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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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{
    "id": "486500536",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500536",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, A Survey of the World Mercury Situation, Situation Report 28",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500536",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Intelligence Files"
    ],
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    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500536",
    "naId": 486500536,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 4,
            "logicalDate": "1949-02-04",
            "month": 2,
            "year": 1949
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
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{
    "seq": 13,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875510/875510-02-013.tif",
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    "ocrText": "CONEIDENTIAT\nC.I.F. these centers. Since there is a US import duty of $19 per flask, the London price\nin prewar years was much lower than that of New York, but rarely as much as $19\nlower. Long term fluctuations in prices, generally, have been governed by supply and\ndemand, resulting from the peacetime industrial uses to which mercury is put. Occa-\nsionally some part of demand for the metal is attributable to speculative buyers attempt-\ning to capitalize on war scares or anticipated new industrial uses. Speculative activity\nhas been responsible in part for unusual price fluctuations.\nFollowing World War I, requirements for mercury declined and prices fell accord-\ningly. The lowest point in the US domestic price during this period was reached in\nthe depression year of 1921, when the average annual quotation was equivalent to\n$46.07 per flask. The London price fell to $43.57 in 1921. Since US mines could no\nlonger operate at these levels, aid was granted to them by way of an increased tariff\nof twenty-five cents a pound ($19 a flask) in 1922.\nThe return to greater industrial activity during the later \"twenties\", particularly\nin the US, resulted in steadily rising prices. But this was insufficient to account for\nthe sharp advance to an average price in New York of $118.15 per flask in 1927. In\nthis case, as normally, the domestic price followed the foreign price. The high foreign\n(London) price in 1927 may have been owing in part to an informal agreement between\nthe principal producers in Spain and Italy, and in part to heavy purchases by consum-\ning countries in anticipation of the establishment of the cartel then under consideration.\nAfter the formation of the cartel in 1928, the London price was held at the equiva-\nlent of more than $105 a flask until June 1931, in the face of declining world markets\nand increased world stocks. Subsequently, the world-wide depression carried the Lon-\ndon price down to $41.64 in 1933, or to the lowest point for the period from World\nWar I to the present, whereas the New York price fell to $57.93 in 1932. The decline\nin the world price in 1932-1933 was accentuated by the surpluses produced in the\nrestricted world markets by mines that benefited by the earlier, sustain-price policy\nof the cartel. Prices gradually increased with only slight fluctuations from 1933 until\n1939, when World War II began in Europe.\nFollowing the outbreak of the second world conflict, prices in the US rose sharply.\nIn August 1939, the monthly average was $84.41, and by the middle of September the\nquoted price had virtually doubled. The gains were attributed, primarily, to fears\non the part of the cartel's customers that they would be unable to obtain all of their\nrequirements from either regular or alternate sources. Italy's entrance into the war,\nin June 1940, left Spain to meet the demands for cartel metal in non-Axis countries,\nand the fulfillment of such demands presented shipping problems.\nThe cartel price was advanced from $200 at the beginning of 1940 to $250 in\nDecember of that year, considerably above the equivalent price of $201.10 in London.\nBoth prices were above those prevailing in the US, marking a reversal of the usual rela-\ntionship. It was rumored that the high prices were to enable Spain to repay Ger-\nmany on favorable terms for reported aid in the Spanish Civil War. The London price\nrose above that of New York because the UK had to depend on Spain for some of its\nrequirements.\n6"
}