, 
-such extra supply is not sufficient to occasion the harmful effects 
of an overproduction. It is curious to observe, that even within 
the last decade, the production of those regions which in 1901 
was 21,547 tons increased even so far as to surpass the produc- 
tion of Brazil in the year of 1905, reaching then 35,428 tons; but 
it diminished as rapidly as it had increased and in 1911 we see it 
reduced to 23,747 tons. This decrease cannot be attributed to 
the effects of competition, for instance to the plantations of the 
Orient, whose production commenced to accentuate itself exactly 
in the year of 1905 and henceforward. As a matter of fact, com- 
petition should bring forth a fall in prices, but however, on the 
contrary, such did not happen, the quotations reaching in the 
years of 1909 and 1910 such extremes as had never been seen in 
the rubber market.. It will be sufficient to point out, that the 
refined rubber of Para, which is the Standard regulating type of 
the market and whose average anual price has been 3, 4 and 
even 5 shillings, went up in those years to 12s/6 per pound. 
However, a new competitor did appear, which had to be taken 
into consideration, and which induced the Government of 
Brazil to adopt some measures tending to protect its great article 
of export. The considerable and methodical plantations of the 
hevea brasiliensis made in the peninsula of Malacca in Malasia 
and on the island of Ceylon, commenced to produce rubber, 
which it was predicted would within a few years, due to the 
enormous quantity produced at a low figure, get the mastery of 
the market. ; 
These plantations, the initial experiments of which date from 
the year of 1876, with 70,000 seeds sent from the Tapajoz 
river, an affluent of the Amazon, by Wickham to the Royal Bo- 
tanical Garden of Kew, have taken an enormous increment 
since the year 1896, till to-day, due to the results obtained 
which indicated beyond possible doubt the advantages of the 
cultivation of hevea, this in view of the constantly increasing 
price of the product and the new applications which day after 
day the rubber industry has opened up. 
The cultivated-plantation rubber, which appeared on the mar- 
ket with 5 tons in 1901, was represented by 646 tons five years 
later and at the end of another equal period, by 12,000 tons. 
It is estimated that if nothing unforeseen happens to the con- 
trary, its production in 1916 will be 70,000 tons, thus reaching 
the quantity which is at the present moment consumed each 
year by the necessities of the industry. 
It is believed that by that time the inferior qualities furnished 
by Africa, Central America and even by Brazil, will gradually 
have disappeared from the market. In order to meet the con- 
sumption which, if progression that hitherto has taken place, 
43 
