THE MALAY PENINSULA 181 



value of rubber plantations in the Malay Peninsula, it 

 is convenient to separate them into three groups, each 

 with its distinctive heading. With the present com- 

 paratively low price for the crude material, an adjust- 

 ment of the market value of shares in rubber companies 

 is a natural corollary to the inflation of the quotations 

 ruling from 1909 to 1912, for the rubber industry has 

 passed the phase of exaggerated speculation, and has 

 now entered the stage of providing sound opportunities 

 for the investment of capital on a solid and dividend- 

 earning basis. Because profits are reduced, it does not 

 follow that the industry is any less staple than formerly ; 

 indeed, quite the reverse is the case, for present de- 

 velopments are more attractive to the conservative 

 investor than was the case when market values were 

 subject to wild fluctuations at the hands of irresponsible 

 gamblers. Tropical agricultural enterprise should 

 receive a high rate of profit, on account of the inevitable 

 risks attending such undertakings, and a fair remunera- 

 tion on capital so employed may be placed at not less 

 than 15 per cent, per annum. The majority of Malay 

 plantations can earn this rate of dividend on a valua- 

 tion of the actual cost of establishing an estate and 

 defraying all necessary charges for the first five years, 

 such expenditure not exceeding a total outlay of 30 

 per acre. Experience shows this figure to be ample to 

 cover all expenses when the work is carried out on 

 practical lines and stripped of all extravagant ideas. 

 /The following classification gives the characteristic 

 factors of each of the three groups of plantations: 

 (i) Estates opened and worked before 1908 by private 

 enterprise or joint-stock companies, before the situation 



