" V.N.F." AND " S.P.E.S."
rl 1HE initials" V.N.11'." stand for " Vereeniging Nederlandsch
Fabrikaat " (Society for Dutch Manufacture), and by the authorization of this Society are placed upon goods of genuinely Dutch manufacture. The " V.N.F." has now been operating during more than two years, and was the first body in all the world to apply this method of safeguarding national industries and encouraging their monopoly of the home market by educating the public. For this was the Society's primary aim. Latterly eircumstances have added another which tends to become the prinsipal. The economic war which threatens to follow the present military warfare has induced the German export industries to adopt methods which in that country have aptly been designated as "commercial mimicry." These consist in exporting German- made goods under a false flag, just as in military warfare German strategical positions readily hide under the shelter of the Red Cross.
The German firm of Stollwerck, for instance, are exporting their chocolate in wrappers bearing on one side the photograph of the Dutch Queen and an inscription in a language -which in England or America or France might pass for Dutch, though it would not mislead a Dutchman, and on the other side some more of the same dialect in praise of Stollwerck's chocolate, supposed to be made at Amsterdam Another German firm attempts to pass off. its manufacture as Nederlandsche Speclkaarten (Dutch playing. cards), ornamenting them with the Dutch coat-of-arms and device. The cloven foot, however, appears in the trade-mark en the back of the pack, which shows a stag's head with, in good German, "Schutz Marke." But this is not enough to enlighten the public. These examples could be multiplied ad infinitum. Like dodgery is being attempted in Switzerland. As writes Professor Hauser, of Dijon University, in the Suisse Economique: "German products, just before they are finished, are sent to a finishing factory, either Swiss, Dutch, Spanish, or Scandinavian. Provided with a fine neutral mark, Tell-Gummi or Riitli-essence, Edelweiss or Helvetia, they are then sent into the Entente countries by some Ignacio Lopez or Nils Joergensen." Thus England and the Entente are to be diddled. At least this is the aim and object, avowed with typically Teutonic crudity in the German commercial Press itself, as has been shown by translations and reprints in the Amsterdam Algemeen Handelsblad and the Neue Zarcher Zeitung. A far more probable result will be, however, the utter discrediting of the commerce and industries of the neutrals in the Entente countries, and consequently the economic ruin of these neutrals. It is therefore high time for the latter to take energetic steps in self-defence, and by preference conjointly. This is all the more urgent as certain of the Allies have already begun to follow the example set by the Dutch industries. In Rance, under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce in Paris, private interests have formed an organization to which several industrial syndicates have already adhered, and which has entered into collaboration with the British Empire League and like Societies. This organization authorizes the application to genuinely French products of the words " Unis France," Unia standing for "Union Nationale Inter-Syndicale." In America the lead has been taken by the Chamber of Commerce at Detroit, which applies to American goods the sign of the eagle accompanied by the words "Made in [place of origin], U.S.A." In view of the popularity of this device, the American Board of Commerce have now brought in a Bill empowering the Secretary of Commerce to establish and to apply a national trade-mark. Unlike in the Netherlands and France, this safeguarding of home industries is therefore in America to be done officially and by the Government. A serious difficulty, however, is the determining which are, and which are not, national manufactures. Is this criterion only to apply to the actual physical part of the manufacturing, or to the mental efforts of inventing, of estimating, calculating, drawing, &c., as well! Is a Diesel motor, made in Holland, of German manufacture or Dutch! Does Faraday's nationality affect the commercial origin of the Philips globes made in Holland! Next comes the financial question. Some hold that the origin of the capital invested affects the nationality of the manufacture. This is an extremely ticklish point. For how are the continuously shifting holders of marketable shares and obligations to be traced! Even if only nominal shares are issued, it is but all too easy to resort to the device of the "man of straw." Then there is the question of the raw material. Is this also to be national, or is only the finished or half-finished article to be considered ? The trouble is that "raw" is not an absolute, but a relative, qualification. The lime produced by a kiln is a finished article to the producer, but raw material to the manufacturer of lime sandstone. To the millewner paper is a
finished article, hut ra.w meterial te the printer. Dyes are finished articles to the chemical works, but raw material to the ink manu- facturer. Finally, there is the question of composite labour aod composite manufactures. Which is the nationelity of beer made of Dutch barley and Dutch hops in a Dutch brewery where the foreman is a Belgian ? Which is the nationality of a chair made by Dutch workmen in a Dutch factory of Dutch wood, horsehair, cloth, straps, be., but for which British-made tacks have been used ?
