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PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSI
A
PENERBIT UNIVERSITI MALAYA
KUALA LUMPUR
1976
CONTENTS
,,
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
List of Tables
Statistical Appendices
Introduction
VII
,
Xl
.. ,
Xlll
XV
..
XVII
1
1 Diffusion of Rubber in South and Southeast Asia
Collection of Rubber Plants in Tropical America
Distribution of Plants from Kew
The Role of Ceylon and Malaya as Seed Suppliers
The Recipients of Rubber Plants
2 The Period of Experimentation
Contest of the Species
The Emergence of Hevea brasiliensis
14
3 Pioneer Plantings
Prelude to Western Planting
Genesis of Pioneer Plantings
2S
4 Capital Investment and the Rise of Western Plantations
The Beginning of Corporate Organization 1895- 1904
The On-set of Western Capitalist Penetration 1905 - 1908
The Rubber Boom and Investment 1909- 1912
Financial Consolidation 1914- 1921
Sources and Directions of Investment
The Role of Agency Houses and Investment Trusts
40
5 Growth of Plantations in Malaya
The Spread of Planting 1906- 1908
The Rubber Boom 1909- 1911
The Post- Boom Recession 1912- 1921
Patterns of Distribution
68
,
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6 Growth of Plantations in Other Parts of Southeast Asia
Java
The East Coast of Sumatra and Outer Provinces of the Netherlands
East Indies
North Borneo
Burma
Indochina
Siam
The Philippines
7 Variations in the Regional Distribution of Plantations
The Physical Environment
The Role of Proprietary Planters
Labour Supply
Land Alienation Policies
89
129
8 Control and the Position of the Western Rubber Industry
The Controlling Hodies
Profits and Dividends
Ownership
Implications of Control
149
9 Conclusion
181
Statistical Appendices
183
Bibliography
185
Geographical Index
197
General Index
203
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CHAPTER I
DIFFUSION OF RUBBER PLANTS IN
SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA
l
Rubber was first mentioned by a European historian over 480 years ago, but its
potentiality as an industrial raw material was not realized until Charles Goodyear
discovered the process of vulcanization in 1839. Raw rubber became sticky
when heated and hardened on exposure to extreme cold. Goodyear's discovery
rendered rubber tough and durable, and by this process rubber was converted at
2
once into an essential industrial raw material. Consumption of rubber in
England, for example, rose from 24 metric tons in 1830 to 7,727 metric tons in
1870. The rubber was the 'wild' rubber collected from tropical forests and the
bulk of it came from Brazil. 3
Increasing demand for rubber resulted in suggestions being advanced for the
domestication of rubber-yielding plants. In 1798 James Howison, a surgeon
stationed at Penang, had advocated an experimental planting of Urceola elastica
in the island preliminary to its cultivation in Bengal, "should it be deemed an
object to attempt plantations of the elastic gum vine".4 His words went unheeded. In 1830, the proprietors of the freeholds Pamanukan en Tjiasemlanden
or the 'p & T' Lands in Java drew the attention of the manager to the possibility
5
of cultivating rubber for the European market. Twenty-seven years later,
Thomas Hancock, the founder of the world's first rubber factory, called for the
cultivation of the best kinds of rubber plants in the East and West Indies. He
foresaw "every probability of success" of this cultivation because of the
6
mounting demand for rubber. Very little seemed to have been done and in
1 See
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James Collins, "On India· Rubber, Its History, Commerce, and Supply", Journal of the
Society of Arts, Vol. 18, 1869, p. 8l.
2 8 .0
. Porritt, "The Rubber Industry - Past and Prescnt", Journal of the Royal Society of
Arts, Vol. 67,1919, pp. 255- 256.
3J. Ferguson (compiler), All About Rubber and Gutta Percha, Colombo. 1899. p. ii.
4 James
Howison. "Some Account of the Elastic Gum Vine of Prince of Wales rsland
(PC'nang)". Asiatic Researches, Vol. 5, 1798, p. 165.
5Wilfred Hick Oaukes. The 'p & T' Lands: An Agricultural Romance of Anglo-Dutch
Enterprise, London, 1943, p. 13.
6 Thomas
Hancock, Personal Narrative of the Origin and Progress of the Caoutchouc or
India-Rubber Manufacture in England, London, 1857, quoted by O.F. Cook, "The
Beginning of Rubber Culture", 1.R.)., Vol. 85, 1933, p. 450; Ralph F. Wolf, "Scventy-Five
Year Stretch", Rubber World, Vol. 1 51, 1964, p. 68.
