July i, 1909.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



347 



The Rubber System of the Amazon. 



To THE Editor of The India Rubber World: Several ar- 

 ticles in your journal lately, bearing upon the condi- 

 tions of supply of crude rubber, while interesting and 

 informing on the whole, seem to call for some supplementary 

 information which I, by reason of a familiarity with the 

 Amazon region, feel qualified to oflfer. 

 '"Valorization." 



First, in regard to the projected syndicates, involving the 

 idea of "valorization" of rubber. Thus far no rubber ex- 

 porting syndicate actually is operative in Brazil, but more 

 than one has been arranged for, to take advantage of the 

 law enacted recently by the legislative assembly at Para and 

 signed by Governor Montenegro just before his term of office 

 expired. As has been mentioned in your journal [January i, 

 1909 — page 154], this law provides for a rebate from the ex- 

 port duty on rubber, when the same is shipped by the own- 

 ers of seringat's (rubber camps) — i. c, the producers of 

 rubber. 



The basic principle of the new law is not, as The India 

 Rubber World's readers may have inferred, to give Brazilians 

 a monopolj' in the rubber trade, but to aid the producers 

 in financing their shipments during periods when market 

 conditions are unfavorable. To-day the rubber producers on 

 the Amazon must^sell their output at certain seasons, with- 

 out regard to the state of the market, at the prevailing quo- 

 tations, whether a year's working should bring profit or 

 ioss? As you have mentioned already, the producers of rub- 

 ber, by complying with the new law, may obtain from the 

 branches of the Banco do Brazil, established recently on the 

 Amazon, substantial advances on their "crops," thereby en- 

 abling them to hold the rubber in periods of low prices until 

 conditions improve. This being practically a national bank, 

 the effect of the new law is to give government aid to the 

 rubber producers. 



The law does not in so many words limit such accommo- 

 dation to Brazilians, but since there is scarcely a scringal 

 owner who is not a Brazilian, the effect is the same. When 

 the new law was passed at Para the price of rubber was 

 exceptionally low, and it was thought to improve prices by 

 withholding rubber from the market, with the aid of the 

 bank advances. The sudden rise in prices, however, to the 

 highest level on record, due wholly to influences outside of 

 Brazil, has rendered unnecessary thus far the operation of the 

 new law. But in case it should take effect, the owners of 

 seringacs — complying with certain conditions — would be fa- 

 vored in two ways: (i) in being allowed to obtain advances 

 from the bank, and (2) in being charged a lower than the 

 regular export duty, the rebate being sufficient to more than 

 pay the interest on the bank advances. 



The Banco do Brazil is authorized to advance in the 

 aggregate an amount reported at 32,000 contos of milreis 

 [=$9,7.12,992 with exchange at 15 pence per milreis], allow- 

 ing up to 75 per cent, of the officially recognized value of the 

 rubber ar the time, after deducting 10 per cent, of the weight 

 for shrinkage. 



The Amazon Rubber System. 



A mistake too prevalent abroad is that Amazon rubber is 

 obtained by haphazard methods by ignorant denizens of the 

 forest. But I ask, if it were not for a well-organized system, 

 how could Para show a certain and well sustained and annu- 

 ally growing export of rubber? Could the manufacturers of 

 Europe and America look confidently to the Amazon, year 

 after year, for the rubber they need if there were not involved 

 in its collection an intelligent system and large capital? 



True much foreign money has been sunk in efforts to ex- 

 ploit Brazilian rubber, but that was capital employed with-- 

 out intelligence or system. A seringuciro might fail as- 

 lamentably who suddenly essayed to operate New York's- 

 street railway system or control its police force. 



I don't think The India Rubber World has ever told its 

 readers that much of the "Para'' rubber exported from the 

 states of Para and Amazonas comes from privately owned 

 lands, which are constantlj' being improved. Originally a 

 man who wanted to go into the rubber business would as- 

 cend this or that stream and select a location for a scringal 

 (literally a group of "seringa" trees — an early designation of 

 the Hevea), after which he would send for a government 

 surveyor, -whose fees, and those for registering the land, he 

 would have to pay. The land itself cost him nothing. But there 

 remained the cost of improvement. The Hevea rubber tree 

 is scattered through dense forests, and cstradas (paths or 

 roads) have to be cut, through which the seringuciros go 

 from tree to tree, after trained explorers have first located 

 the trees. There is a further outlay for shelter for the man- 

 ager and the working force, for rubber collecting imple- 

 ments — and the inevitable "store." The better-managed 

 seringacs to-day are equipped also with cattle. 



The typical owner of a scringal is a Brazilian -with pride 

 of birth and some capital, who, in case of success for a few 

 years, becomes an aviador, when he is both a producer of 

 rubber and a merchant on a considerable scale. The next 

 step is to retire from business and spend the remainder of 

 his life in Paris or Lisbon. He sells out before leaving 

 Brazil, and the seringacs arc transferred at a good round 

 price — not for the land, per se, but for improvements. 

 Operating a "Seringal." 

 The seringal owner does not, as a rule, hire laborers or pay 

 wages. He has opened so many cstradas — each with say 100 rub- 

 ber trees — and plans to have so many men at work tapping 

 trees and smoking latex. Each man's product is weighed peri- 

 odically, and credited to him on the books of the seringal store, 

 whence he obtains clothing, food and any luxuries in which he 

 may indulge. The general credit is two-thirds of the prevailing 

 market rate for rubber, i. e., 4 milreis per kilogram if rubber 

 has been selling at 6 milreis. 



When the year's product is shipped down the Amazon it goes 

 direct to the aviador (consignee) at Manaos or Para who has 

 "provisioned" the seringal, and usually is sold at once, at the pre- 

 vailing price. It may be that the seringal comes out ahead, or 

 that it remains in debt to the aviador. But the rubber workers 

 have already been paid — not in money, but in book credits. If 

 any have been thrifty there may be something due them at the 

 end of the year, but as a rule, the workers are seldom out of 

 debt, and one may not leave any seringal on the books of -which 

 there is a charge against him. 



The aviador, by the way, is the merchant from whom the 

 rubber importer of Liverpool or New York buys supplies for 

 his customers. No American or European rubber importer has 

 any capital invested "upriver." 



The profit of the seringal comes from the store. The rubber 

 gatherer is credited with two-thirds of the selling price of his 

 product; the other third does not more than pay expenses of 

 management and shipping charges. But the store! I have 

 heard it stated that — 



An importer of European gobds at Para charges a profit of 

 50 per cent, to the aviador; 

 The aviador charges the seringal owner 50 per cent ; 

 The seringal owner charges 100 per cent. 



