August i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



379 



View on Rio Negro at Manaos. 



Indians within a hundred miles of it, its presence seems in- 

 credible. In a way, it is as modern as New York or Chicago. 

 The latest Parisian fashions are there, and almost anything that 

 civilized man desires is obtainable. Prices are high, to be sure, 

 because both luxuries and necessities are imported and subject 

 to a duty of 100 per cent. But when something besides rubber 

 is produced by the magnificently fertile lands that surround it, 

 Manaos will be one of the great and beautiful cities of the 

 world and living as reasonable as anywhere. 



Both the State and the Federal revenues naturally come very 

 largely from rubber. These taxes are assessed on the average 

 price at which rubber is sold for a certain period. On the 

 rubber that comes down the Amazon the State taxes are : 

 Manaos (Amazonas), 10 per cent.; Para, 22 per cent.; Matto 

 Grosso, 20 per cent. ; Acre territory, 20 per cent. ; Bolivian Fed- 

 eral tax, 14 per cent.; Iquitos (Peruvian) Federal tax, 14 per 

 cent. The State tax in Ceara is 22 per cent. There are minor 

 taxes on rubber also — for instance, local improvement taxes of 

 1 to 2 per cent. 



The city has naturally elements of the picturesque. It is built 

 on a group of hills, and while this has involved much cutting 

 and filling, and many retaining walls, it adds both to its sight- 

 liness and healthfulness. Some in Manaos have the ambition, 

 which may not be as wild as it seems at first, to negotiate a short 

 cut to the United States by way of British Guiana. All they 

 would have to do would be to go up the Rio Branco, cross to the 

 Essequibo, and come out at Georgetown. 



Dominating vast fertile plains, drained by the Rio Negro, the 



Floating Dock at Manaos. 



Solimoes, and the Madeira, with their mighty tributaries, the 

 wealth that is sure to flow into this center is incalculable. To- 

 day the main exporting business, rubber and Brazil nuts, is 

 handled by Portuguese, Brazilian, German, English, and Ameri- 

 can firms, less than 20 in number. 



The people of the city had an exceedingly alert carriage — 

 surprisingly so for those wdio dwelt on the equator. Laborers, 

 whether busy at the docks or in the warehouses, were really 

 working. Perhaps they ought to, for they received somewhere 

 from 15 to 20 milreis * a day. 



THE RIVER FRONT AND THE DOCKS. 



I do not think I spoke of the magnificent spread of the river 

 in front of the city. It forms a great pool, four or five miles 

 wide and deep enough at low water to accommodate ocean 

 steamers. During the rainy season the river rises from 30 to 

 40 feet, and this was why the company that had the concession 

 to build docks passed so many sleepless nights. They have 

 finally anchored huge floating docks a little way off shore, and 

 when the river rises pay out the anchored cables so that the dock 

 rises with it. Goods are sent ashore from these docks on long 

 aerial cables. I was told that it cost 38 cents to transfer each 

 case of rubber from the pier to the dock. Not a long journey, 

 but expensive when one considers that that is just about what 



*The gold milreis, the standard of the Brazilian monetary system, is 

 equal to 54.6 cents in United States money. Business, however, is con- 

 ducted mainly on a paper money basis, with the price of the milreis varying 

 with the rate of London exchange, which averages a little over 15 pence, 

 or 30 to 31 cents. 



OF MANAOS. 



