95 
Part I] Lindsay and Harlow : Lac and Shellac 
The demand is thus steadily increasing, Not only is shellac 
driving out inferior materials hitherto con- 
Substitutes. . ... 
sidered as suitable, but it is also established 
as a vital necessity to expanding industries. The chief danger lies 
in the present high prices which merely encourage the search for 
a substitute. Hitherto the search has not been to any serious 
extent successful. During the war, when supplies of shellac for 
commercial purposes were restricted, the Merchants’ Association of 
New York was asked by the War Trade Board to what extent the 
commercial consumption of shellac could be restricted and what 
substitutes were available. The reply was that, unless sufficient 
quantities of shellac could be brought to America to supply the 
normal demands of manufacturers, many industries would have to 
close down. The experience of Germany has been much the same. 
Synthetic substitutes had been evolved before the war, and were 
improved during the war, but still remain inferior to the natural 
product. So far as present prices in Germany go, the natural product 
is very much more expensive. It can only be purchased from Holland 
at prices ranging from 120 to 150 and even 200 marks per kilogramme, 
whereas synthethic substitutes can be secured at from 24 to 32 marks 
wholesale or 36 to 40 marks retail. The substitute can, however, 
only be obtained in very limited quantities, as the necessary raw 
materials, and particularly coal, are lacking. Moreover, it is reported 
in evidence of the indifferent quality of the substitute that German 
firms “ are unable to deliver electrical machinery to tropical countries 
because the consistency of the insulating material made of artificial 
shellac and of mica powder is so poor that it melts in the heat.”' 
It would be unsafe, however, to infer that the danger of the 
evolution of a successful substitute for shellac is not very real. The 
surest safeguard is to develop and extend production until supplies 
more nearly equal the demand, and prices fall in consequence to a 
more reasonable level. The departmental cultivation of lac by the 
Forest Department and the organization of supplies of brood-lac 
should help to secure this result ; and it is hoped that the efforts of 
the Lac Traders’ Association, now in process of formation in Calcutta, 
will be directed to the same end. 
[95] 
