The discovery of natural rubber changed the dynamics of western economies in the late eighth century and early ninth century. To get a better perspective on how the rubber boom redefined the second industrialization, a brief history of the discovery of rubber will shed more light.
Rubber was discovered in the Amazon region of Peru and Brazil by the indigenous Indians who had used it to make an elastic ball that they used in a game called Tlachtlic, at around 1600BC. The rubber was extracted from a tree called rubber tree (Havea brasiliensis).
Rubber got to Europe through early expeditionary trips by the likes of Christopher Columbus. It was used as an as an eraser by Joseph priestly. The practical use of rubber was not well developed until 1800s when the first rubber factory was built in the United Kingdom, France and the United States increasing the demand of the product in the world market.
Use of rubber gained momentum through clever discoveries like vulcanization, which led to different applications of rubber like Michelin 1895 was able to adapt the bicycle tire to automobile tires. Prior to this, in 1815 Hancock had discovered the first rubber mattress and together with a Macintosh, they developed a waterproof coat and the list is endless of how new rubber applications developed.
The impact of the boom in rubber in Europe, America and Asia led to emergence of new economies especially in Brazil where small towns like Belem, Manaus and Porto Velho grew rapidly to become major towns in Brazil. The effect of this sporadic growth and massive demand called for increased supply of the product to meet the demand which further meant that a larger workforce needed to be put in place.
The negative aspect that reared its head in economic growth was that most indigenous Indians were forced to work for the rubber barons and although the venture was very profitable those who collected the rubber in the fields were grossly paid and the native Indians of the Amazon were made slaves to work for the plantation owners.
In one of the plantations, it is quoted to have started with around 50,000 workers of Indian decent. When the plantation was put on the limelight, it was revealed it had only about 8,000 Indians. The rest had died either under unorthodox means or just brutally murdered.
However, on the other side, Brazil emerged as a well-developed economy. The rubber boom never lasted for long in Brazil as by 1873 the Britons had migrated their interest to Malaysia and had stated their own plantation.
The rubber boom had led to an industrial revolution in Brazil’s economy through an advanced infrastructural system in railroad, construction of roads and an improved communication that allowed and facilitated other facets of the economy to grow tremendously like mining and agriculture. It is also important to mention that the boom brought both political and economic redefinition of the economic prospects in Brazil.
Other economies that emerged from the rubber boom were countries like Malaysia. Although rubber trees grew spontaneously in the wild in Malaysia rubber plantation were introduced by the British in 1870. The Havea Brasiliensis specimens were transported notably to Singapore and Ceylon where they performed better than expected.
The boom and increased rubber prices that had reached an all-time high in 1910, which boosted the economy drastically through its exports that also included tin. By 1921 Malaysia was exporting 50% of the world’s demand for rubber with an estimated 1.34 million acres under plantation. The projected economic growth had surpassed the 4.5% mark, making Malaysia to be one of the rapidly growing economies in the world.
This was aided by the cheap labor that was acquired from Indian migrants brought in under the government auspices, the Chinese who had invested heavily in Malaysia’s rubber industry and who operated as private companies sought for the “coolie” trade as a means to getting an alternative workforce.
In addition, Malaysia was strategically placed and its deep harbors proved essential in trade compared to other islands which were slightly away from the main route.
Besides, the steady growth of exports in Malaysia was due to better governance and policies made to ensure a competitive growth and a well-developed and elaborate infrastructural system in road, railway, ports in Penang and Singapore together with good communication networks allowed for the rapid economic growth.
Lastly other economies that benefitted in a way to the rubber boom were the Belgium that controlled the Congo under King Leopold II. After successful acquiring the Congo through the Berlin conference, king Leopold set out to make the venture profitable to be able to run its administration.
Unlike Brazil and Malaysia where rubber was grown under plantation, in Congo, rubber was extracted from wild vines that grew in the jungle.
The extraction also took unorthodox means. Instead of tapping the rubber the Congolese took to slashing the tress and lathering their bodies with the sap and when the sap had hardened they would curve it off their bodies this was an extremely painful procedure as the hardened latex would come out with human hair. The practice also led to massive destruction of the tress.
By 1890, rubber had surpassed the ivory exports in Congo. King Leopold was able to make massive profits by the end of 1903 at the expense of the Congolese people who had suffered from massive atrocities like being raped, murdered and their hands being severed.
Belgium had come out as a powerful economic block in Europe, but just like Brazil the boom never lasted long and eventually due to massive western pressure king Leopold had to yield to pressure and hand over the Congo leaving the worst record on human rights violation.
The rubber boom helped to propel the then developing economies to become developed economies and giving rise to new economies from the renowned dominant ones like America, United Kingdom, Russia and Europe.
It’s critical to understand that the emergence of these new economies was boosted by the high demand of raw materials after the Second World War which left Europe in a crisis in form of labor and provision for its industries, the second world war provided a ready market for processed goods especially agricultural products which were essential for the revival of the western economies.
The second industrial revolution was characterized also by other booms, not only in rubber, but also in other cash crops. For instance Brazil had the sugar boom, Malaysia before the rubber boom had the tin boom which was its largest export.
In the world’s fronts there were great innovations in the communication sector like the telegraph, in textile there were still major strides in synthetic fiber. All these aspects played quite a crucial role in boosting markets and products for these new developing economies that characterized the second industrial revolution.
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