WESTERN RUBBER PLANTING
2
•
1868, Gustav Mann, Conservator of Forests of Assam, was moved by the
possible exhaustion of wild rubber supply from Assam to declare the desirability
of starting "some plantations" to ensure future supplies of this "valuable commodity.'"
These suggestions of rubber cultivation implied the domestication of
indig<;.n ous species. It was only in 1870 that Clements Markham conceived the
idea of introducing rubber from South America to India for commercial cultivation. This venture with rubber was a natural sequel to his successful intro8
duction of cinchona from Peru to India in 1859. James Collins was commissioned to undertake the investigation on rubber plants and in 1872, he
advocated the immediate cultivation of Ficus elastica in Assam, and the intro9
duction of the Hevea and CastiIloa species into India.
COLLECTION OF RUBBER PLANTS IN TROPICAL AMERICA
Several attempts were made to collect rubber seeds and plants from tropical
America for despatch to England. The India Office of Great Britain initiated the
first attempt in 1873 and it soon enlisted the participation of the Royal Botanic
Gardens at Kew. The first consignment of 2,000 Hevea seeds obtained at Cameta
by a Mr. Farris was forwarded by Markham to Kew in mid-1873. Only a dozen
seeds germinated, indicating the difficulty involved in the trans-continental
l
dispersal of this valuable but fragile plant. 0 In 1875, an organized attempt at
collection was undertaken by Robert Cross, one of the quinine explorers, under
commissi9n by Markham. The species Castilloa was to be collected on account
•
of its greater latitudinal spread than the Hevea and also because it belongs to the
family Artocarpaceae which was well represented in India. It was argued that the
Castilloa might thus acclimatize successfully in India. Cross brought back to Kew
7,000 Castilloa seeds and numerous cuttings from the vicinity of the Chagres
l
river in Central America. 1
It was Sir Joseph Hooker, Director of Kew, who had determined botanically
the tree producing 'Para' rubber as Hevea brasiliensis in 1873, who initiated the
introduction of what was believed to be the "true 'Para' of commerce". With the
backing of the India Office, Sir Joseph Hooker commissioned Henry Wickham to
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'G. Mann, Progress Report of Forest Administration in Bengal for the Year 1868-69, in
George Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, London, 1890, Vol. 4, p. 348.
8Clements R. Markham, "The Cultivation of Caoutchouc·yielding Trees in British India".
Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 24, 1876, p. 276.
9 James Collins, Report on the Caoutchouc of Commerce, London, 1872, pp. 44- 45. The
generic name Castilla was changed to Castilloa in an English publication in 1805 and
Castilloa now occurs much more widely in literature than the correct
See Loren G.
Polhamus, Rubber: Botany, Production, and Utilization , London and New York, 1962, p.
93.
lOT. Petch, "Notes on the History of the Plantation Rubber Industry of the East", Annals
of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Vol. 5, 1911 - 14, p. 438.
U lbid., p. 515.
DIFFUSION OF RUBBER PLANTS IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA
3
12
collect rubber seeds in Brazil in 1876.
Wickham secured 70,000 Hevea seeds
from the highlands between the Tapajos and Madeira rivers, where '''the true
forests" of Hevea rubber were found. The collection was loaded on the
ss.Amazonas, which was returning to England just when the seeds which were
"prone to quickly lose its vitality" were ripe. Wickham's successful accomplishment of his mission has been variously described as one of "resource, initiative,
and organizing capacity" and an example of "colossal 'nerve' ", implying a shade
of illegality in the operation. Although Wickham himself was certain that the
Brazilian authorities would detain the ship if they "guessed the purpose of what
I had on board" and later writers have tended to view the feat as "smuggling"
and Wickham as "Ie prince des contrebandiers",t 3 the operation was not illegal.
Indeed, there was then no formal prohibition on the export of Hevea seeds from
Brazil. Wickham's anxiety was due more to his fear that the delays that might
conceivably be caused by the port authorities would reduce the germinating
1
power of the seeds. 4
Wickham's seeds were sown at Kew Gardens on the 4th of June, 1876. Only
·2,700 seeds germinated, or 4 per cent of the total, confirming an earlier experience that securing planting materials from Hevea seeds was difficult. Yet that
this eventually became the parent stock of the rubber industry in Asia underlines
1
the significance of the quantity of Wickham's original collection. 5 Although
2,700 plants were not a large stock for the needs of British India, they ensured a
fair chance of success for the perpetuation of the supplies of seeds and plants
from this stock. Besides Wickham, success of the mission must partly be
attributed to the skilful guidance and devotion of Sir Joseph Hooker and the
Kew Gardens, and the support and foresight of Markham and the India Office.
