INTERNAL MARKETS FOR RUBBER—ORGAN- 
IZATION AND WORKING—TYPES 
AND QUOTATIONS 
Located in the centre of the most important rubber produc- 
ing region of the world, Belém and Manaos, the capitals. of 
the two great states of the north, are, in Brazil, the principal 
markets of that product. Nearly 90 per cent. of the Brazilian 
exportation proceeds from there, the 16,000 tons of rubber 
which each of these markets export annually gives place to a 
considerable mass of business. 
If it be true that the commercial transactions gyrate around 
equal quantities of rubber, Belém has the advantage over 
Manaos, because it is the seat of a great part of the large ex- 
porting houses that operate in the two capitals. Its geographical 
situation which permits of more rapid communication with the 
markets of the south, and with foreign ports, contributes also 
towards its greater commercial importance. 
The uses and customs are identical in the two markets. 
Commerce obeys a rule above all unfavorable to the sellers who 
cannot put a value on their merchandise but are forced before 
all things to accept the price imposed by the buyers. That dis- 
advantageous condition of dependency is the natural outcome of 
the deficient economic organization in the exploitation of the 
rubber industry in the valley of the Amazon. Reference has 
already been made in another place to the burdensome .com- 
mercial relations between the seringueiros and the patrons or 
proprietors of seringaes and between the same patrons and 
the commercial traders. The same vices and defects are to 
be found in the relations between the commercial traders and 
the great exporting houses. Those latter, possessors of large 
capital and united together in the common interests, dominate 
the market, which, weakened by successive crises and always 
in a precarious state cannot oppose them an efficacious -re- 
sistence. Cae mon 
That situation can only be modified in the case of the actual 
economic and commercial methods, which place in the hands of 
the merchant-trader all the responsibility of the conduction of 
business in the place, without at the same time arming them 
with the means of defence against unrestricted speculations, 
The merchant-trader’s houses are the intermediaries between 
the seringueiros and the exporting houses. But, their principal 
function is that of furnishing the seringueiro during the year 
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