This last episode shows one of the great defects in the American system of doing business abroad.  We insist upon the f.o.b. arrangement, that is, the price at the American point of shipment.  The foreigner, and especially the Frenchman, wants a c.i.f. price which includes cost, insurance and freight and which puts the article down at his door.  The German and English shippers, and particularly the former, have made this kind of shipment part of their export creed, and it is one reason why they have succeeded so wonderfully in the foreign field.

The Great American Coal Deluge also precipitated a flood of miserable titled ladies all selling coal for “well known American companies.”  Most of them were clever American women, married, or thinking they were married, to Italian or French noblemen.  Their chief effort was to get a cash advance payment to bind the contract.  Such details as price, transportation, credit, and other essentials were unimportant.

Here is a little story which shows how these women did business and undid American good will.

One day last August, the telephone rang in the office of the General Manager of a long established American concern in Paris.  A woman was at the other end.

“Is this Mr. Blank?”

“Yes.”

“I am Countess A. and I have a letter of introduction for you.”

“Yes.”

“I represent several large American coal companies and have secured a large order for Italy.”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me how I can get the coal to Italy?”

“Yes.”

“Splendid!  But how?”

“By boats.”

“Oh, yes, I know, but have you got the boats and can I get them?  I have the order, you see, and that is the main thing.”

“But, madam,” asked the man, “have you cabled your company in America about the contract?”

“No,” answered the woman.  “What’s the use of doing that.  I have no money to spend on cables.  Besides, I have full power to act.  The price is all right and the buyers are ready to sign but they want to put into the agreement some silly business about delivery and I am asking you to help me get the boats.”

“Come and see me,” said the Manager.

The woman promised to call the next morning, but she never came.  Just what she had in mind the Manager could never quite tell.  But one thing was proved in this and similar activities:  The “Countess” and most of her sisters who have been trying to put over coal and other contracts in Paris, have little or no real authorisation for their performances, and the principal result has been to prejudice French and Italian buyers against us.