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Restriction. 
By 1921, stocks of raw rubber were heavy and relief seemed remote. 
The United Kingdom Government had during 1920 been asked to regulate 
shipments of rubber from Malaya and from Ceylon. State action was 
at first refused. But, in 1921, affairs in the Malay States were approaching 
a general crisis. Rubber was selling below the cost .of production and the 
tin market was depressed. Government revenues were dwindling; large 
sections of the native population were faced with unemployment and ruin; 
éstates were reaching the end of their financial resources. An American 
financial combine, with a capital of £50,000,000, had been formed to buy 
estates at knock-out prices as opportunity offered. These dangers were 
averted by the introduction of the Stevenson Scheme, 
THE STEVENSON SCHEME.* 
The scheme established a minimum rate of export duty, and at the 
same time provided that a duty rising to prohibitive rates should be 
imposed on total exports if they exceeded the. amount fixed in accordance 
with the scheme. The scheme pivoted on a London price of 1s. 3d. a lb. 
for raw rubber, which permitted estates to be maintained in good order 
and a moderate profit to the plantation owner. The Dutch refused to 
come into the scheme, but the British estates in the Dutch East Indies— 
representing 25 to 30 per cent. of the output of the Dutch East Indies— 
voluntarily agreed to regulate their exports according to the scheme, if 
it were compulsorily applied in Malaya and Ceylon. Growers in Sarawak, 
Borneo and Southern India also agreed to a scheme of voluntary restriction. 
Under the Stevenson scheme the productive capacity of each estate was 
assessed by Committees in the East. This assessment, known as * standard 
production,” gave originally a fair idea of the productive capacity of 
the estate on a moderately liberal system of tapping, and the assessments 
were annually revised. The percentage of the * standard production 
which each estate could export on payment of the minimum rate of export 
duty during any quarter was to be regulated by the average price of 
‘“ standard quality, smoked sheet,” in the London market during the 
previous quarter. The initial percentage was fixed at 60, that is, for the 
first quarter in which the scheme was in operation, each estate was allowed 
bo export, at the minimum rate of duty, 60 per cent. of its *‘ standard 
production.” It was laid down in the scheme that if the average price 
of rubber were 1s. 3d, a lb. or over during any quarter, the percentage 
that could be exported at the minimum rate in the following quarter 
would be increased by 5. If the price were 1s. 6d. or over, the percentage 
would be increased by 10. If the percentage was aver 65 and the price 
was under ls. 3d. but over 1s. the percentage in the following quarter 
would drop by 5 until it got down to 60 per cent., but the percentage 
would not fall below 60 unless the price fell to less than ls. a 1b. But 
if the price fell below 1s., no matter what the percentage for that quarter 
was, the percentage for the following quarter dropped to 55. This particular 
proviso never came into force, The percentage rose to 65 during the 
third quarter of the operation of the scheme, and then again fell to 60 
and remained at that figure for a year. In the May-July quarter, 1924, 
however, the price was below 1s, the Percentage was reduced to 55, 
and thereafter under the scheme it could fall by 5 each quarter until the 
price got over 1s. 3d. 
* See Report of a Committee appointed to investigate the Rubber Situation in 
British Colonies and Protectorates—Cmd. 1678, and Supplementary Report— 
Omd. 17586.