REBATES, DEFERRED. A deferred rebate is a discount on the invoice price returned after a lapse of time to a trader, on certain conditions, as a means of maintaining monopoly and keeping out would-be competitors from the trade. The system is in use in many branches of British trade and industry. It con sists in returning to the trader (merchant or retailer) at the end of every six or 12 months a rebate equal to perhaps I o or 15% on his purchases, on condition that he shall not, during the period, have sold, displayed (or, it may be, offered) any of the kind of goods produced by the combination except those made by the combination. The effect of the arrangement is that if at any time during that period the customer is offered an article of better value by an outside maker or by a new firm starting in the in dustry, the buying of that article will cost him anything from one to 12 months' accumulated rebates on his association pur chases and may result in his being placed on the association's "black list," which means that he shall not again be supplied with association goods except at prices which will yield an insufficient profit on resale. The reasons advanced by combinations for the use of the deferred rebate are not altogether reasons of monopoly. They contend that steadiness and continuity of custom are essen tial to economical manufacture; that by maintaining an even level of prices (which, as the market fluctuates, may be tem porarily under-profitable as sometimes over-profitable) they are serving the best interest of the customer; and that these mutual advantages cannot be secured if the customer is left free to trade with the combination when its prices are below average, and go elsewhere when they are above. The most notable example of
the use of the deferred rebate is to be found in the case of the shipping companies operating liner services, where the fluctuat ing competition of the "tramp" and the great importance of securing a steady volume of freights if a regular service is to be maintained lend particular weight to the arguments quoted above. In the manufacturing industries there is less agreement among members of combinations as to the advantage of the de ferred rebate, and instances have occurred of the system being voluntarily abandoned. (J. H.) REBEC or REBECK, a mediaeval stringed instrument played with a bow, derived from the Oriental rebab, and some times regarded as the ancestor of the viol and violin. Like the rebab (q.v.), the rebec assumed at first one of two forms- the pear-shaped body with a wide base, strung with three strings, or the long, narrow pear- or boat-shaped body with two strings and, in addition, the other Oriental characteristics of the rebab, i.e., the vaulted back, the absence of ribs, and pegs set in the back of the head. Except for the addition of a fingerboard, what is now recognized as the rebec underwent no structural develop ment and never entered the domain of art, despite the wide favour which it enjoyed throughout the middle ages.