Thus, the _Standard_ was dominant in France up to the War, fixing prices and eliminating other importers. But, in spite of the lowering of the customs duties in 1893 they still remained so high that the _Conseil Supérieur de Navigation Maritime_, at its meeting of May 15, 1913, complained of the difficulties of procuring petroleum in France at "reasonable terms." Mazut, the price of which is very low, could not enter the country on account of the 9 francs duty, with which the legislature had burdened it without discriminating between various kinds of crude oil of greater or lesser value. In 1918, the world as a whole was consuming 30 million tons of mazut, France not one quintal. And her shipping was very much behind that of other nations with regard to the use of the Diesel engine. Very few of her vessels burned oil. "What absolutely prevents the fitting up of our ships" wrote the Under-Secretary of State for the Merchant Marine, in a letter to the Minister for Commerce on June 2, 1913, "is the exaggerated price of liquid fuel caused by the fiscal exactions." On July 21st, M. Charles Roux, president of the _Comité Central des Armateurs_, took steps to obtain a lowering of these tariffs. They were without result until 1919, the year in which M. Clemenceau got the Chamber to pass the law of August 7th, which lowered the import duties on mazut from 9 francs to 0.40 francs. At last the prohibitive customs barrier was broken down. The tax on coal was then 1.10 francs a ton. A ton of liquid fuel paid duties _one hundred times as high_ (90 to 120 francs). From the fiscal point of view, this tax brought in nothing to the Treasury. _It was so high that it prevented all importation._ And thanks to that, also, France was left behind by all her rivals. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 39: Henry Bérenger, _Le Pétrole et la France_, p. 280.] [Footnote 40: Le Page, _L'Impérialisme du Pétrole_.] [Footnote 41: 220 lb.] CHAPTER XVIII THE PETROLEUM CONSORTIUM At the beginning of the War, the French State possessed no reserves of petrol or petroleum: a new example of the unpreparedness so often remarked! The "refineries" disposed of a stock amounting at the end of July 1914, according to the Customs statistics, to:-- 408,200 quintals of crude oil, 433,560 quintals of refined oil, 342,090 quintals of petrol. To meet the earliest needs, these were requisitioned. But, from the month of September, this method was changed for that of contracts with the "Ten." The cartel undertook to meet the needs of France; it made itself responsible for purchases from abroad. The State was thus a mere customer enjoying the rights of priority over other customers. The consumption was then unimportant. At the time of the first battle of the Marne, France had 22 squadrons of 6 aeroplanes (= 132), with engines of 80 or 100 horse-power; 110 motor-lorries and 50 tractors (= 160). The Germans had 70,000![42]