deputies to the Royal Council of Commerce which had just been created in Paris. Chambers were consequently established in Lyons, Rouen, Toulouse, Montpellier, Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Lille, Bayonne, Amiens, &c. These bodies, however, did not exercise much influence under the monarchy. Including the Marseilles chamber, they were suppressed, with all trade gilds and other trade associations, in 1789. Napoleon re-established the chambers by decree of the 24th of December 1802, and endowed them with a constitution similar, in essential particulars, to the one they have at present, which has served as a model for chambers of commerce on the Continent, but he submitted them to a uniform and narrow* administrative jurisdiction which practically deprived them of all initiative.
They are now regulated by the law of the 9th of April 1898, which codified, altered and completed previous legislation on the subject. Under this law, chambers of commerce can only be established by a decree countersigned by the minister of commerce, upon the advice of the municipalConstitution. council of the place where the chamber is to be, of the general council of the department, and of the existing chambers of commerce of the district. The members of chambers of commerce used to be elected by the “Notables Commergants,” who were a body of commercial electors selected by the prefects in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Commerce. They were abolished by law in 1871, but those who were then entitled to the designation still continue to use it, which explains the words “Notable Commergant,” so puzzling to foreigners in French commercial directories and on French business cards. At present, commercial houses paying patente—which is a special tax upon people engaged in trade—elect the members of the chamber, the number of whom is fixed for each chamber by the minister of commerce.
Their functions, which are consultative and administrative, are set out in part ii. of the law of 1898. The government is bound to take their opinion regarding the regulation of commercial usages, the establishment of public institutions of a commercial or financial nature, and of tribunals of commerce,Functions. the improvement of transport and communications, the application of laws of a local character, the sale price of prison-made goods and the tariff for prison labour, and local public works, and loans or taxation in connexion therewith. On the other hand, they are allowed to submit observations to the government, without being asked, on proposed changes in the commercial or economic legislation of the country; on customs tariffs and regulations; on railway, canal and river rates; and on transport regulations. As regards their administrative functions, they may be authorized to establish and administer such institutions as bonded warehouses, public sale-rooms, fire-arm testing establishments, conditioning rooms for wool, silk, textiles, paper, &c., commercial, professional, or technical schools and museums, &c. They may be granted concessions for public works, and may undertake the carrying out of public services, especially in regard to the ports, docks, canals and navigable rivers in their district, and be authorized to issue loans for the purpose.
