Raimey,
As you know, we both have been pulling the strings on the "importer" issue for some time. In general, I stay a way from any public discussion. Mainly because there are so many huge holes remaining in the research. There is a whole economic that has to be figured in, IE the prevailing tariffs and state of national economics. I am sure that during economic down turns of the US economy, those foreign makers prices started looking better and better. I am not speaking about the final consumer!
If you want a good laugh, go to google books and find the congressional testimony given by American gun makers during tariff hearings. They cry over unfair wages, etc. Yet when delving into their hiring practices and wages paid little more than the those foreign makers they decried.
I will try to summarize a bit. Excuse me if I do not document this as it simply take too many hours a simple post.....
I have found products imported that included rough tubes, semi-finished tubes, sets of tubes and complete guns. Some of those guns were left basic and an a American gunsmith would provide some level of final finishing.
The importers ( the piece which interests me the most ) vary;
** Single individuals who had some connection back to the makers and acted as importer part time.
** Single individuals, again with connections, who for time imported full time.
** Companies that specialized in importing a broad array of merchandise that would occasionally offer barrels, guns, etc.
** The barrel /gun makers who would come to the states to sell, established contacts and did the entire export / import through their own network.
** The end gun maker who had established special relations to a maker or region and had their own network to handle the export / import.
I think one of the questions you are wrestling with revolves around German exports. Where were their markets? How did they operate?
Pete
