THE 
Vol- XI. COLOMBO, DECEMBER ist, 1891. [No. 0 . 
TllK INDIAKUBBER SYNDICATE. 
FEW months baek there 
was started a project, upon 
which we commented at the 
time, to form a syndicate to 
obtain complete control of the 
indiarubber trade both in 
America and Europe. This 
attempt baa now eome to griel, and whether 
it would have benefited or have injured such 
cultivation of the rubber trees as has already 
been attempted in this colony, its possible re- 
sults may now be wholly and entirely disre- 
garded by planters interested in the enterprise, 
few in number now, we suspect. We deem it 
to have been extremely questionable if, even 
had the soheme been found to be practicable, it 
could have done anything to stimulate increased 
production in Ceylon, and we cannot say that 
we are sorry that another of these gigantic mono- 
polies which have bean so injurious to regular trade 
all the world over should have turned out a failure. 
The syndicate in question was originally organised 
with a capital of 10 million dollars, of which 1 
million dollars was at ones subscribed, and another 
l.i million dollars was obtained from other sources. 
We now learn that this whole amount has been 
lost, the English banks having su&ered to the extent 
of about 1 million dollars. In Brazil the operations 
of the syndicate so stimulated production, collection 
rather, that it would have required more than double 
the capital possessed by the syndicate to hold 
the stocks which it had obtained and to secuic 
the rubber due to arrive on their hands. The 
banks began to be alarmed at the prospect and 
refused further advances, and when the sale of 
the accumulated stocks became compulsory, prices 
tumbled down to an extraordinary degree, fine 
Para rubber falling from 80 cents to 63 cents per 
pound, Messrs. Baring Brothers are said to have 
boon holders of no leas than 600 tons of the rubber, 
and altogether the syndicate hold 3,000 tons of 
it, nearly the whole of which oost 80 cents and 
more per pound laid down in New York and 
London. The selling prices haying fallen, as wo 
have stated above to 63 cent?, it is no wonder that 
collapse followed, and that we are likely to hear little 
more of attempts to “cornet " the trade in indiarnb- 
ber. It is therefore undoubtedly lucky lot those 
who have yet continued the cultivation of the trees 
upon estates in Ceylon that the whole schomo 
has collapsed before the operation of the syndicate 
reached the island. It is extremely question- 
able if the syndicate would have ofieted prices 
such as would have induced our planters to have 
gone in for extended cultivation, but the planters 
might have done so if they shared in the hopeful 
anticipations of the syndicate. As it is, the bubble 
has burst before there had been time for Ceylon 
planters to outlay more money on this form of 
cultivation; but if any have collected and exported 
the gum, they have had, at least, to pay a 
certain penalty in the heavy reduction in the 
London market of the prices formerly obtained 
for their production of the article. We 
suspect that this failure will have a beneficial 
effect in doing away, with this mischievous system 
of “cornering" produce, as to which wo have al- 
wftjB written our view that it wftB both immorAl fla 
well as commercially unsound. Out condemnation 
in the last sense has been constantly proved correct; 
for any attempt made in that direction since people 
became alive to the operation and iis sequences baa 
come to grief. The practice is a sort of trade uni- 
onism without any of the redeeming features of the 
latter. This has a few philanthropic inotives — 
at all events professed — to justify it, while these 
syndicates are nothing more not lets than attempts 
to convey the money of the many into the pockets 
of the few. Little sympathy wo feel, need be 
wasted over those whose imaginary gams have 
been oonvorted into real loss over this rubber 
speculation. 
The Pboeiis or Java Cinchona Plantebb. — A few 
years ago a lengthy article (from which we quoted at 
tbetiraf) appeared in a Dutoh-Indian technical journal 
giving dolaila ooncerning the ooat of produotion of 
cinchona bark in Java. In the Pteanger diatriot, 
where the largest and the best-managed estates 
ire situated, the wages of labourers in the plantations 
ivorage 3d to sjd per day for men, and about 2^d 
per day for women and onildren. From these and 
3 ther data figures were deduoed which show that 
It a sale uoit of 6-7o in Amsterdam (U per lb.) 
1 well managed estate of seven-year-old trees 
rielding an average of -IJ per oent bark, womd 
deld an annual interest of 10 per cent on the 
lapital invested. Eight-year old trees of the same 
ilkaloidal riohness will paj, 1® P?' oent even at 
I unit ol 6-2c (equal to IS-lbths d. per lb) ; and 
line-year old trees yielding 6 per oent quinine 
ulphate, will pay 10 per oent profit at a hark nnit 
143 (rqualtoidper lb.)— Chemist and DrungUt, 
