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    "localId": "486500536",
    "label": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, A Survey of the World Mercury Situation, Situation Report 28",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, A Survey of the World Mercury Situation, Situation Report 28",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500536",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 4,
            "logicalDate": "1949-02-04",
            "month": 2,
            "year": 1949
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{
    "seq": 12,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875510/875510-02-012.tif",
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    "ocrText": "CONFIDENTIAT\nquotas originally agreed to by the cartel. The presidency and central office of the\ncartel were to alternate annually.\nThe first sales agency was set up at Lausanne, Switzerland, for the purpose of\nmarketing to all countries except the British Empire, where the British firm of \"Roura\n& Forgas\" was to be the cartel's agent. The Lausanne office did not operate success-\nfully and was closed down with \"Roura & Forgas\" becoming exclusive sales agent for\nall countries except Italy and Spain. The London firm is believed to have guaranteed\nto market at least 30,000 flasks a year for three years at a specific price. Later agree-\nments with \"Roura & Forgas\" sometimes gave a fixed commission on all sales and, in\nsome instances, a share of the profits on sales above a certain number of flasks.\nWhen economic sanctions were imposed on Italy in 1935 because of the Italian\ninvasion of Ethiopia, Spain sold to nations enforcing the embargo while Italian mer-\ncury was marketed in the US, Germany, and Japan, which were not parties to the\nsanctions.\nThe cartel was dissolved during the Spanish Civil War because of the Italian aid\nto General Franco, but was resumed early in 1939 with Spain allotted fifty-five percent\nand the Italian producers forty-five percent of the cartel's sales. \"Roura & Forgas\"\nagain became exclusive agents but that firm's contract was terminated on 1 January\n1940. Consortium Internationale du Mercure was established in May 1940 to handle\nsales to the western allies, but the US and UK negotiated directly with the Spanish\nGovernment in 1942, and thereafter. Deutsche Metallgesellschaft became the exclusive\nsales agent for countries occupied by the Axis.\nAfter the end of World War II, Mercurio Europeo was again established and agents\nappointed to represent it all over the world. The cartel recently has been considering\nappointing a single firm to represent it in world markets, preferably a US concern.\nAccording to the present agreement Spain is allocated 61.5 percent of the cartel's sales\nand is to sell to the US while the Italian producers are allowed 38.5 percent of the total\nsales. In 1948, however, exports from Spain when compared with those of Italy amount\nto much more than those allowed by the cartel agreement.\nAlthough the cartel no longer restricts production of its members, it influences\nproduction in the rest of the world through policies governing the price of its own out-\nput. Prior to World War II the cartel maintained a fair price for mercury. It readily\ncould have forced all other mines in the world to close down by price-cutting, for Spain\nand Italy are the world's lowest cost producers. If this had been carried out, con-\nsiderable agitation against the mercury cartel would have been aroused. Therefore,\nit was beneficial to the cartel's interests to maintain a price which was sufficient to\nallow a small number of the world's mines to continue to operate. If the cartel were\nabolished and mercury was sold on a free market, competition between Spain and Italian\nproducers would probably force the price SO low in normal years that mines in the\nrest of the world would not be able to operate.\nPRICES\nThere are two principal centers for marketing mercury-New York and London-\nwith prices conforming closely in prewar and postwar years to that asked by the cartel,\n5"
}