224 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



IJanuary 1, 1915. 



The India Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



TRADE CONDI riONS. 



IN a genera] way there is but little alteration to record. .Mat- 

 ters are much the same as they were two months ago, 

 proofers, tire makers and surgical goods makers being still 

 busy, while other departments, ministering to sports and pastimes, 

 the general engineering and building trades, etc., are correspond- 

 ingly slack. An important event, especiallj from the American 

 point of view, is the embargo placed by the British govern- 

 ment upon the export of plantation rubber to countries other 

 than those of the Allies, the object being to prevent tires get- 

 ting into Germany. The matter will no doubt be dealt with by 

 the editor, and I shall not. therefore, enlarge upon it except by 

 the remark that it has caused an important tall in the price 

 of the commodity, to the advantage of our manufacturers, al- 

 though nothing lias been settled at the time of writing. 



I imagine thai before these lines arc printed an amicable ar- 

 rangement will have been come to with America whereby the 

 latter's government will guarantee that no trade is done with 

 Germany in raw or manufactured rubber, and that this will pave 

 the way to the removal of the embargo. In the meanwhile the 

 British manufacturers arc getting cheaper rubber, and the wild 

 rubber districts, which have been severely hit by the large output 

 of plantation rubber, are, temporarily, at any rate, in for a 

 better time 



A prediction which has happily been falsified in the event 

 was a period of national distress owing to the effect of the war 

 on industries. As it turns out. poor relief and unemployment is 

 less than it was two \ear* ago. and in some localities distress 

 committees instead of looking after the unemployed are acting as 

 labor recruiting agencies. Ibis results from the drain of labor 

 by recruiting coupled with the vast army contracts, which have 

 made towns like Sheffield, Leeds, Northampton and Dundee so 

 busy. The cotton trade has not benefited to any great extent, 

 and the £700,000 worth of government work that has come to 

 Manchester relates to various industries of which rubber is one 

 of the most important. 



A legal ease of considerable importance, which has been de- 

 cided in the high court, referred to the payment of money due 

 to the London branch of the Continental Tyre X Rubber Co., 

 Limited, the judge holding that monej owing to the firm by 

 British buyers of tires must be paid and not withheld under any 

 plea of trading with the enemy. Leave was given to appeal, so 

 this decision may possibly be upset; but if not it wdll not be 

 acted upon in many othet cases as, although quite a number of 

 German and Austrian rubber works have agencies .md brani Ins 

 in England, they have not the status of British limited com- 

 panies. 



The stoppage of payment from tin enemy countries, and also 

 from Belgium, has been a matter of concern to rubber works 

 doing principally a continental business, though tin . i at 

 very few in which it has led to serious embarrassment. One 

 such is that of the Lancashin Rubber Works, Limited, rubber 

 heel manufacturers, of Manchester, whose creditors have been 

 called together to discu amy of £_'.(MK) The n 



heel people generally have not had at all a good time, especially 

 as they have not shared in the prosperity arising from govern- 

 ment contracts. Talking of contracts leads one on to say that 

 the usual grumbles as to government contracts yielding little 

 or no profit arc heard almost to the same extent in these days 

 of apparetu prosperity as is the case in normal times. Owing to 

 close competition prices have to he cut somewhat close, and in 

 the interval between tendering and the placing of contracts by 



the authorities markets tor this or that material may go against 

 the contractor, who does not always care to cover himself in 

 advance for orders which may not materialize. In the rush to 

 obtain goods, accentuated by the appearance of France and other 

 countries in the market, the ordinary procedure of obtaining 

 tenders and awarding contracts has been somewhat varied, and 

 all sorts of people who have got the required goods to sell at 

 competitive prices have attained the position of government con- 

 tractors. As the greatest care and discrimination is exercised by 

 the government officials, there is no reason to suppose that the 

 country's interests have suffered, despite the rumors which have 

 been ventilated in parliament. 



RUBBER CHEMICALS AM" THE WAR. 



Manufacturers of rubber chemicals report considerable activ- 

 il\ in the demand from the home trade, but the most striking 

 feature in the business has been the demand from Japan and 

 various neutral countries which have hitherto presumably bought 

 from Germany and France. Barytes has been specially in de- 

 mand, though not entirely in connection with the rubber trade. 

 With regard to sulphate and carbonate of barytes I may mention 

 that the world's production is. roughly. 170.000 tons, to which 

 America contributes about 50.000, the United Kingdom 45.000, 

 Germany 25,000. Belgium 31,000 and France 14,000 tons. It will 

 be seen, therefore, that the two leading producers are in a posi- 

 tion eventually, if not immediately, to make up any deficit, espe- 

 cially as there is plenty of material, the output of which has 

 been closelj regulated by the demand and, I may add, the 

 somewhat unsatisfactory prices, which make the mining a rather 

 unremunerative business. 



Golden sulphide of antimony i> of course a manufactured arti 

 cle made by comparatively few firms. As the German export is 

 stopped to a large extent, and the French makers are seriously 

 crippled, it is not surprising that the few English makers have 

 found their productive capacity seriously taxed to fill orders for 

 home and abroad. The sulphur situation has been relieved by 

 shipments both from Sicily and America, though the immediate 

 ful ure of the Sicilian imports seems somewhat clouded owing to 

 the recent stoppage of exports to Germany via Switzerland. I 

 understand that an undertaking has to be given that the sulphur 

 is not to be used for munitions of war. I have not seen any of 

 the American sulphur, but am told that it is decidedly inferior 

 to the Sicilian from the rubber man's point of view, and that 

 the advantage in price is very small. 



GOLOSHES. 

 Severe weather, with falls of snow, has been experienced un- 

 usually early this winter both in England and on the continent. 

 Naturally this has given a fillip to the golosh trade, the main 

 feature of which, as far as Britain is concerned, is the steady 

 encroachment of the home made article on what a few years ago 

 were the preserves of tin' Americans. "Bostons," as the latter 

 are termed bj the dealers, are still the only sort to be obtained 

 H -me shops; elsewhere they -lock both British and American 

 makes, while in yet other establishments British goloshes only 

 arc obtainable, and if you talk about American sorts you are 

 looked upon as somewhat out of date. The ordinary retail 

 price for men's goloshes is 3/11 [95 cents] and 5/6 [$1.35], ac- 

 cording to quality, the prices varying a few pence according to 

 the status of the retailer's establishment. The average man 

 does not inquire as to the make of the goloshes he is purchasing, 

 or turn up the sole to see whether the stamp is Boston Rubber 

 Shoe Co. or any other American make. North British or "Liver." 



