CHAPTER X 



A COMPARISON OF THE BRAZILIAN AND 

 ORIENTAL RUBBER INDUSTRIES 



Collective and individual energy Sources of production Area 

 Varieties of Hevea in Brazil and the Orient Soil Climatic 

 conditions Labour-supply Wage rate Cost of living Ad- 

 ministration Age of production for rubber-trees Girth and 

 height of trees Yield Method of tapping Preparation of latex 

 Transport facilities Comparative exportation in 1913 Initial 

 expenditure Cost of production Future costs of production. 



IN 1876 Mr. Wickham obtained from the Amazon 

 Valley the seed for the foundation of the rubber 

 industry of the Orient, and for that reason a comparison 

 of the conditions and methods employed in connection 

 with the two principal sources of the world's supply is 

 instructive and interesting, in view of the present 

 critical situation in both Brazil and the East. 



In the Orient an abundant and cheap labour-supply 

 permits the employment of large bodies of workmen, 

 under efficient superintendence, for the daily perform- 

 ance of any manual labour required for plantation or 

 other purposes. In Brazil the high wage rate prac- 

 tically prohibits the use of collective force, and all 

 enterprise is dependent on the result of individual 

 energy, with little or no supervision over the work in 

 hand. In the former case the man is paid a specified 

 sum and a fixed amount of work is exacted from him ; 

 in the latter the individual devotes as much or as little 



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