and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



97 



speculate as to the future of the world's 

 rubber trade when cultivated rubber begins to 

 play an important part in the sources, of supply. 



Tropical America contributes 63 per cent, 

 of the world's total— all of it wild rubber 

 gathered in swamp and forest from virgin soil; 

 Africa comes next with 31 per cent., collected 

 by even more primitive methods in still 

 wilder regions ; leaving to Asia the modest 

 contribution of 3 per cent., but all of it the 

 product of careful cultivation, supported by 

 capital and scientific application of labour. 

 That this agricultural outlay in Ceylon, 

 Malaya and elsewhere, where rubber planta- 

 tions are being systematically extended, must 

 in future years largely influence the supply of 

 rubber cannot, I think, be disputed. In the 

 entire absence of agricultural effort, and in 

 relying solely upon a wild forest growth, it 

 cannot be maintained that the Amazon Valley, 

 great as are its natural resources, is playing 

 the part in this great industry assigned to it 

 by so lengthy and so pre-eminent a lead. 

 Then there is a further reference of interest:— 

 Owing to the great depreciation in the price 

 of rubber which set in during the latter part 

 of 1907 the values have greatly diminished 

 within the last year, although the output 

 shows some increase of exported rubber. This 

 depreciation, it is feared, must continue, and 

 pending its duration the purchasing power of 

 the Amazon communities Will necessarily be 

 greatly restricted. How great the loss to 

 the local community has been may be gathered 

 from the figures herewith which give the 

 " crops " of local Para rubber (the Ilhas, 

 Itaituba and Caucho) and their sterling values 

 for the seasons 1899-1900 to 1907-08. 



Comparative Returns of the Value of the 

 Para Rubber Crops from July, 1899, 





to June, 190S. 







Crop 





Crop year— 



Tons. 



£ 



1899-1900 



... 9,957 



2,862,400 



1900-01 



... 9,247 



2,647,185 



1901-02 



... 10,333 



2,799,720 



1902-03 



... 11,336 



3,059,003 



1903-04 



... 11,362 



2,807,641 



1904-05 



... 11,740 



3,462,391 



1905-06 



... 11,882 



3 623,440 



1906-07 



... 11,467 



3,391,849 



1907-08 



... 8,816 



1,763,200 



The foregoing table deals with the purely 

 local supplies of Para rubber proper. Con- 

 siderable quantities of rubber are shipped at 

 Para, beside that dealt with above ; and if we 

 contrast the total export trade of the State 

 of Para, including up-river rubber, with that 

 of the State of Amazonas for the last five years, 

 we get the following comparative table : — 

 Total Export Trade of Amazonia. a 



State of 



State of 



Para. 



Amazonas. 



£ 



£ 



1903 ... 4,047,312 



5,725,703 



1904 ... 4,681,184 



6,258,7' 3 



1905 ... 6,408,219 



6,930,378 



1906 ... 6,659.424 



6,618,817 



1907 ... 6,034,693 



7,238,554 



a Includes produce of every description. 



13 





Finally, on this topic of trade, wo have the 

 following : — 



Through such a period of acute depression 

 the rubber trade of the Amazon Valley is now 

 passing. Competent judges assert that the 

 loss up to the end of the rubber " safra," or 

 crop of 1908 (June 30th), will amount to not 

 less than 3,000,000/, solely due to the fall in 

 prices on the foreign markets. Some recovery 

 has been experienced of late, and while this 

 report is under preparation the market quota- 

 tions offer a more hopeful outlook. Of the 

 total shipments of rubber in 1907 16,326 metric 

 tons went to the United States and 20,894 

 metric tons to Europe. 



Then comes some interesting information, 

 giving us a peep at the inner working of the 

 rubber industry in the Amazonian region : — 



Term "rubber estate." — The term "rubber 

 estate," frequently used in references to the 

 staple product of this district, would seem to me 

 to stand in need of some correction, or at least 

 explanation. As employed, it is misleading to 

 European readers, who understand by the term 

 "estate" a property of scrupulously defined 

 limits, exactly defined area and clearly estab- 

 lished title deeds. In none of these particulars 

 does the average Amazonian rubber-producing 

 tract fulfil the European standard or definitions. 

 The limits of a district appertaining to an in- 

 dividual and worked by his employes in the 

 manner so fully described by Mr. Vice-Consul 

 Temple on page 11 of the Miscellaneous Report 

 No. 530 (1900), are such as the swamp, the im- 

 penetrability of the forest, the lack of rubber 

 trees, or the absence of neighbouring claims 

 assign it. Very many of the so-called rubber 

 estates are in the nature of claims set up by 

 "pre-emption" to a prescriptive right rather 

 than by title deeds to a constitutional property. 

 While I am not acquainted with the terms of 

 Brazilian land legislation, it is apparent to the 

 most casual observer that no legislation could 

 have possibly conferred individual rights of 

 ownership over the vast tracts of desolate swamp 

 and forest. The "seringueiro," who today works 

 a certain district of Upper Amazon forest, does 

 so by a right that is not challenged rather than 

 by one that is not challengeable. It is the right 

 of the first comer, or, indeed, not of him, but of 

 the stronger first comer. The native Indian 

 owned the lands under recognised tribal rights 

 up to the beginning of the last century. In 1848 

 the naturalists Bates and Wallace observed 

 during the course of a journey to the Tocantins 

 the manner of extracting and preparing the 

 juice of thei symphonia ela*tica, and the former 

 thus records in precise terms the elementary 

 rights of proprietorship on which the modern 

 rubber trade has been erected. Speaking of the 

 islands in the lower stream of the Tocantins 

 close to Para itself, he says : — " They are covered 

 with a most luxuriant forest, comprising a large 

 number of indiarubber trees. We found several 

 people encamped here, who were engaged in 

 collecting and preparing the rubber, and thus 

 had an opportunity of observing the process. 

 . . .. The .symphonia clastina grows only on the 

 lowlands in the Amazon region. . . . The trees 

 seem to be no man's property hereabout. The 

 people we met told us they came every year to 



