These new conditions, limitations and controls were administered by War Boards of Trade and Industry. That for trade was instituted six months after the declaration of war as a more comprehensive and efficient successor of an Export Administrative Board. The purpose of the War Trade Board was primarily to carry out the provisions of the Act forbidding Trade with the Enemy and certain portions of the Espionage Act. It had under its control the whole of the foreign commerce of the United States, which it managed by means of a system of licenses for exports and imports. Not a pound of goods of any sort could be shipped out of or into the country without a license granted by the War Trade Board, and no license was granted by it without full knowledge of the character of the shipment, its destination if an export and its source if it were inward bound. It had its branch offices in a score of cities, its representatives in foreign countries, its trade advisers and distributors who were men of intimate and extensive knowledge of trade conditions in all commodities at home and abroad, its members who supplied information concerning war trade matters all over the earth, from Iceland to Cape Horn and from Siam round the world to Japan, its bureaus which studied the problems constantly arising and collected data for their solution and for the guidance of the Board. The applications made to the War Trade Board for export licenses, nearly all of which were granted, averaged over 8,000 per day. The transactions which passed daily through its hands represented values of from $40,000,000 to $50,000,000. It had 3,000 employees, most of whom were located in its Washington offices, although its representatives were to be found in every important trading post in the world outside of enemy countries.