While the Chaco de Santiago is now a democracy of small _obrajeros_ and contractors, the eastern Chaco, along the Parana, has quite a different type of society. It is entirely in the hands of the big tannic-acid factories, where the _quebracho_ trunks are stripped and boiled, and their sap is concentrated in a viscous resin. The lofty chimneys of these works rise above the forest at intervals. Here the work assumes a capitalistic and industrial character which it has not in other places. It is controlled by powerful concerns, highly organized, which conduct it on a pre-arranged plan. It is true that the works do not deal with the entire output of _quebracho_,[48] but they almost control the market, even as regards the unworked wood which is exported, and they reserve a good deal of it for their branches in Europe. In order to secure the heavy loans which the works represent, the companies that have built them have been obliged to take over large forests, and they have come to own these. The concentration of the area in their hands goes on daily, and the number of companies is reduced by amalgamation or by the purchase of rival concerns and their estates. On the territory of the Chaco, where the administration of public lands was in the hands of the Federal Government, some precautions were taken to prevent the monopoly of the country; but the forests of the province of Santa Fe belong entirely to two firms. [48] It is more and more necessary to deal with the extract of the _quebracho_ on the spot the further north one goes toward the interior of the continent because the freights to the exporting ports rise higher and higher. The eastern Chaco has received from Europe, not only the capital that was needed for the construction of works, but also a number of workers, either for administration or for technical direction. These have proved more exacting than the creoles of the Santiago saw-mills. Beside most of the works there are now comfortable villas and brick towns for the workers. The expense was quite prudently incurred, as the industry is less erratic in this region. A tannic-acid factory cannot be removed like a saw-mill. When the timber-supply is exhausted in the district, the works gets its material from a distance, as long as the freightage permits. It depends on the railway, not only for the carriage of its products, as the saw-mills do, but for the supply of raw material.