356 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 190S. 



for the rubber men who will gather at London, we be- 

 lieve that it will be claimed by no one that he knows all 

 about the business in which he is engaged, or that his 

 own country can learn nothing about rubber from the 

 practice in other countries. Hence the benefit of looking 

 beyond the confines of one's own factory or office — 

 whether to gain ideas for improving one's work at home 

 or to gain a better footing in foreign trade. 



There is one feature of the London Rubber Congress 

 in which there is room for no element of competition — the 

 bringing together of producers of rubber and those who 

 consume it as manufacturers. A better mutual under- 

 standing on the part of these classes can hardly fail to ben- 

 efit the whole trade. Whoever produces rubber should 

 understand the wants of the factory, while the manu- 

 facturer will benefit by being on more intimate terms 

 with the producers of the raw material he uses. London 

 will offer the opportunity this year for the beginning of 

 this new acquaintance, which we believe cannot be begun 

 too soon or continued too long. 



RUBBER SUPPLIES AND PRICES. 



THE total receipts of rubber of all grades at Para 

 for the crop year ended June 30 last were 36,654 

 metric tons, or 80,638,800 pounds. This figure has 

 been exceeded only once, in 1906-'07, when the arrivals 

 totalled 38,C05 tons. The first year in which the record 

 reached 30.000 tons was 1901-'02, and the average for 

 that and the succeeding four years was 31,596 tons, or 

 69,500,000 pounds. Taking five-year {periods, we find 

 that the annual arrivals of rubber at Para have averaged 

 as follows : 



Five years encling June 30. 189.^ tons 17.122 



Five years ending June 30, i8g8 20,946 



Five years encling June 30. 1903 27,900 



Five years ending June 30, 1908 34.609 



During the era covered by the table the average an- 

 nual production has more than doubled. From the first 

 beginnings of the rubber trade there has been an almost 

 steady increase in the exports from Para, and the best 

 rate of the past is not only Ijeing maintained, but ex- 

 ceeded. A question which now concerns very manv per- 

 sons is whether the production of rubber in the .Amazon 

 regions will continue to expand, and what will lie the 

 effect upon prices. 



It seems to us that so far as the real "Para" rubber is 

 concerned — the product of the Hcvca — the .\mazon out- 

 put will keep on growing until, perchance, it is checked 

 by competition elsewhere. First to be utilized in the in- 

 dustries. Para rubber still holds first place in the world's 

 markets. There are uses for rubber for which this par- 

 ticular class of material is indispensable. There are cer- 

 tain demands for goods which must be met. regardless of 

 the cost of crude rubber, and the forests have always re- 

 sponded to every demand upon them for rubber, even if 

 manufacturers have had to pay more and more for it. 



The native supplies of Hevea are seemingly inexhaustible, 

 but their yield of rubber is held in check by the limited 

 labor force available, and by the remoteness or lack of 

 accessibility of the trees. But gradually these drawbacks 

 have been overcome to an extent, as is moved by the fact 

 that more rubber comes out every year. The fixed popu- 

 lation of rubber gatherers grows somewhat, and the means 

 of reaching rubber forests and of shipping their product 

 are improving all the while. 



These facts, considered alone, may not appear encour- 

 aging to the rubber planting interest. But the point may 

 be made here that the increase in the output of rubber has 

 been due to the growing demand for rubber goods — a 

 demand so pressing as to put up the price of the raw 

 material in spite of the constantl\' larger production. 

 Should present conditions continue, it would seem reason- 

 able to look for a gradual extension of the rubber areas 

 worked in the Amazon region, to meet an ever growing 

 demand for rubber goods, with prices of crude rubber 

 maintained at the present or a higher level. 



In considering the continuation of "present conditions,'' 

 account must be taken of other sources of forest rubber 

 than the Hevea species. Every now and then rubber 

 from a new source is reported, with a rapid increase in 

 output until the zenith is reached, when an equally rapid 

 decline occurs. Thus the rubber exports from Colombia 

 increased in a few years from 250,000 pounds to nearly 

 7,CCO,CC0, falling again to the first figure named. Or 

 take Lagos in West Africa — 56 pounds of rubber shipped 

 in 1893^^; 6,484,363 pounds in 1896; and only 131.311 

 pounds in 1903, ten years from the beginning. And 

 Mexico, after e.xporting 142,655 pounds of rubber in the 

 fiscal year 1896-97, shipped 10.321,247 pounds in twelve 

 months a decade later, putting ^lexico second in rank 

 among rubber producing countries. Of Mexico's pres- 

 ent output probably 95 per cent, is "guayule," the supply 

 of which is bound to go the way of all forest rubber 

 sources with the exception of the Hcvca — trees which 

 survive tapping for a lifetime. 



It must be noted, too. that not all the rubber shipped 

 down the Amazon is "Para." There are millions of 

 pounds annually of "caucho," a rublier obtained from a 

 different species than Hcvca by felling the trees and ex- 

 hausting the supply. In brief, the tendency is toward 

 the practical disappearance of the various kinds of forest 

 rubber other than Hcvca. Of this sort there is enough, 

 probably, to meet the world's total demand for rubber, 

 but the output is limited, as already pointed out, by lack 

 of accessibility and small native labor supply. 



The ]ir(«lucers of plantation rubber have for their 

 encouragement, therefore, the prospect of a continued and 

 increasing demand for rubber, plus a decline of native 

 supplies. \\'ithout plantations the supply of rubber must 

 in time diminish, since no prices within reason would 

 lead to the exjjloitation of great areas of Hci'ca rubber. 

 The danger of overproduction, therefore, does not seem 

 imminent, so long as there are so manv single rubber fac- 



