ship _Carolyn_, that the threat of capture was not to be taken
seriously but was simply an attempt at intimidation on the part
of the English. In this way, confidence was so far restored that
in the autumn of 1914 and the beginning of 1915 a large number
of other firms joined in the business. When, later, cotton was
made unconditional contraband of war, Herr Albert made attempts
to fit out blockade runners--which ended with the arrival at a
German port of the _Eir_ with 10,000 bales of cotton.

The various attempts to export copper, rubber and other raw materials
which were unconditional contraband, apart from the cases already
mentioned of wool and cotton, proved impossible, in spite of repeated,
extensive and very cautious preparation. A very ambitious scheme
of this kind with the S.S. _Atlantic_ had to be abandoned at the
last moment owing to difficulties with the port authorities.

All these enterprises, the purchase, sale and shipment of foodstuffs
and raw material, the chartering, buying and selling of ships, the
founding of shipping lines, new companies, etc., as well as the
financial business had their political as well as their purely
business side. They were either intended to serve as precedents in
the definite phases of development of international maritime law
or to exert influence on American public opinion from an economic
point of view.

When the result of these shipping enterprises is weighed after
the event, it will be seen that they did not play a decisive part
in the supply of Germany with foodstuffs and raw material. Germany
would during the first year of war have managed to get along even
without the few hundred thousand tons which in this way were brought
in via neutral countries. Nevertheless, in conjunction with the
imports from neutral countries, they several times served to relieve
the situation. Very important in this respect was the successful
struggle for the free import of cotton at the end of 1914 and the
beginning of 1915, quite apart from our own shipments. Without
this we should have come to an end of our supplies considerably
earlier.

The question of war and marine insurance very soon called for particular
attention to the interests of our own shipping. The American insurance
market was dominated by the English companies. The latter not only
conducted about two-thirds of the whole insurance business of the
country, but also exerted a decisive influence on the American
companies