CHAPTER XX 



A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE ORIENTAL 

 SITUATION 



Past and future production in the Orient Estimated produc- 

 tion from 1914 to 1919 Consumption and production The 

 labour question in the Orient Effects of diseases and pests on 

 future development Premium of Amazon Valley rubber over the 

 plantation product Average total cost of plantation rubber to 

 date of sale The question of the black and white varieties of 

 Hevea Brasiliensis. 



BOTH in the Orient and Brazil the year 1913 was 

 a momentous epoch in the history of the rubber 

 industry. Production on the Eastern plantations ex- 

 ceeded the output of the Amazon Valley by 25 per 

 cent., and was greater than the total shipments from all 

 Brazilian ports. This increased yield in the Orient 

 signifies the parting of the ways between cultivated and 

 wild rubber, for the Eastern production for 1914 will 

 surpass by a substantial amount the aggregate wild- 

 rubber output in all parts of the world. The dominant 

 factor in the rubber situation from now onwards will be 

 undoubtedly the returns from plantations, and the 

 supplies from wild sources will steadily recede into the 

 background. That production in the Amazon Valley 

 and the Congo territories should cease altogether is by 

 no means a corollary of the conditions now in process 

 of development ; the general indications are that 

 Brazilian and African wild rubber will continue to come 

 forward, but the shipments will be smaller in quantity, 



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