COMMERCIAL CONTROL
In the United States the various emery and corundum deposits are in small holdings that are mostly owned by local residents. The mines and quarries have been worked by lessees on royalty, generally. A considerable number of operators are and have been engaged in several localities, and there are no trade coalitions. Crushing and grading are in the hands of eight independent competitive companies, except in so far as they were welded during the war into a trade association by the War Trade Board for the purpose of allocating, under Government supervision, the small imports of Greek emery to essential industries.
In Canada the better portions of the corundum deposits seem to be controlled largely by one company—Manufacturers Corundum Co.—whose owners seem to be dominantly or entirely of Canadian nationality.
The Greek emery deposits, particularly those of Naxos, are claimed to be the inalienable property of the families resident upon the island.
There is no control of emery and corundum resources through ownership of crushing, milling, and grading plants, nor through patents or secret processes of preparation. Trade combinations as affecting emery and corundum supply are unknown. There are a number of milling companies in the United States, Britain, France, and Germany, who compete for the world’s supply of raw material, and those of each country compete with one another for markets for the graded, prepared material.