The criterion applied by the " V.N.F." is whether the labour put into a given article in a given country is sufficient to make the finished article a product of that country. Theoretically this, of course, is not an absolute safeguard, but practically it is sufficient to prevent all disloyal trade on the part of German firms or others. Heavy penalties are inflicted for breach of confidence, and the Society will reinvestigate each case every five years.
Switzerland has paid her fellow-neutral ef the Rhine the pro- verbially sincerest compliment. The Dutch " V.N.F." has been followed by a Swiss counterpart, the " Syndicat pour rexportation
suisse," henceforth to be known as " nomen omen! Partly, the imitation has been deliberate. Partly, it is a case of like causes having like effects. For both neutrals of the Rhine are threatened by the same peril of being crushed between the heavy hammer and the hard anvil—the economic organization of the Allies resolutely battering upon the stubborn economic organization of Mittel-Europa. And as with Germany a defensive invariably implies a most energetic offensive, it is these neutrals' task to watch lest, in the economic warfare following upon the present military conflict., they be used, against their desire and interest, for serving the unscrupulous ends of .Mittel-European expansion, paying for their neglect by exclusion from the world's markets. Against the projected, and indeed already attempted, "commercial mimicry" of the German exporter the Dutch " V.N.F.," as has previously been stated, operates by reserving its mark for genuinely Dutch wares produced under the Society's control. So likewise is the Swiss " S.P.E.S." to do. Henceforth no Swiss watches, no Swiss silks, no Swiss cheese ought to be admitted on to the English market unless bearing this mark of good omen. The merchants and manufacturers of Switzerland have taken considerably longer to act than their Dutch brothers. In a way, this stands to reason in a multilingual country like Switzerland, where centralized social efforts are less easily realized than in homogeneous States like the Netherlands. Nor should it be forgotten that among the obstacles to be overcome or turned in Switzerland are certain traditional ties of economic intimacy so entangling Cis- and Trans-Rhenish enterprise as to make the nationalization of industries a feat of no small diplomatic merit. It is under the auspices of the Geneva Chamber of Commerce that this feat has been performed, or rather under those of its late Vice-Chairman, M. Charles Chenevard, to whom we owe a remarkable work on Concurrence deloyale. As is meet in these circumstances, the seat of the newly born " S.P.E.S." is at Geneva. A Board of fifteen members has just been formed in that city under the chairmanship of its leading citizen, M. Martin Naef, of the house of Naef and Co., manufacturers of chemical products. This Board works in close collaboration with the Chambers of Commerce at Geneva, Basle, and Zurich, a fact which characterizes the basis of its constitution. These Chambers of Commerce also act as secretaries to the " S.P.E.S." in providing those interested in its workings with the necessary details. All profit-making is, of course, rigorously excluded from the scope of this syndicate, which is entirely devoted to the furtherance of national exportation in general. For this purpose its constitu- tion, carefully formulated in agreement with chap. xxvii. of the Swiss mercantile code,. has been conceived -so as to guarantee the authentically Swiss nature of the goods produced and exported by the syndicate's members. For this purpose, also, these members are strictly limited to three categories. First come the native Swiss. Secondly, membership can be obtained by those Swiss subjects who were naturalized before July 1st, 1914e This restriction is necessary to prevent the infiltration into the syndicate of the numerous Germans who, during the first period of the war, profited by the, at that time, all too " commercial " facilities for acquiring the rights of Swiss nationality as a blind only. But in order not permanently to disqualify even those whose motives for changing their legal status were sincere, a third category of candidates for future membership has been added : those, namely, whose naturalization will have taken place at least ten years previous to their application. It is clear, therefore, that in this, as in the Dutch case, every precaution has been taken to frustrate the "knavish tricks" of an insidious neighbour, and to save the markets of England and her Allies and associates from surreptitious
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