16 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1909. 



An Official View of Amazon Rubber. 



TIIK formal yearly report on the trade of Brazil for the 

 : 1908, Erom the British legation at Rio de Janeiro, is 

 signed by Mr. Cheetham, secretary to the legation. It con- 

 tains some very interesting statements regarding the crude 

 rubber interest in that country. 



He says tlu rubber trade of the Amazon valley is in many 

 respects one of the most remarkable commercial movements in 

 existence. It the value of the product put on the world's mar- 

 kets be compared with the trilling expenditure of human energy 

 involved in its collection the contrast is an extraordinary one. 

 The whole of this valuable trade is gathered, in the first place, 

 by a handful of illiterate, untrained men who, taking their lives 

 in their hands, enter the vast uncultivated wilderness of the 

 upper Amazon forests and, on behalf of distant aviadores and 



1 in;, I fori t owners, tap the trees and smoke the rubber that 



later on figures as the second asset in Brazilian commercial and 

 financial prosperity. Deprived of her rubber output Brazil would 

 lose one-third of her purchasing capacity. 



Vet, Mr. Cheetham states, although the source of so large a 

 part of her national income, Brazil as a whole does nothing for 

 her rubber producers, and these, in equal disregard of great 

 responsibilities, do little or nothing for their rubber trees. The 

 whole of the vast wealth of the Amazon rubber output is drawn 

 from the virgin wealth of uncultivated forest products, the prod- 

 uct being obtained by the crudest methods from the natural 

 wilderness of rubber-giving trees. 



Were the rubber industry of the Amazon valley, Mr. Cheetham 

 add , established on organized lines of cultivation and scientific 

 development, the number of persons actively employed in rubber 

 production (now officially and inaccurately given as 5,337) would 

 he one of many hundreds of thousands. But the methods of 

 production have shown no advance during a period of twelve 

 years, while the cost of production must have greatly increased. 

 That Para rubber, he continues, as it is today exploited can con- 

 tinue successfully to compete when once the East India planta- 

 tions have attained a large area of development seems highly 

 improbable. 



The cost of the bare necessities of life, to say nothing of the 

 comforts of existence, has greatly increased, and the absence 

 of these things renders the weary lot of the Amazon rubber ex- 

 tractor one of the most depressing in existence. Half submerged 

 in a swampy forest, he has few or no companions and no social 

 lifi .it all A stranger from far away, he makes no home, but 

 squats where he can best tap the surrounding trees. The owner 

 of the estate neither resides on it nor pays an absentee tax. His 

 ownership restricts itself to taking out papers of registration 

 before someone else has obtained them, and then leasing the 

 right to find and tap what rubber trees the undefined vagueness 

 of this "estate" may afford the hardy Ceara or Maranhao ex- 

 plorer who acts as his tenant. 



There is little likelihood of Amazon rubber being exhausted. 

 The area is so vast, the supply of trees so constantly self- 

 renewing, that it is most improbable that while demand continues 

 and profitable prices are obtained the supply from this region 

 will fall off. The real danger to the Amazon industry lies in 

 tin competition of cultivated rubber. Tf this can be shortly pro- 

 duced on a large scale and the demand does not keep equal pace 

 prices must fall. 



The Amazon forest on the present lines of Brazilian taxation 

 and expenditure can only be worked if the price of rubber 

 remains high. The expenses are so great, the taxes imposed so 

 onerous, that any permanent fall in the price of rubber would 

 mean not alone the cessation of Amazon rubber production, but 

 a very serious financial problem for the whole of Brazil to meet. 



Rubber cultivation in Ceylon, the Malay peninsula, and, no 

 doubt, elsewhere, can be profitably carried out, and by annually 

 improving the methods, at a rate of expenditure that would be 

 wholly insufficient to tap the wild forest trees of the Amazon 

 basin. 



Considerations such as these, while they should stimulate rub- 

 ber production within the British empire, should not be lost sight 

 of (Mr. Cheetham points out) by those who may be disposed to 

 invest money in the purchase and exploitation of so-called rubber 

 estates on the Amazon. The excessive import duties and the 

 heavy export taxes must never be lost sight of ; for they affect 

 every aspect of commercial, industrial and individual life in 

 Brazil. While it may be held as unquestionable that Amazon 

 rubber is a wild product obtained by the least expenditure of 

 labor necessary to its crude production, and with no resort to 

 cultivation, there is a growing export from other parts of Brazil 

 of inferior kinds of rubber which may in the near future attain 

 large proportions. This rubber, moreover, is to some extent the 

 product of cultivation. 



In five years, the report says further, the quantity of these 

 inferior kinds of rubber shipped from Brazil, has more than 

 doubled, and it is probable that with the largely increased demand 

 and higher prices which have ruled throughout the last six or 

 seven months the export of these lower grades of rubber will 

 show a considerable development in the course of the present 

 year. 



The report apparently is the result of much intelligent study 

 of the Amazon rubber situation, and is deserving of attention. 

 At the same time there is reason to believe that a new era in 

 rubber is opening in the region referred to, and that improvement 

 is being made, however slow its progress. The opposite side 

 from what the British official has seen is well stated in Mr. 

 Heinsohn's article in The India Rubber World, July 1, 1909 

 (page 347), as the result of an experience of many years on the 

 Amazon. 



NEW CONDITIONS ON THE AMAZON. 



"TV ) the Editor of the India Rubber World: An interesting 

 ■*■ fact in connection with a recent shipment of india-rubber 

 from Para deserves mention as bearing upon the new conditions 

 of rubber exportation outlined recently in your paper. For 

 instance, you have mentioned the incorporation of the Alves 

 Braga Rubber F.slates and Trading Co., Limited, succeeding a 

 long established Para firm of aviadores and latterly producers 

 of rubber on a large scale. [Sec The India Rubber World, Sep- 

 tember 1, 1909 — page 421.I It seems that the company have now 

 engaged in the exportation of other rubber than that produced 

 on their own seringaes. 



The steamer Antony, bound from Manaos to Liverpool, stopped 

 at Para on August 20, and took on board 282,880 kilograms of 

 additional rubber. This was credited on the manifest to nine 

 firms, including the leading exporters at Para, but no less than 

 1 12.010 kilograms, or about 40 per cent, of the whole, were 

 shipped by the Alves P.raga Rubber Estates and Trading Co., 

 Limited. As T wrote in your paper a month ago, the buyers 

 of rubber at Para were remaining out of the market, as a means 

 of "bearing" prices, and here comes a local, or Brazilian, firm, 

 prepared to buy and ship rubber without reference to the foreign 

 houses. As your readers know, the Alves Braga company are 

 large producers of rubber up-stream, but when they have to do 

 with shipments from Para it means they have bought rubber 

 there from producers nearer seaboard. s. cxark. 



October 4, 1009. 



