gaging in the business of export and import and various ninor departments of trade. French companies are responsible for a large part of the railway system (cf. p. 69), the harbour and docks of Beirut, and the lighting by gas and electricity of that city; the water company there too is largely a French concern. A Belgian company, in which the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft, of Berlin, has a considerable interest, has installed the electric tramway and light at Damascus, and the electric trams at Beirut also were financed by Belgian capitalists. (For the shipping lines, whose agents are established at the principal ports, see p. 85, and for the foreign banks, p. 139.) In the Imperial Ottoman Bank, which has branches in Syria, French influence predominates. Agencies of a number of insurance companies (life, fire, transport) are found in Beirut, Aleppo, Damascus, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Haifa, Tripoli, &c., the principal being British, French, German, Austrian, and American. In miscellaneous trade and commerce the foreign firms are, for the most part, concentrated in the seaports of Beirut, Jaffa, and Haifa, and the three large inland towns, Aleppo, Damascus, and Jerusalem; French, German, Austrian, Italian, and Greek houses predominate. English firms usually employ native representatives, and English names such as that of White & Son, engineers and dealers in machinery (Beirut and Aleppo), are rare among local traders. Of American companies, the Singer Sewing Machine Company, who have agents in many towns, the Vacuum Oil Company (Beirut and. Aleppo), and the McAndrews & Forbes Company, dealers in liquorice. root (Alexandretta and Antioch), are the most Like the Vacuum Oil Company, the important. Russian petroleum company, Nobel Frères, is widely represented. French interests are paramount at Beirut, but are concerned more especially with export trade, above all in silk. A large general business is conducted by what is, perhaps, the most important firm, the Etablissements Orosdi Back, which has
