Figure 1.--At the time of World War II, most of the world's production of natural rubber came from southeast Asia. Here we see see rubber tapping, probably in Malaya although the location is not idntified. The boy and girl are shown tapping a rubber tree on a plantation., probably before World War II. Rubber did not occur naturally in Malaya, but no where else on earth did it grow as well. The cocentration of production on the Malay Peninsula and the Japanese conquest (January 1942) was potentilly disaterous for the Allied war economy.

After obtaining the Brazilin seeds, it took some time for Kew to produce actual seed producing trees which could be used to found a huge British rubber industry. Time was needed to grow adult trees, establish plantations, and the fairly small demand for rubber in the 19h century. This began to change by the turn-of-the 20th century. And the British came to dominate rubber cultivion nd production. The British Empire included may tropical areas suitable for rubber proiduction, but Malays soon became the primary center od Britih runner production. The Kew seedlings were sent to Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka). The promixity to India led to rubber being commoinly referred to as India Rubber. The British also began to cultivate rubber in other tropical colonial possesions especially on the Malay Peninsula. Malaya had been a minor outpost of the British Empire. Rubber and the development of effective plantation methods turned Malaya into one of Britain's most valuable colonial possessions. The British gave high priority to promoting a productive, profitable rubber industry in Malaya. This was policy begun in the early-20th century with the fondation of the industry and continued right up the point that Japan launced the Paciific war by attacking the American fleet at Pearl Harbor am invasing Malaya. (1941). Britain's Malayan rubber plantations had important advantages for the British and became on of tge illars of the Empire. The rubber plantations were a sourc of ubstantial income for British companies and their shareholders. The plantations also produced a strategically essential product in times of war. The importance of rubber increased substantially with the appearance of trucks on World war I battlefields, but vehicle tires was only one use of rubber. And rubber wasn important economic commidity with a range of industrial uses. Malayan rubber exports made an important contribution to Britain’s positive balance of payments. The British and Malayan Colonial Governments adopted policies which heavily benefitted rubber estates owners. These policies favored the estate owners over the plntation workers. By the time of world War II the workers were becoming increasingly restive and strikes were occurring. [Hagan and Wells, pp. 143-150.] The Dutch opened plantations on Java and Sumatra, launching the East Indies rubber industry. One author complains that this placed "in the hands of a single power a major natural resource". [Yardley, p. 15.] Some how it did not bother Yardley when theresource was in Brazilian hands.) Actually the British greatly diversified production. Seedlings were made available for cultivatin in other European colobies (Dutch East Indies, German East Africa, and Potuguese Mozambique as well as American comanies in Liberia and South and Central America.)

Sources

Hagan, James and Andrew Wells. "The British and rubber in Malaya, c1890-1940" Proceedings of the Ninth National Labour History Conference (Sydney: 2005), pp. 143-150.

Yardley, Jonathan. "An act of 'biopiracy' 130 years ago enriched England and devastated Brazil" Book World (March 30, 2008), p. 15.

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