The fourth attempt to introduce rubber plants from South America, like the
second one, was made by Robert Cross, again engaged by Markham. Cross left
for South America three days after Wickham arrived with his collection. Having
gathered 1,080 Hevea seeds around Para, he proceeded to Ceara province and
collected 700 seeds and plants of Manihot glaziovii (commonly known as Ceara).
The plant materials arrived at England in late 1876; about 3 per cent of the Hevea
1
and 55 Ceara plants were raised. 6
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•
12Wickham was then resident at Santarem, Brazil, and had working experience with wild
rubber since the 1860s. It was from his drawings and specimens of Revea brasiliensis which
he sent to Kew in 1873 that enabled Sir Joseph Hooker to determine the species of the
plant. Petch, op. cit., p. 439; H.A. Wickham, On the Plantation, Cultivation, and Curing of
Para Indian Rubber (Rewa brasiliensis) with an account of its introduction from the west to
the eastern tropics, London, 1908, pp. 46- 47.
13 Wickham, ibid., p. 53; Sir Lc:ybourne Davidson, "The Rubber Plantation Industry:
Pioneer Rubber Planting in Ceylon and the Straits", Bull. R.C.A., Vol. 9, 1927, p. 676; L.
Ph. Lc: Cosquino de
, .. Lc: Caoutchouc aux Indies Neerlandaises", Bull. Agricole du
Congo Beige, Vol. 18, 1927, p. 5.
14 Herbert Ashplant, "Wickham Not a Smuggler", I.R.W. , Vol. 99,1940, p . 434.
1 SThis large collection was probably induced by monetary reward. Wickham's commission
was "a straight offer to do it; pay to follow result", Wickham, op. cit., p. 47.
16petch,op. cit., pp. 441 and 505 .
•
4
WESTERN RUBBER PLANTING
The four British attempts to collect rubber plants, in retrospect, were unnecessary duplicatons, for sufficient subsequent planting materials were able to
be derived from Wickham's collection alone. Although the India Office was
financially involved in all four attempts, those by Cross and Wickham were
apparently not related, at least by design. The strong association between
Hooker and Wickham on the one hand and Markham and Cross on the other
points to the execution of independent projects by these pairs. These introductions resulted in the collection of 73,000 Hevea seeds, 7,000 seeds and some
cuttings of Castilloa, and 760 Ceara seeds and plants.
There were subsequent attempts at seed collection in South America, such as
Hevea seeds bought to Pasir Utjing estate in Java. A trade in Hevea and Ceara
seeds was started by Scott Blacklaw in England in 1881 to supply demand from
private or official sources. However, they had minimal effects on development of
the rubber industry in Asia, where virtually all planting materials were derived
1
from the first few generations of Wickham's original collection. 7
DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS FROM KEW
Hevea rubber first arrived in Asia in 1873 when six plants raised from the Farris
collection were taken to the Calcutta Botanic Gardens. The choice of Calcutta
was probably influenced by the fact that the plants were taken out by the
Superintendent of the Gardens himself, and that Calcutta possessed the major
botanic gardens in India. Cuttings were subsequently sent from Calcutta to
Sikkim, showing a complete lack of understanding of the climatic requirement
of Hevea. These plants, together with a further consignment to Calcutta in 1875,
did not survive the cold. Henceforth, Calcutta ceased to be the depot for Hevea
in India and Sir Joseph Hooker and Markham agreed to Wickham's recommendation of sending the seedlings to Tenasserim, Burma;1 8 but the depreciation of the
rupee and retrenchment of expenditure by the Indian Government killed the
scheme. The choice then fell on Ceylon which possessed a botanic gardens sufficiently well equipped to serve as a depot for the propagation and distribution of
Hevea plants to India and Southeast Asia. It is left to speculate whether the
history of rubber development might have been different had Burma in fact
served as the depot.
Ceylon received its first consignment of 1,919 Hevea seedlings from Kew in
August, 1876 in excellent condition. Two days later, some 50 to 100 seedlings
landed in Singapore, but delays in freight payment by the India Office resulted
in a serious 10ss.19 In the same year a small number of plants was sent to
Buitenzorg, Java; 50 to Burma; and 100 to Saharumpore, India. In 1877, four
despatches were made, consisting of 22 plants to Singapore, 100 to Ceylon, 50
PERPUSTAKAAN
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17Whether or not, or to what extent, Cross's plants were distributed was not defmitely
known, for no distinction was made betv.een the plants collected by Wickham and Cross.
No one, however, alleged that Cross's plants '.~ere never distributed. Petch, ibid., p. 442;
P.J.S. Cramer, "Wild Rubber and Selection," Rubber Recueil, Batavia, 1914, p. 24.
