The States of Amazonas and Pará cannot dispense quickly without very serious economic disturbance with the revenue receivable from the tribute paid on the exportation of rubber. As a matter of fact, the State of Amazonas collected the sum of Rs. 16,845:585$063 in 1909, Rs. 18,069:162$372 in 1910 and Rs. 12,901:477$379 in 1911; the impost-tax upon rubber brought in those same years respectively Rs. 13,316:487$569, Rs. 14,836:235$238 and Rs. 9,999:031$526, which can also be reckoned by 79.04 per cent, 82.11 per cent and 77.50 per cent. The State of Amazonas taxes rubber produced in the State itself, in 18 per cent ad valorem, and that coming from the Javary, the boundary river with Perú, in 7 per cent. In its turn Pará has had in the form of revenue collected in those years, the amounts of Rs. 19,039:709$531, Rs. 20,255:070$604 and Rs. 14,480:716$176, the import-tax on rubber rendering Rs. 14,602:759$269, Rs. 14,701:894$955 and Rs. 9,518:716$267, or 76.69 per cent, 72.58 per cent and 65.73 per cent. The taxes charged by Pará are 22 per cent ad valorem for Rubber “fina,” “entre-fina” and “sernamby,” and 15 per cent for whatever other kind. Besides those there is an additional tax of 2.5 per cent in benefit of the Santa Casa de Misericordia charged on the exportation taxes. These figures seem to show the importance for those States of questions concerning the production and consumption of the world’s rubber, and with greater reason still for Brazil as a whole. The ruin of one of the most promising regions on the face of the globe, the profound depreciation of Brazilian finances and the dreaded commercial crisis with which the country would have to fight, would be the disastrous effect of the indifference of the Federal and States Governments on such a matter. But that, however, is not the attitude of those Governments; they are decreeing various measures now in course of being carried out and which after minute studies were judged necessary, so that Brazil might continue to maintain her proud position of importance for the precious “black gold” (rubber) in the world’s market. RUBBER-CONSUMING MARKETS—COMPETITION OF OTHER RUBBER-PRODUCING COUNTRIES New York, Liverpool, London, Hamburg, Antwerp and Havre are at the present time, by their order of importance, the principal world’s markets for rubber. New York, by virtue of the extraordinary development of North American industries, which in a steadily increasing scale, are consuming constantly greater quantities of raw material, receives almost half of the rubber produced in all the world. Nearly 60 per cent of the rubber negotiated in New York is Brazilian. After this follow Central America and Mexico; but as rubber proceeding from all parts appears in the New York market it is evident that there is no specialty in this business.