But the Steel Corporation, once having determined to build up a permanent export business, accepted and adopted the attitude of its European competitors that the consumer, no matter where he is, must get his goods as he wants them, and not as the manufacturer sees fit to make them. To do this, it became necessary to begin to manufacture a number of new lines of steel for which there was no call in the domestic markets, to adopt the weights and measures of each country in dealings with buyers there, and in every way to make it convenient for the purchaser abroad to order from the Corporation with the certainty that his business would get the same welcome as it would if placed with a British, German, or Belgian mill, and the same care and attention. To suit the needs of the various foreign buyers catered to it was found necessary, in some instances, to devote entire mills to making nothing but export products. Wire goods constitute an important item of export and of the eleven thousand and more varieties of wire products made by the American Steel & Wire Co., some 1,800 are manufactured principally for foreign trade, many of these lines not being sold in the United States at all. For instance, the countries in South America lying below the equator demand what is known as “varnished” wire; certain of the tropical countries, because of climatic conditions, require a wire heavily coated with spelter to withstand rust; and so on. The Australian carpenter is accustomed to fasten his woodwork with a nail of oval section. No argument can convince him that the round nail, favored in America, is just as good. He knows what he wants and knows also that if the United States won’t supply it, Europe will. In other parts of the world a square nail is popular. So the Corporation makes oval nails, square nails, nails, in fact, to suit every clime and country. It does not attempt to argue about tastes, it merely accepts them as they are and endeavors to satisfy them--and this is the royal road to sales and profits. Even in the question of packing, local usage must be considered. In the United States, the standard package for nails is the 100 lb. keg. For the Japanese trade, picul kegs, holding approximately 133 lbs., are demanded, while the Hindu trader, sitting bare legged and beturbaned before his booth in the bazaars of Bombay or Calcutta, offers the passer-by small packages of nails weighing seven pounds--put up by the American Steel & Wire Co.