December i, 1906] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



always as much rubber as the world wants. It is true 

 that the rubber districts known fifty years ago became in 

 time incapable of supplying the (leniand, but the offer of 

 higher prices for nibhei' Ud to the exploiting of new dis- 

 tricts. When there were no nt.w districts to ali.scovered, 

 and prices ex)ntinued to rise. peo[)le began lo plant rub- 

 ber. It is possible that cultivation may yet make rubber 

 .so plentiful that prices will fall materially. Hut then as 

 now, the price of rubber will depend upon how nuich the 

 consuming trade will pay for it ; not upon the cost of 

 production, not upon efforts at market control by traders, 

 not even upon governmental control, as lately reported 

 from Brazil. 



To state the matter more briefly, the price of rubber is 

 governed by the supply. Its sources are too extensive 

 and too scattered to be "cornered." The price fluctuations 

 of a day caused by petty local manipulation are mere ex- 

 ceptions to a general rule. If it should be to the interest 

 of a consumer to pay a high price, he will pay it, not 

 caring what the profit of the producer may be. On the 

 other hand, he will not pay more for rubber than the de- 

 mand justifies, no matter if the price means a loss to the 

 producer. 



A RUBBER FARM FOR EACH FACTORY. 



WHEN companies first began to be formed for 

 exploiting rubber plantations in Mexico on a 

 large scale, their promoters invariably solicited invest- 

 ment on the part of rubber manufacturers, under the im- 

 pression that the latter would become interested more 

 readily than ony other class in the creation of new 

 sources of raw material. As a rule, however, few manu- 

 facturers at first were disposed to take stock in this new 

 form of enterprise. Their capital was fully employed in 

 the making of goods and finding a market for them— a 

 business with which they were familiar. Rubber culture 

 had not been proved a success, it involved problems to 

 which they were strangers, and in any event capital in- 

 vested in planting would not yield an early return. 

 Thej- used cotton as well as rubber, but they had never 

 thought of producing their own supplies of cotton. They 

 were content to continue buying raw materials as they 

 had always done. 



Now that the production of plantation rubber has 

 emerged beyond the experimental stage, there are indica- 

 tions that the rubber manufacturers are beginning to 

 view in a different light the question of a factory con- 

 trolling its own base of supplies. As has been pointed 

 out in The India Rubber World there are rubber 

 planters to-day who estimate their profit on rubber at Si 

 or more per pound. Even if rubber should decline in 

 price one-half — which no one now considers probable — 

 these planters say that its cultivation would still be profi- 

 table. Clearly, the manufacturer who owned a plantation 

 on which rubber could be obtained at a cost of $1 — or 

 50 cents— less than the market price for the product 



would have an advantage over a competitor who bought 

 in the open market. These figures, by the way, are not 

 mere guesswork, but are supplied by men accustomed 

 to the management of large plantation.s — particularly 

 tea — under business systems as well organized as those 

 of any manufactory. 



As more planted rubber estates become productive, and 

 the planting of this crop becomes recognized as an estab- 

 lished business, we may expect the buying and .selling of 

 such properties to become an ordinary occurrence It 

 may be then that large rubber manufacturers, who would 

 have hesitated to invest in the creation of a rubber farm 

 requiring years for development, will feel differently 

 about buying one which has beoome productive and prof- 

 itable, if obtainable on reasonable terms. Or they may 

 buy shares in the larger, company-owned plantations, 

 conducted on a .scale too extensive for the capital of most 

 rubber factories. 



Without doubt there will be found, in time, advantages 

 to the ruliber factory in having its own rubber farm, apart 

 from the item of supplies at low cost. One would be the 

 securing of rubber of uniform quality — made to the man- 

 ufacturer's own specifications, .so to speak — delivered at 

 stated periods, and the cost of which could be determined 

 for months, if not years, in advance. 



OlR CONGRATULATIONS TO THE GERMAN RUBBER TRADK 



for having contributed by its liberal support to the develop- 

 ment of so creditable a representative of its interests as the 

 Gummi-Zeiliing, of Dresden, which has just completed its 

 twentieth year of publication. Looking back to tlie first is- 

 sue of our contemporary, now before us, we find a very small 

 production indeed, as compared with the Gummi Zeitung of 

 to-daj-, but it must be said that Herr Garape gave indica- 

 tions from the start of recognizing what a trade and techni- 

 cal journal in this particular branch should be, to prove 

 helpful to its patrons. Unfortunatelj- he did not live to see 

 the success which his paper has attained, but it is none the 

 less a striking testimonial to the intelligent farsightedness 

 with which he planned the publication. The Cummi-Zeitung 

 and the German rubber industrj- have grown hand in hand. 

 The rate of growth of the industry is shown by the net im- 

 ports of raw rubber, now six times as great as they were 

 twenty years ago ; we should saj- that the German trade 

 paper has done even better. 



Whether any European tire makers will establish 

 factories in the United States must be determined apart from 

 any such considerations as have led Continental firms to plan 

 branch factories in Great Britain. The Briti.sher apparently 

 buj-s motor tires (and other wares) more readily if they are 

 produced on British soil, and the Continental firms which 

 gained a market in England before the home industry there 

 was fully developed are seeking to hold this trade by offer- 

 ing their tires as " home made. " But European tires, how- 

 ever good, have never been predominant in the American 

 market, nor the trade in them relativelj' so large as in Great 

 Britain. It is true that the American tariff barrier would be 

 avoided by European firms by establishing plants here, but 

 perhaps any saving under this head would be offset b}' the 

 higtier scale of wages in the United States. 



