

THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July 1, 1915. 



The Rubber Trade in Russia. 



Pthat will come before the 

 \t session will In- the ratifi- 

 immi il treat} with Russia, to till the 

 abrogation during tin- I.e. -In- of the Taft 

 administration of the former commercial treaties existing be- 

 . that country and this. Russia lias a \ ery respectable for- 

 trade. It amounted during the first ten months of 1''13 to 

 1,349,000, $520,855,000 representing imports during thai pe 

 1,000 'tmg exports. Both of these fig- 



somewhat duriti i i Hi' mths i >i 191 t. eery 



ng to the outbre; tilities. lJut undoubtedly 



ttion of the war Russ i ign trade will resume 



tme; the exports rna\ show a falling ofl for a time, 

 will doubtless materiallj increase 

 Cut perhaps more interesting than the volume of Russia's en- 

 tire foreign commerce are the figures that represent that coun- 

 imports from Germany, for naturally a verj considerable 

 part of this trade will, for some years to come, at least. 



In 1913 Russia bought over $209,000,000 worth 

 of various products from Germany. But while these figures ap- 

 peal ti ' American manufacturers as a whole, the particular de- 

 partment of Russia's commerce that interests the American rub- 

 ber i hi is the extent of the rubber industry in the 

 Mm. m and the held that country utters fur the market- 

 ing of American goods. 



The extent ol Russia's rubber trade for the last normal year, 

 ured in the value of the product, was S5o.000.000. The 

 manufacture of rubber articles had been increasing with con- 

 siderable rapidity for a number of years. The output of shoes, 

 tor instance, had doubled in ten years, and the production of 

 tires had increased rapidly with each year. It is probable that 

 the Russian factories, the two larg thi Russian-Ameri- 

 can and tlu Prowodnik— together with the half dozen smaller 



I m roRY or the Russian-American India Rubber Co.. 

 "Treucolnik," Petrograd. Russia. 



TOBAPHLUECTBA riHlCLMCKO-AMEPIIKAHCKOH 



ri:3DHOBon M.\ny<DAKTypbi 



for the above: TOVYARITCHEST W A 

 jSIISKO-AMERIKANSKOI, Russian-American; RESINOWOI, 



M AXUF AKTl'RY. mantif* 



re producing not far from 100.000 pairs of rubber 



md the manufacturers not only enjoyed a practical 



monopoly of the home market in tin- respect but were building 



up .: ..port busii I iermany, but in- 



cluding also, in more limited quantities. Norway, Sweden and 

 Denmark, while some shipments were made to China, Australia 

 and South America, particularly Patagonia. 

 Though the making of automobile tires is a comparatviely 



new industry, exporl goods were being made at the 



outbreak of the war to a great many foreign countries, a late 

 pamphlet of the Prowodnik company showing sales offices not 

 oiil\ in all the countries of Europe but in New York and San 



I'" r a n c i s c o , 

 Montreal and 

 Toronto, and in 

 Argentina, Bra- 

 zil, Egypt. In- 

 dia and South 

 Africa. In ad- 

 dition to shoes 

 and tires Russia 

 enjoyed a very 

 < < usiilerable ex- 

 port business in 

 one other article 

 of rubber manu- 

 facture, namely, 

 rubber sponges, 

 in the making 

 of which it has 

 particularly ex- 

 celled. 



Tradi Mark for Russian-American The war has 



Rubber Shoes. had much the 



same effect on the rubber industry in Russia as in England — 

 that is. it has vastly increased the demand, by reason of gov- 

 ernment orders, for shoes, surgical appliances and tires, while 

 naturally the output of certain other lines used in ordinary times 

 of peace has been much curtailed. But the chief effect has been 

 the decrease in the normal supply of crude rubber. Late advices 

 indicate that prices of crude rubber in Russia are now 100 per 

 cei il. higher than they were last July, while the prices of rubber 

 manufactured goods have risen from 20 to 25 per cent. 



Owing to government assistance, and especially to the levying 

 rather onerous duties on all imports of rubber manufactured 

 goods — duties amounting to $21.39 per 100 pounds on tires and 

 $17.11 per 100 pounds on other goods — the Russian companies have 

 able very largely to monopolize their home trade.. Some im- 

 portations, however, from other countries have been made, chiefly 

 from Germany. The imports of rubber manufactured goods 

 into Russia from the United States have never reached a large 

 figure : the maximum, during the last ten years, expressed in 

 i-alue «. n iched in the year 1907-1908. namely. $26,932. The 

 imports remained about the same for the next six years, in the 

 year 1912-1913 being $26,909, and in the following year — ending 

 with June 30. 1914— they dropped to $12,133. It might be said 

 in passing that in all probability Russian imports of United 

 States goods in reality rather exceeded the figures given, for 

 some goods were sent by way of England and Germany and 

 Norway, and were credited to the countries from which they 

 were re-shipped. 



Germany, on the other hand, has done quite an export business 

 in rubber goods with Russia for some years, the value of these 

 exports — exclusive of crude and waste rubber, gutta percha. 

 balata and substitutes — in 1913 amounting to $2,337,500. In order 

 to show just what goods America has sold to Russia in the last 

 ten years, a classified table is given ; and in order further 

 to show what market the Germans were able to find in Russia 



