The permanent commercial reports prepared by the com mercial representative cover all the leading business houses and industries in the foreign market. The data reported are the name and address of the firm, the volume of business done, the number of employees, amount of stock carried, nature of the articles dealt in, the origin of the merchandise, the facilities for dis tributing goods, and banking and commercial references. These are prepared on uniform forms, and copies are filed according to trade, etc. These give an idea of the commercial importance of the business community, as well as intimate and valuable in formation concerning each important house, and many sug gestive ideas of trade possibilities; they also serve as a basis for obtaining credit information and for soliciting new accounts.
The information gathered from industrial plants covers all those that are prominent and deals with the character of the ma chinery and machine tools used at present and the probable de mand for new machines, for tools and for replacements of those either worn or • out of date. In this way American machinery finds a gradually wider market.
Elaborate files of information of all kinds are kept by the foreign representative and made accessible to local concerns and traveling representatives of United States firms, the files being classified so as to be as highly useful as possible. When a traveling representative from a United States firm visits his district, it is the duty of the commercial representative to get into intimate touch with him if possible and accommodate him in every way.
Work of Home Organization The home organization performs a very diversified work, the ultimate end of all of which is to develop and maintain foreign business for the bank. It analyzes, files, and edits the reports sent by the commercial representative, and gives them publicity by letters, circulars, and periodicals, or personal con ferences. It receives and counsels visiting representatives of foreign and American houses that are present or prospective clients of the bank. It sends to the bank's clients who have requested them the advance announcements of trade oppor tunities that arise. It studies the market prospects in the United States for some foreign client's products and advises him of con ditions directly or through its representative. It organizes foreign or export departments for United States clients and finds competent heads for them. While it does not assume the re sponsibility of advising merchants or manufacturers whether they can do foreign business successfully, it does stand ready to offer exceptionally good information and a certain amount of guidance in helping them to decide for themselves. It has trade lists in each country and credit data about each name. It ap points or recommends agents abroad to carry out transactions for domestic clients or domestic agents for foreign clients, and in general answers inquiries about all phases and problems of foreign trade.