properties; the heavy burdens with which these loanings or 
advances of money are weighed down, have their origin in the 
risk which is run by advancing such capital, due to the diffi- 
culties of collecting the debts contracted and the far distant 
nature of the lands given in guarantee. It frequently happens 
that the traders do not dispose of sufficient means for carrying 
out all these lending operations in which case they fall back 
upon the exporting houses, who advance them the necessary 
money, against a contract to hand over the rubber at a certain 
date and at prices previously fixed. 
4¢Thus is established a successive dependency of the seringueiro 
on the owner of the property, this latter in his turn on the 
merchant-trader and finally of the merchant-trader upon the 
exporting house. 
Thereafter it is seen how grievously the system of want of 
capital acts on the whole system on the exportation of rubber 
and the long series of intermediaries. 2 
Let us see now what is the capital which the owner of the 
seringal requires to possess for an exploitation of say 200 roads. 
A seringal with 200 roads exacts altogether the work of 100 
men, whose engagements in the region where they reside and 
their transport as far as the “seringal” costs on an average 
40 :000$000 and to each one of them is supplied a sum of 850$000 
destined to defray the costs of purchase of the indispensable 
material for making a commencement with the work of exploita- 
tion; out of an initial sum estimated at from 75 :000$000 to 
80 :000$000 including casual expenses. 
Arrived at their destination, the seringueiros, as they find 
themselves comyletely without means, continue to be a burden 
on the budget of their contractors during the period of the clear- 
ing the forests of brush-wood and undergrowth, and the cutting 
of roads, which are the preliminaries to the gathering in of the 
rubber. Up till the date of the final delivery, which takes place 
_from 6 to 7 months afterwards, the proprietor expends nearly 
100 :000$000 with the feeding and maintenance of the serin- 
gueiros, which is but the preface to a total sum of 180 :000$000 
inscribed on the books of the aviador or merchant-trader as 
being the indebtedness of the owner of the seringal. 
This latter in order to meet the charges of the up-keep of the 
seringueiros, establishes ‘“‘vendas” or selling-stores, by means of 
which he supplies not only the goods of first necessity for con- 
sumption, but also the tools, utensils and, indeed, everything 
that is required for the proper exploitation of the “‘seringal.” 
These “vendas” or supply-stores are stocked by the mer- 
chant-trader of Belém and Manaos, who send them periodically 
in steamers or steam launches, the necessary merchandise. Ac- 
27 i 
