INTRODUCTION xi 



munerative and steady returns in regard to all properties 

 where the initial expenditure has been restrained within 

 conservative limits. 



The Brazilian situation differs widely from that of the 

 Eastern plantations. The problems to be faced in the 

 Amazon Valley are a cheaper labour-supply, reduced 

 taxation, and better administration. On those three 

 factors depend the future existence of the Brazilian 

 rubber industry ; and unless some satisfactory solution 

 of these difficulties be found, the production will diminish 

 rapidly in the near future, and soon cease to influence 

 the world's market. 



Looking back over the past five years, there can be 

 no doubt that the paramount difference between the 

 producers in the Orient and those of the Amazon 

 Valley has been that the former anticipated and made 

 ready for a fall in values, while the latter persistently 

 believed in higher prices. This attitude of the Brazilians 

 has left them unprepared to meet the serious effects of 

 Eastern competition, and the consequent shrinkage in 

 the money value of the output that was so marked a 

 feature during the year 1913. Trade prospects at the 

 great manufacturing centres of Europe and America 

 show signs of improvement, but they do not justify the 

 hope that any sudden increased demand for the raw 

 material will lead to a reversion of prices to the level of 

 1912 ; the available supplies from the Orient will more 

 than suffice to meet the void occasioned by the probable 

 diminution in the production of wild rubber from Africa 

 and other countries, and in the circumstances the most 



