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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February 1, 1914. 



Of agricultural products there is nothing in the tropic or 

 temperate zones which will not grow in Colombia, which has, 

 on account of its varying elevations, every climate from the 

 luxuriance of the tropics to the bleakness of eternal snow. 

 Coffee, cacao, rubber, cotton, corn and other grains, with all 

 manner of fruits, both tropic and temperate, are grown. The 

 banana export trade is large and is increasing rapidly. The vast, 

 grassy plains furnish forage for millions of cattle, and the live- 

 stock industry, already of great importance, can be increased 

 indefinitely. 



This great country has at the present time a population of a 

 little over four millions, or about that of Massachusetts and 

 Rhode Island. This population includes Indians, wild and tame, 

 to the extent of 50 per cent. The negro element is not large, 

 relatively speaking. In this sparse population, with its usual 

 tropical fondness for leisure, lies the explanation of why the in- 

 calculable riches of the country have lain so long undeveloped. 

 But the country is waking up at last. The period of revolutions 

 is detinitely past and the people are showing real aptitude for 

 democratic government. A sure sign of progress in any country 

 is the rapid growth of cities, and this in Colombia is marked. 

 The wants of a simple peasantry are few, but with the growth 

 of cities comes a demand for the luxuries and refinements of 

 life. 



As the vast wealth of Colombia goes out into the world's com- 

 merce in ever-increasing volume, goods of every kind from the 

 markets of the world will maintain the return flow. .'\t present 

 the United States receives about half the total exports of Colom- 

 bia, but furnishes Httle more than one-fourth of that country's 

 imports. Of imports in 1911. classified as "rubber, celluloid, etc.," 

 American manufacturers furnished the impressive total of 

 $19,444.84, this being about one-fifth of the total importation. 

 There are, of course, many good-sized American villages which 

 exceed this figure, but it is a great error to suppose that because 

 an infant is small it must ever remain so. Here are the figures 

 for rubber and allied importations for 1911 : 



Germany $30,097.79 



France 22,296.39 



United States 19,444.84 



United Kingdom 9,293.20 



Spain 36.00 



Panama 8.80 



Other countries 3,327.74 



Total $84,504.76 



When we consider that the chief ports of Colombia lie due 

 south of New York and that American rubber manufactures go 

 all over the world, it would seem that in the matter of Colombian 

 trade Americans were not getting their share. 



The great industrial and commercial development of Colom- 

 bia is now definitely under way and the demand for imported 

 goods of every kind is bound to grow enormously within the 

 next few years. About seven hundred miles of railway are now 

 under operation and fully two thousand more are under con- 

 struction or survey. The cities are beginning to pave and 

 asphalt their streets. Bogota, the capital, with a population of 

 125.000, which as yet has no direct communication with the coast, 

 has vast plans for asphalting her streets and improving her sub- 

 urban roads. .An automobile road, one hundred miles in length, 

 between the important cities of Cartagena and Barranquilla, is a 

 work of the immediate future. Towns missed a few miles by the 

 railroads, completed or projected, are building roads for auto- 

 mobile trucks to bring them in touch with the railroads. The 

 good roads movement is in full swing and will grow by what it 

 feeds upon. There are now probably a thousand automobiles in 

 the country, nearly all being of American manufacture. Wher- 

 ever the proud automobile goes, its humble relative, the bicycle, 

 may be found. The numbers of each will increase with geo- 



metric ratio for several years to come and the market for tires 

 will be great, growing and permanent. 



The development of agriculture on a scientific basis calls for 

 engines and machinery, where belting will be required. Espe- 

 cially is this the case where engines for pumping for irrigation 

 are needed during the dry seasons. In this coimection it may 

 be said that as the higher civilization advances and waterworks 

 multiply the use of garden hose is bound to grow. The mag- 

 nificent forests will soon be echoing with the sound of saw- 

 mills and again great quantities of belting will be called for. This 

 is also true of the continued increase of mining industries. 

 Every town in Colombia is thinking of electric light. The larger 

 places have lights and the smaller ones are eagerly planning for 

 them. These are run chiefly by water-power, of which Colombia 

 has enough going to waste to turn as many manufacturing wheels 

 as there are now in the entire world. Factories run by water- 

 power are rapidly increasing. Belting and insulated wire in 

 ever-increasing quantites are clearly called for in connection 

 with this vast hydro-electric development of the immediate 

 future. 



The sale of rubber shoes is not likely to be extensive in a 

 country where most of the population goes barefoot, but rubber 

 boots for use in hydraulic mines and by sportsmen and fisher- 

 men may meet with sale. It is not easy to say what are the pos- 

 sibilities of the market for rubber coats and ponchos. Finally, 

 the growth of cities, of wealth and of facilities for transporta- 

 tion, means a proportionate increase of demand for druggists' 

 sundries and a thousand articles of luxury and convenience. 



To establish a trade in this country of boundless future 

 growth and possibilities the manufacturer can well afford to 

 spend many times the profit of his early sales. To get this 

 trade he will go after it exactly as if it were in Nova Scotia — 

 with a difference. The first difference is that all the letters, 

 catalogs and other printed matter must be in Spanish. English 

 circulars and catalogs are as completely wasted on the Colombian 

 merchant as would be similar articles in Spanish on the mer- 

 chants of Vermont. Another thing to remember is that the 

 language of politeness must be used. We may think that they 

 are too flowery in their business letters. They think that we 

 are too curt and brusque — and they are right. A prominent 

 New York business house recently announced that it could 

 see no use of consuming time in the further use of such phrases 

 as "Dear Sir" and "Yours truly" which, accordingly, have been 

 discontinued. This crude barbarism probably saved the hire of 

 one clerk and lost a lot of customers. If the accustomed phrases 

 of Castillian politeness are omitted from a letter to a Spanish- 

 American merchant the psychological result is distinctly un- 

 pleasant. Then the goods must be described simply, explicity, 

 understandably and truthfully. They should, where measure- 

 ments are called for, be described in terms of the metric system. 

 .\ catalog in English, offering goods at so much per pound, is 

 about as useful to a Colombian merchant as would be one for an 

 Iowa merchant printed in Russian and offering certain com- 

 modities at so many kopecks per pood. 



In fixing the price the manufacturer should carefully figure 

 cost of production, interest, packing, freight and customs, and 

 leave a safe but not excessive margin of profit. If he cannot 

 make the price attractive, he might as well spare himself all ef- 

 fort. Having figured an interest charge into the selling price 

 he can be magnanimous in the matter of credit. No use de- 

 manding cash in advance of a merchant who can buy on long 

 credit all the German or British goods he desires. This credit 

 is necessary on account of the paucity of real money in the re- 

 public, of the fact that the ultimate consumers are dependent 

 on seasonal crops and that interest on ready money ranges from 

 eighteen to twenty-four per cent, per annum. The usual method 

 with English houses is to give six months' credit without interest 

 and an option of extension for another six months with interest 

 at a low rate. Payment is usually made by a draft accepted 



