182 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



I BRUARV I. l'HO. 



what improved. The occasional small lots from the [Congo] 

 plantations have been very much appreciated by the purchasers 

 and brought very high prices. 



"The hopes that were entertained by the proprietors of the 

 important plantations in the Far East were fully borne out 

 during the year just past. The growth of the trees leaves 

 nothing to be desired, and the returns of rubber exceed the 

 mi -i optimistic forecasts, increasing in due proportion with the 

 development of the trees. The quantities exported (in pounds) 

 have been : 



Years. Ceylon. Straits Total. 



1900 8,233 •••• 8,233 



1901 9.072 9.072 



1002 15,592 15.592 



1903 4I>798 1,000 42,798 



1904 77,212 13.000 90,212 



1905 I6S.54; 207,500 376,047 



1906 327,024 1 ,028,79-' 1,355,816 



1907 556,080 2,278,870 2,834,950 



1908 912,124 3,539,922 4,452,047 



"In view of these result, and although it may be premature 

 to regard the cultivation of the Hcvea in all the Belgian Congo 

 territory as an assured success, it is nevertheless interesting to 

 be able to state that the attempts made in our colony (and 

 especially in the equatorial region), in extraction from the first 

 Hevea introduced there, have given very encouraging results, 

 and for the most part, as favorable as those obtained in the 

 Malay archipelago, both as regards the amount of rubber 

 gathered and the quality of the product obtained. 



"Prices. — Before reviewing the violent fluctuations to which 

 rubber has been subject during the year in question, it seems 

 to us interesting to recall the fact that in February, 1908, during 

 the course of the panic in America, the Para sorts touched the 

 lowest point — i. c, 2.;. gd. [.=67 cents]. Toward the end of 

 the year, however, with a constant improvement in the situation, 

 the Para recovered the price of 5^. id. Reviewing the year 

 1909. we find that from the early months in the year there was 



a constant shipment of the article for the American account at 

 increasingly high prices, until October, when the Para touched 

 the exceptional figure of gs. id. — the highest price known in the 

 history of the trade. 



"This enormous rise seems to have been due to the aftermath 

 of the financial crisis, which had left in America in 1908 a large 

 shortage in the manufactured article. On the other hand, the 

 enormous development of the automobile industry in America 

 must not be ignored in accounting for this tremendous con- 

 sumption. 



"In the closing months of the year, however, calmness again 

 reigned and the prices of the Para declined slowly but steadily, 

 closing at ys. 6d. This continuous decline, coincident with the 

 abundant harvest now being is. in Para, seems attributable 

 to the general lack of purchases by the consumers and importers, 

 who are expecting to be able to lay in a stock in this way under 

 favorable conditions. In fact, the decline had little effect on the 

 Congo varieties, which closed in great demand. 



"The different Congo varieties did not always follow propor- 

 tionately the ascending prices of the Para during the long period 

 of high prices, and to these circumstances are due the steady 

 prices constantly maintained by the Congo varieties at the close 

 of the year, at the time that the Para steadily declined to ys. 6d." 



Comparative Antwerp Prices (Francs per Kilo). 



Dec. 31, '08. Dec. 31, '09. Increase. 



Kasai. red, 1 12.35-12.85 14.00-14.37 11.86% 



Loanda II kind 8.75-9.25 1 1.00-11.50 24.32% 



Kasai, black 12.35-12.85 14.00-14.37 11.86% 



Equateur, Ikelemba, 



Lopori, etc 12.35-12.85 14.25-15.00 16.73% 



Upper Congo, ordinary.... 11.00-11.50 13.25-13.50 17.39% 



Uruwimi-Uele 11.00-11.50 13.25-13.50 17.39% 



Mongala strips 11.00-11.50 13.25-13.50 17.39% 



Red thimbles (root rubber) 4.25- 475 9.00- 9.70 10.22% 



a. Para fine 5S.-5S. 2d. 7s. 2d. -7s. 6d. 14.16% 



[a In English money, per pound.] 



[Ten francs per kilogram=87 ^S cents per pound.] 



Rubber Interests in Continental Europe. 



HOW GERMANS SEEK TO PLEASE TRADE. 



THE remarks by a writer in the January India Rubber World 

 in the success of the German rubber manufacturers in 

 the department of export trade is fittingly supplemented by 

 the following correspondence of Mr. Watson R. Sperry, of Har- 

 burg a/d Elbe, in the important American newspaper, the Hart- 

 ford Courant: 



"The other day one of the rubber factories here in Harburg 

 received an order for a thousand pounds from Japan. This es- 

 tablishment makes nothing but erasers — in all sorts of shapes 

 and colors, and for rubbing out pencil and other kinds of marks. 

 These pieces of rubber are small, and as a matter of fact some 

 styles run 40 pieces to the pound, and some as high as 80 to the 

 pi und. The condition of the order was that each piece should 

 be stamped with a little pagoda. I was consulted as to exactly 

 what a pagoda is, and it was in this way that I came to know 

 about the matter. 



"As a result of this consultation a satisfactory drawing was 

 prepared, a stamp was made after the drawing, the 50,000 or 

 60,000 separate pieces were stamped by hand, and the shipment 

 of a tin usand pounds was finally made from Hamburg direct to 

 Kobe and other Japanese ports, and in precisely the form that 

 the local trade in Japan desired. 



"I mention the incident as an illustration of the care which 

 German manufacturers take to meet the precise wishes of their 

 foreign customers. To such a house as this the order in itself 

 was not of great importance ; but the business had been built up 

 by making the goods to suit the tastes of buyers, not merely 



in Germany, but in all parts of the world, and this rule is still 

 followed, although the yearly output now runs into the millions. 



"The plant was prepared with special marks for the China 

 trade — a dragon's head, a fan, and one other which I cannot re- 

 call — all made under suggestions from those who sell these 

 articles in China, and who now sell them steadily there largely 

 because these emblems suit the local taste; but the order from 

 Japan opened new territory, and the miniature pagoda had to 

 be made. 



''The story goes that in the early years of the world's market, 

 when England made most of the goods and the rest of the 

 world bought them, English manufacturers reckoned it for a 

 barbarity if any people did not like English taste, English meas- 

 ures and English weights. Our consuls even now sometimes 

 write home that American goods would sell better if they were 

 more often made to suit the tastes and usages of those who are 

 expected to buy them. 



"The Germans need no instruction on this point. They have 

 taken for their rule that sensible old mercantile motto, 'We 

 strive to please'; and indeed in some cases go so far as to cram 

 up on the measures and weights of the land to which their 

 wares are sent, so that the local dealer can verify what he ii 

 getting exactly as if it were made in his own country." 



RUBBER FOOTWEAR IN HOLLAND. 



A report on the possibility of extending the trade in American 

 overshoes in Holland, by the vice consul general at Rotterdam, 

 in Daily Consular and Trade Reports of January 3. is as follows:. 



