The system of the consortium was urged by the United State Government. Having created centralized organizations for its exports, it desired that these organizations should come into contact, not with scattered merchants, but with the Allied States themselves. The important inter-allied agreements made in Paris and London, in November 1916 and December 1917, on the initiative of M. Clémentel, confirmed the principle of these industrial and commercial syndicates, financially responsible to the State, which becomes a direct buyer. Besides, the French State was not anxious to see the incredible profits which were going to result from the doubling of oil imports--imports of a value of a thousand million francs yearly--fall into the hands of the Cartel of Ten. It therefore imposed upon it, on March 29, 1918, after three months of inquiries and hesitations, a curious contract.
The State reserved to itself the monopoly of the purchase and import of oils, and sold them to a special organization (the consortium), constituted under the form of a limited company with a capital of thirty million francs, of which half was to be paid up immediately. This company undertook delivery of the commodity, reimbursed the State for its expenditure (cost, insurance, freight), itself met the charges for unloading and storage, and re-sold the oil to the ten members of the cartel at prices fixed for each variety by the Ministers of Commerce and Supply. _The distributive trade within the country was left free._ Each of the Ten subscribed towards the formation of the capital in the following proportions:--
------------------------------------------------------------------------ |Nominal Capital| Paid-up | Percentage. | subscribed. | Capital. | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Francs | Francs | Francs _Fenaille et Despeaux_ | 4,725,000 | 2,362,500| 15.75 _Désmarais frères_ | 4,725,000 | 2,362,500| 15.75 _Fils de A. Deutsch_ | 4,725,000 | 2,362,500| 15.75 _Cie. Industrielle des Pétroles_| 3,861,000 | 1,930,500| 12.87 _Raffinerie du Midi_ | 3,504,000 | 1,752,000| 11.68 _Société L.B.C._ | 2,526,000 | 1,263,000| 8.42 _Paix et Compagnie_ | 2,238,000 | 1,119,000| 7.46 _Cie. Générale des Pétroles_ | 1,428,000 | 714,000| 4.76 _Lesieur et fils_ | 1,284,000 | 642,000| 4.28 _Raffinerie du Nord_ | 984,000 | 492,000| 3.20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | 30,000,000 |15,000,000| -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------