U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE DANIEL C. ROPER, Secretary • ALEXANDER V. DYE, Director Subscription: $1.00 (foreign $2.00) per year, in advance. 10¢ per copy. Remittance should be made payable to the Bureau of Foreign & Domestic Commerce. L. No. 614 February 1938 Washington, D. C. PROGRESS OF CODIFICATION During the fourscore years of our (Argentine) civil code our economic and social development has undergone self-imposed modification, and has felt the influence of analogous phenomena in the rest of the world. Our country has been and should be one of immigration and one linked to others of different outlook, but having direct contact of persons, interests and products with our country; unquestionably her juridical character demands proper and adequate laws. The question of whether to imitate foreign legislation, adopting their principles or adapting them to our environment, doubtless requires a labor of selection and elimination based upon our own experience. Mario A. Rivarola, "Juridical Personality." CONTENTS Labor, Legislation in British Columbia Trade Marks, Severe Penalties Reinstated 62 List of Commercial Laws Notices in Commerce Reports Inside Front Cover SYLLABUS The problem of prices is by no means a product of our modern age. Pie powder courts weighed the interests of Simple Simon against the intangible factor distinguishing the repu table wares of the town baker from the cakes peddled by itinerant varlets. The Senate and People of Rome made and repealed joint resolutions on the the subject. Doubtless Pharoah's dream was complicated by it. Today we face new TRENDS IN RESALE PRICE MAINTENANCE. Although the United States has more life insurance in force than all other countries combined, LIFE INSURANCE IN THE NETHERLANDS, as in all progressive countries, is one of the important elements of national economy. A review of BUSINESS TAXES IN SWEDEN recalls current efforts in Congress to simplify and codify our internal revenue system, and also the recent Supreme Court ruling that BRITISH STANDARD TAX ON DIVIDENDS MAY NOT BE CREDITED AGAINST UNITED STATES TAX. By glancing through the FOREIGN LAW COMMENT and SELECTED STATISTICAL STATEMENTS, one can "get the feel" of legal customs in lands to which our products go. The headquarters in Washington is the Bureau's collecting, coordinating, and distributing center. The Director is assisted by three Assistant Directors, an Assistant to the Director and an Administrative Assistant, and by the Chiefs of 28 small, highly specialized Divisions. The latter are grouped into (a) economic, statistical and research Divisions, (b) industrial or commodity Divisions, (c) Bureau supply and service Divisions, and (d) the Foreign Commerce Service, headquarters for the Bureau's Commercial Attaches and Trade Commissioners, and the District Office Division, which administers the local offices of the Bureau in the United States. The Washington Divisions, Foreign Offices and District and Cooperative Offices are listed on the back cover of COMPARATIVE LAW SERIES. This efficiently organized group of specialists is small in relation to the field of its function to FOSTER, PROMOTE, and DEVELOP our industry and commerce, at home and abroad. It must therefore rely on general and specific cooperation of the business world to perform its task. Conversely, business men generally and in particular expect a high standard of service of the Bureau. Have you tested it? The effect upon prices of an over-abundance or a scarcity of products, so frequently discussed nowadays, has changed little through the ages. In England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries not only did suffering frequently exist by reason of high prices when crops were scarce but unemployment, with little or no buying power, and general business stagnation also followed low prices when there were bumper crops. . The agricultural situation then, as today, had its repercussions in other lines of industry. The guilds of merchants as well as those of craftsmen were able to peg prices at times. However, aside from the fact that their endeavors were usually prompted by selfish motives, which were often manifested in monopolistic tendencies to boost prices, the result accompanying their efforts fell far short of stabilizing the market for long, and this at a time when competition was confined mainly to small areas within national boundaries due to limited means of communication. When there was a shortage, commodities produced elsewhere were required to supply not only ordinary needs but often to prevent actual suffering. When there was plenty, barriers were set up to safeguard the market for local producers. PRICE ACTION BY GUILDS AND OTHER GROUPS The keen competition which existed between merchants of a town in which there was a market or fair and out-of-town merchants who also sold there prompted the local guilds and town authorities to take measures on occasion to prevent ruinous underselling by the outsiders. Possessing a certain degree of control of the market and the power to establish a price floor for commodities, the guilds fixed the selling price of goods when they deemed such action desirable. Such arbitrary price fixing often aroused popular indignation to such an extent that municipal authorities were forced to take appropriate measures to curb the powers of the guilds in this regard. There were other combines and groups of manufacturers and merchants which, taking advantage of the comparatively weak position of the crown, and often with the connivance of local officials, profited by artificially enhanced prices at the expense of the consuming public. VARIED PRICE NOMENCLATURE We must not confuse this method of price fixing by combines or other groups with the subject of resale price maintenance. Today, unless one has an understanding of the various price terms, he is likely to be confused. "Price fixing," "price discrimination," "price maintenance," "price floor," "price ceiling," and many similar terms have acquired specific meanings which must be distinguished. When a manufacturer sets a price below which his goods may not be sold, he has in reality established a price floor and to that extent only has fixed a price for his goods. When a government or other body stipu |