development of pyrite and sulphur
supplies in the United States. The export of oil from the United States
to European countries was greatly stimulated, and the export to other
countries was correspondingly decreased. The world movements of coal
were vitally affected, principally by the limitation of the coal
shipments from England and the United States to South America and the
concentration of shipments to European countries. The closing of German
coal supplies to nearby countries also had far-reaching consequences.
The cutting off of the German potash left the world for the time being
almost unsupplied with this vital fertilizing ingredient. The Chilean
nitrates, on which the world had relied for fertilizer purposes, were
diverted almost exclusively to the manufacture of powder. The total
annual imports of mineral commodities into the United States were
reduced by 1,200,000 tons. Our exports, though they continued in large
volume, were mainly concentrated in Europe. The story of these
disturbances in the world movement of minerals, though highly
interesting, is too long to be told here.

Out of these sweeping and rapid changes in the world movement of mineral
commodities there arose, partly as cause and partly as effect,
international agreements for the allocation of minerals, as a means of
insuring the proper proportions of supplies to the different countries
for the most effective prosecution of the war. Inter-Allied purchasing
committees in London and in Paris found it necessary to make an
inter-Allied allocation of the output of Chilean nitrate, because the
sum of the demands exceeded the total supply by a considerable fraction,
and to agree on the distribution and prices of the world's supplies of
tin, tungsten, and platinum. For many other commodities agreements of
various sorts were made. For instance, the United States entered into an
agreement with England and France for the purchase of iron ore and
molybdenum from Scandinavia to keep it out of Germany. The United States
and England agreed as to supplying Canada with ferromanganese. New
problems of world allocation came up almost daily.

Another war change in mineral conditions, of a more permanent nature,
was the liquidation of German ownership and control of minerals in
allied countries, and in some cases even in neutral countries.

POST-WAR CONDITION OF THE MINERAL TRADE

The mineral industry has by no means reverted to its pre-war condition.
The old