The extensive credits opened by the traders constitute acts of confidence, being guaranteed more by the activity and initiative of the proprietors of the seringaes, than by their respective 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 difficulties 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. 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. 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 350$000 destined to defray the costs of purchase of the indispensable material for making a commencement with the work of exploitation; 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 completely without means, continue to be a burden on the budget of their contractors during the period of the clearing 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 seringueiros, 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 consumption, but also the tools, utensils and, indeed, everything that is required for the proper exploitation of the “seringal.”