December i, 1901.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER ^VORLD 



83 



RUBBER PRODUCTION OF THE CONGO RIVER COUNTRY. 



''■p^HE output of India-rubber this year from the Congo 

 I Free State alone can hardly fail to reach 12,000,000 

 pounds, besides which portions of French Congo and 

 other regions adjacent to the Congo river help to 

 swell the rubber shipments by that great waterway. It is one 

 of the wonders of the crude rubber trade, how rapidly it has 

 been developed in this particular state, and how well the pro- 

 duction has been maintained. The explorer Stanley proved 

 to be right when, eleven years ago, on emerging from a jour- 

 ney across central Africa, he described the Congo forests as a 

 " reservoir of rubber." Already some rubber had been marketed 

 from the Congo Free State; some of it, indeed, had appeared 

 the year before— in 1889— at Antwerp, thus affording a begin- 

 ning to what has become one of the world's great rubber 

 markets. But the world had yet to learn how vast were the 

 rubber resources of " the dark continent." 



While other sources of African rubber supplies — as Sierra 

 Leone, Gold Coast Colony, Lagos, Angola, Mozambique, and 

 Madagascar — have had their " boom," followed by a decline in 

 production, rubber from the Congo continues to come, in an 

 ever swelling volume. Of course the supply cannot continue 



Years. Pounds. 



1889 10,340 



l8go 66,000 



l8gt 46,200 



1892 138,523 



1893 367.831 



1 894 600,076 



1895 1,168,363 



[Arrivals for iqoi reported only to October 31. J 



MORE RUBBER FOUND IN THE FRENCH CONGO. 

 An important discovery of new rubber supplies is reported 

 from the French Congo. For some time past the Commercial 

 Society of the French Congo has had charge of explorations of 

 the regions north of the Mobangi, an important tributary of 

 the Congo river. Lately Georges Seguin, a member of this 

 society, ascended the Kuango tributary of the Mobangi river 

 for 300 miles. He found the banks densely populated with a 

 race well developed physically, and engaged in the cultivation 

 of small farms. Mr. Seguin found the country rich in rubber 

 creepers of the ^tnm Landolfikia, though the people possessed 

 no knowledge that rubber had any commercial value. Mr. 

 Sequin reports that most of the natives he saw in the Kuango 

 basin expressed a willingness to engage in collecting rubber 



THE ANTWERP RUBBER MARKET. 



Diagram Illustrating the Increase in Arrivals for 13 years. 



The solid porllon of each line Indicates the proportion Congo 

 sorts; the op-n portion, all other sorts. 



to increase indefinitely in the same proportion , the world could 

 not consume the rubber if it did. It would not be surprising if 

 any year now should mark Jthe beginning of a decline in the 

 Congo rubber output, but the fact that no signs point as yet to 

 this end tends to keep rubber manufacturers from fearing a 

 shortage in raw material for a good while to come. 



The accompanying diagram is based, not upon the rubber 

 exports from the Congo Free State, but upon the arrivals at 

 Antwerp, the greater part of which are from this source. The 

 first rubber shipped from the Congo found its way to the rub- 

 ber markets already established, and the four or five tons that 

 reached Antwerp in i88g did not comprise all the Congo pro- 

 duction, which amounted that year to about 130 tons. But in 

 time practically all the rubber from the Free State began to be 

 consigned to Antwerp, in addition to which, in the past few 

 years, various other kinds of rubber — including Paras even — 

 have reached that market. 



The following table denotes the total quantity of the rubber 

 arrivals at Antwerp, in each year, and also (in parenthesis) the 

 amount of rubber other than Congo sorts during the past six 

 years : 



and to open friendly relations with European traders.==The 

 exports of rubber from the French Congo during 1899 are offi- 

 cially reported at 1,445,400 pounds. 



PROFITS OF ONE CONGO RUBBER TRADING COMPANY. 



La Gazette Coloniale,oi Brussels, in a recent issue, said that re- 

 ports were current of an arrangement being concluded between 

 the Societe Abir and the Congo Free State government, under 

 the terms of which "the company would be reestablished in 

 its former privileges, the suppression of which has caused a not- 

 able decrease in rubber production." The report had not, 

 however, been confirmed officially. 



The Anglo-Belgian India-Rubberand Exploring Co. was or- 

 ganized in Brussels August 2, 1892, and reconstituted January 

 31, 1898, as " Abir, SociiJte a responsibilite limitee." The cap- 

 ital is stared at 1,000.000 francs, in 2000 parts of 500 francs each, 

 the original value of which is not designated. According to 

 7'^<» 5/^a/J^r, of London, in its issue of August 25, 1900, one- 

 half the capital is held by the Congo State government, or, in 

 other words, by the king of the Belgians. The Socidt^ Abir, 

 in fact, is one of the five companies ostensibly under private 

 control , which have been engaged in collecting rubber in the 



