Decemhik I, !'»14 I 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



169 



MIGUEL P. SHELLEY. 



A MONO the interesting pi-, .pic who have recently come to 

 **■ New York is Mr. Miguel !'. Shelley, who for the last 23 

 years has been associated with the crude rubber industry in 

 Para His careei in South America, hoth in the gathering and 

 rtation of rubber and in other industries, has been varied 

 and is most interesting. It is a good illustration of the influence 

 of early reading upi n one's future. 



The 1 ks Mt' adventure of Jules Verne and Captain Mayne 



Reid inspired him as a bo} with thi desin oi eeing Brazil, and 

 especially of ^ isiting the Amazon \ alley with its wild natural life. 

 The opportunitj for gratifying thi- desin arrived early in life, 

 when as he was about i" be admitted i" a commercial college in 



Berlin the advertise- 

 ment of one Dr. 

 Prado, a Brazilian. 

 appeared in a local 

 paper, for a young 

 man who spoke 

 English, German, 

 French and Russian, 

 ti> take charge of a 

 colonizing party for 

 a coffee plantation 

 at Sao Paulo. He 

 applied for and 

 secured the position. 

 \ f t e r a year's 

 work on the planta- 

 tion h i s services 

 were no longer 

 needed, because the 

 laborers had learned 

 to do the necessary 

 work without the 

 aid ' it an interpreter. 

 Miguel P. Shelley. During this time he 



learned Portuguese. Spanish and a little Italian. Mis next em- 

 ployment was at Sao Paulo on the staff of the German news- 

 paper "Xeue Freie Presse," and later he became traveling sales 

 man for the paper and its accessory printing establishment. 



In 1891, when a revolution broke out in Brazil, be traveled 

 north tn Para. There he was engaged by a general brokerage 

 and auctioneering establishment, where he worked for 5 years. 

 But knowing that the principal business of Para was rubber, he 

 determined to make this article the subject of special study. The 

 chance came when Chavez Hermanos. the largest owners of 

 rubber estates in Rio Madeira, requiring a general clerk for their 

 different seringals, he obtained this position, learning there the 

 rudiments of the rubber industry. For a few months, in order to 

 learn the work practically, he worked as a laborer, starting with 

 location of trees, or forming an cstrada, tapping them and fum- 

 ing the latex. Later he became manager of the business in Para 

 where they were established as aviadores, supplying mostly their 

 own needs. 



In lK</9, during the financial crisis in Brazil, the firm had to 

 close up its business at Para. Mr. Shelley then came to the 

 United States, commissioned by the mayor of Para, Senador 

 Letros, to buy beef for the State so that it could establish an 

 opposition to the meat merchants who had been raising the 

 price abnormally. His undertaking being successful, after a few 

 shipments the merchants lowered the price and he returned to 

 Para. There Senador Lemos needed a manager for his newly 

 organized political paper "O Jornal" and Mr. Shelley was ap- 

 pointed to this position. The paper was such a success that it 

 showed a fine profit after a year's business without financially de- 

 pending on the party. During this time he studied law and was 

 graduated by the "Instituto Civico Juridico Paes de Carvalho." 



In 1909 he visited New York again and during his stay con- 

 tributi I articles to Tin I.mua Rubber World. The fol- 



lowing yeai he returned to Para and established a commercial 

 paper for North Brazil to specially treat of rubber, "O Com- 

 mercio Norte-Brazileiro." This paper gained wide popularity, 



se of the gr< a1 pace it gave to carefully tabulated statistics 



and to commerci and becausi it foretold a veai and a half in 

 advance the drop in price of rubber to one dollar from three. 

 It also foretold that the production of rubber in Ceylon would 

 be 75,000 tons for 1915, and the price 50 cents and prophesied 

 the effect of this competition on the Brazilian trade. 



After a year's hard work and fighting the paper had to be 

 dropped because of Mr. Shelley's friendlj connection with Senador 

 Lemos and the political uprising against him. He was then called 

 by the well-known rubber expert, J. A. Mendes, to co-operate 

 with him in re-establishing the firm of J. Marques, which had been 



affected by cornering the 3.000 tons of rubber on unt of the 



Banco do Brazil (known as the Syndicate J. Marques). The 

 greatest part of the stock was sold at good pin. s and the firm of 

 J. Marques, from one of small importance, became the second 

 in the Amazon. 



When Secretary of State Elihu Root visited Para the report 

 which Mr. Shelley published ami telegraphed to the Brazilian 

 newspapers on his interview, showing the friendly feelings which 

 America wished to maintain with Brazil, resulted in his receiving 

 a most hearty welcome at Rio de Janeiro 



BRAZILIAN IMPORTS OF ELECTRICAL CABLE. 



Statistics recently issued by the Merchants' Association of 

 New York give the amount of electrical cable imported into 

 Brazil during 1913 as having a value of considerably over 

 $800,000. The countries from which these imports were made 

 and the value of the electrical cable from each country are 

 shown in the table below, from which it will be noticed that the 

 United Kingdom sent Brazil two and a half times as much cable 

 as the United States. 



From Electrical Cable 



United States $162,317 



United Kingdom 408,002 



Germany 166,578 



France 



Other countries 85,973 



Total $822,870 



COMPARATIVE FIGURES ON EXPORTS FROM BRAZIL. 



The following table shows the quantity of rubber exported 

 from Brazil in August and September of the present year 

 and in the same months of 1913: 



Pounds Value 



August. 1914 3,333.095 $1,627,384 



August. 1913 4.791.952 2.712.451 



September, 1914 5.716,856 2.720.910 



September, 1913 4.899,600 2.762.462 



COTTON PLANTING IN SOUTH AMEBICA. 



A new company under the name of the Dutch West Indie* 

 Cotton Growing Co. has been established in Holland for the 

 object of raising cotton on the island of St. Eustatius, Dutch 

 Windward Islands. 



Previous to the declaration of war, a company (styled "La 

 Oriental") was formed in Brussels for the establishment in the 

 Department of the Rio Negro, Uruguay, of a cotton planting 

 colony, in connection with a thread and textile factory. 



Should be on every rubber man's desk — Crude Rubber and 

 Compounding Ingredients : Rubber Country of the Amazon ; 

 Rubber Trade Directory of the World. 



