Except for Charles Paix, who made a disastrous attempt to the south of Cheliff in Algeria, none of the "oil men" tried to discover petroleum in France or her colonial empire, and so to endow the country with a real independent petroleum industry. They much preferred, with the aid of the _Standard_, to draw large profits without running any risks. A remark of M. Deutsch de la Meurthe on this subject has become famous: "The greatest misfortune that could happen to us would be to discover petroleum deposits." M. Barthe well remarked in the course of a comprehensive indictment: "Our oil magnates have been neither producers nor transporters of oil, and they have not even continued to be refiners." For, since the law of 1893, which lowered the import duty from 20 francs to 9 francs a metric quintal[41] for crude oil, and from 32 francs to 13.50 francs for refined oil, thus reducing the incredible difference of 120 francs a ton between the two, the Cartel of Ten has arranged with the _Standard Oil_ to bring into France refined American oil with 7 or 8 per cent. of residual impurities, _which it passes as crude oil_, so frustrating the fiscal duty and realizing enormous gains. The understanding with the _Standard_ was changed about 1904 to a close dependence; the Ten became nothing more than Rockefeller's representatives in France, his _oil importers. The_ Standard _fixed the quantities to be sold by each one and made them sign an undertaking to sell at the prices fixed by it at the beginning of each week_. In the old refineries of Paris, Rouen, Bordeaux, etc., the agents of the _Standard_ carried on a simple process of distillation, a mere pretence of refining, well-known under the name of "cracking." They imported a mixture of mineral spirit and petroleum, oil manufactured in America, a mixture which they had only to heat slightly in order to separate the volatile spirit (petrol) from the heavy constituents (petroleum oils). This fiction has always been admitted by the State officials. It has allowed really refined oils to come into the country as crude oil, paying the minimum duty. Millions have thus been lost by the State to the profit of a few privileged individuals. Later on, when the cartel made an arrangement with _André et Cie._ that they should deliver Russian oil to it alone, the _Standard_ wanted the agreement submitted to it for ratification, and laid down the condition that _André et Cie._ should only make deliveries in the proportions it decided upon.