rected towards that city. Liverpool also receives rubber of va- 
rious qualities proceeding from the English and other European 
possessions in equatorial Africa. 
The increasing production of the Oriental plantations finds in 
London one of its principal markets for the precious gum. Al- 
though rubber proceeding from different parts appears in the 
market, it may be affirmed without hesitation, that London is 
the special centre for cultivated refined rubber (plantation) 
which is easily explained by the fact that the owners of the ex- 
tensive plantations in the Malay States are nearly all of them 
London companies. 
Occidental and Oriental Africa, principally German Colonies, 
send to Hamburg the greater part of the rubber which is nego- 
tiated on that market. Brazil enters with about 20 per cent of 
the total amount of the business. 
Antwerp owes its rubber trade to the creation of the Congo 
Free State, whose production, now in decline, is practically all 
directed to this city. It also receives rubber from Brazil, and 
seeing that Belgian capital is employed in the Oriental planta- 
tions its future is promising. 
Havre, on the other hand, is of greater importance to Brazil; 
where 75 per cent of the transactions are in Brazilian rub- 
ber. It also imports the Congo species, as also those of some 
of the French Colonies in Africa. However, the great bulk of 
the production of these latter colonies is directed to Bordeaux. 
The methods of sale adopted in these markets, vary very 
much. From the slow old-fashioned process of sale by private 
treaty, to sales on time terms, passing through auctions and un- 
derwritings, in short all the commonly known modes of negotiat- 
ing are in use. 
The most important market, that of New York, adheres to 
the old-fashioned method of personal contracts for immediate de- 
livery, which certainly serves better the interests of buyers, than 
those of sellers; the agitation that was created round this ques- 
tion with a view to reform the market, gave no result whatso- 
ever. 
Liverpool presents us the polymorphic type. Private sales, 
and sales on a fixed day for delivery, or sales by auctions, all take 
place, consulting thereby the preferences of both sellers and 
buyers, and establishing the free course of the values. The same 
happens in London, where, however, the Plantation companies 
have initiated more advanced transactions, such as sales of crops 
in anticipation. 
Hamburg and Antwerp also practice sales by auction and on 
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