STOCKS For the entire period from 1900 to 1937 there are no comparable statistics of rubber stocks. The principal sources of the world's rubber up to 1914 were Brazil and Africa; and such rubber in the hands of dealers in New York, Liverpool, Para, and Antwerp, together with rubber afloat to the United States and Europe from Para, comprised the total reported world rubber stocks. In 1914 two important events occurred: (1) Plantation rubber from the Middle East in that year exceeded 50 percent of the total world rubber production, and (2) the outbreak of the Great War dislocated the regular flow of commerce, including that of rubber. During the course of the war, embargoes and control measures were placed upon trade in rubber, and regular statistics for rubber stocks were not available until December 31, 1919. A break, therefore, will be noted in the annual statistics for principal world rubber stocks at the year-end for the period from 1914 to 1918. With the resumption of world trade in rubber in 1919, the United Kingdom and plantation rubber stocks held at London and Liverpool became an important consideration in a study of the statistical position of the commodity. Additional figures for rubber stocks became available in 1923 (those for rubber dealers at Singapore and Penang, British Malaya), further destroying the comparability of the annual series for rubber stocks. Beginning with January 1, 1930, statistics for rubber stocks on rubber estates in British Malaya have been published. Comparability in the tables for principal world rubber stocks has been maintained since that date, and such figures (on a monthly basis) are given in this report. Statistics for rubber stocks inside regulated areas are published monthly in the Statistical Bulletin, issued by the International Rubber Regulation Committee, London. These figures, which have been completely comparable only since December 31, 1935, are as follows: Table 7.-Rubber Stocks Inside Regulated Areas Statistics of rubber stocks have been published, though irregularly, for other places than those shown in this report (for Colombo, Hamburg, Havre, Kobe, Marseilles, Paris, and Rotterdam). Such figures have been omitted here for the sake of brevity and because of their comparative unimportance in a study of the statistical position. of rubber. Statistics for rubber afloat from September 30, 1930, to December 31, 1937, were compiled by assuming that at the end of each month practically all the rubber shipped during the month and one-third of that shipped in the preceding month would be afloat. In other words, 1% months' rubber shipments equal rubber afloat. From this total is subtracted the figure for "Rubber afloat to the United States," as reported by the Rubber Manufacturers Association, Inc. (without raising the figure to an estimated 100-percent of completeness), and a calculated figure of "Rubber afloat to Europe," prepared each month by the Leather and Rubber Division of the United States Department of Commerce. The balance, therefore, called "Other afloat," would consist of varying amounts of rubber afloat to the United States as well as rubber afloat to foreign countries other than Europe. "Afloat" statistics prior to September 30, 1930, and beginning with January 31, 1926, have been compiled by the Leather and Rubber Division from cabled reports of rubber shipped from principal countries. Table 8.-Principal World Rubber Stocks as of Dec. 31, 1899-1913 Table 9.-Principal World Rubber Stocks as of Dec. 31, 1919-29 |