i 4 RUBBER AND 



rubber annually. If the present increase in the rate of 

 consumption is maintained, it seems probable that the 

 whole of this amount will be required as soon as the 

 plantations can produce it. When this takes place, a 

 considerable reduction in the consumption of the lower 

 grades of wild rubber may be expected. Some reduc- 

 tion in the very large amount of reclaimed rubber used 

 by manufacturers may also occur when high grades of 

 fresh rubber are obtainable at a somewhat lower price. 

 Hitherto the increased demand has been such that with 

 the supplies of wild rubber practically stationary, or 

 even somewhat increasing, all the plantation rubber 

 available has been readily taken up, and prices have 

 been maintained at what may still be regarded as a 

 more or less artificial figure. 



Variations in the Price of Rubber. 



The history of prices is indeed remarkable, and the 

 factors which rule them are not always easy to under- 

 stand. Taking the price of fine hard Para as the 

 standard, the value of this commodity in 1871 was 

 about three shillings a pound. In 1878 the price was 

 only two shillings. This rose to 4/4 in 1883, and fell to 

 2/6 in 1885. From this point the rise in value was more 

 or less continuous until the price reached 5/8 in 1905. 

 In 1908, a year of considerable industrial depression, 

 the price fell to 2/9, but after this if rose very rapidly 

 until it reached the unprecedented figure of 12/9 in 