18 pe; ch, ibid., p. 438; Wickham, op. cit., p. 55.
19 H . N . Ridley, "Historical Notes on the Rubber Industry," T.A., Vol. 34, 1910, p. 94.
"
5
DIFFUSION OF RUBBER PLANTS IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA
COLLECTIONS
oI
600
I
. . ClMETlaES
(A)
FARRIS
(8)
wtCKHAM
(C)
uw'.Q<H"4/CAOSS
......
CALCUTTA
INOlA
\
con c tJ"z.... o
•
- - - ----_.
\8 ) - •
-- -
./'
--
---'
)
-
- - - - RE-OIRECTEO
DISTRIBUTION OF SEEDS AND PLANTS OF HEVEA BRASILIENSIS
KEW GARDENS TO SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA, 1873- 1877.
Seedlings re-directed from Colombo, Calcutta and Singapore are not quantitatively represented.
20
to Calcutta, and four to Buitenzorg
(Fig. 2).
FIG 2.
I
I
L
I;
Of the 2,300 Hevea seedlings consigned to the East, Ceylon was by far the
largest recipient, though some of the seedlings were re-directed to other
territories. In contrast, Singapore received less than 122 plants, of which only
the second consignment of 22 survived. Nine of these were taken to Kuala
Kangsar in 1877 by Murton, Director of Gardens, Singapore. Of the Calcutta
plants, one-third was sent to Assam and 16 to Burma. At Mergui, eight of the
2
plants survived and were planted in the Forest Office compound. 1 At Buitenzorg, only two plants survived to produce seeds; more than a dozen plants in the
Cultuurtuin and several in various estates were off-springs of these trees. 2 2 By
and large, seedlings distributed by Kew were almost entirely forwarded to British
colonial territories and British initiative from the start thus directly influenced
PERPUSTAKAAN
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20 Ibid., p. 94; I.H.B., "The Treatment to which The Para Rubber Trees of the Botanic
Gardens, Singapore, have been subjected, " T h e Garde ns Bulle tin, Singapore, Vol. 1, 1915, p.
252.
21 Col. W.J . Seaton, "Note on the Cultivation of Hevea brasiliensis in the Tenasserim Forest
Circle, 1888", in Ferguson, op. cit. , pp. cc- ccii.
22Department of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, N. E .l. , Produ cts of the East-In dies :
Estate Rubber, Buitenzorg, 1926, p. 1.
•
6
WESTERN RUBBER PLANTING
subsequent British domination in the rubber industry and the patterns of
location of rubber development in Southeast Asia.
The Castilloa seeds collected by Cross in 1875 failed to germinate at Kew, but
plants were raised from cuttings. In 1876, 31 plants were sent to Ceylon, and six
to Buitenzorg. In the following year, 24 more plants were sent to Ceylon, and
small consignments were also made to Singapore, Liberia and the Mauritius. In
23
1878 Burma and Calcutta received two plants each from Ceylon.
The first
Ceara seedlings were sent to Singapore from Kew in 1877, involving four plants.
Ceylon and Calcutta obtained 50 plants each later in the same year. Meanwhile
400 more plants were raised at Kew and these were distributed to Madras,
Calcu tta, Java and elsewhere in Oceania, Africa, and the West Indies? 4
A fairly large number of plants of the three major species of rubber was
despatched to ensure successful propagation of future supplies in the various
botanic gardens and by 1877, the function of Kew Gardens in distributing
rubber plants to South and Southeast Asia might be considered to be at an en4.
The; total cost of introducing the plants had amounted to £300, which, together
with payments of £700 to Wickham and £505 to Cross, totalled £1,505,25 a
small initial sum which eventually led to the development of an important
agricultural industry in Southeast Asia.
THE ROLE OF CEYLON AND MALAYA AS SEED SUPPUERS
The diffusion of rubber plants from Kew to Asia occurred in several successive
'waves' , each reaching further and wider areas than the previous one. Standing at
the apex of the hierarchy of seed suppliers, Kew initiated the first 'wave' of
diffusion to the botanic gardens in Ceylon and British Malaya, which in turn
disseminated seeds to botanic gardens and experimental stations in the other
territories of Southeast Asia. The various local gardens completed the last phase
of seed diffusion by supplying seeds and plants to increasing numbers of
planters.
Ceylon sent substantial numbers of seeds and plants to India and Southeast
Asia (Fig. 3A). In 1878, 516 plants, almost certainly from the original stock
received from Kew, were consigned to Burma and a few cases to Nilambur,
India. By 1880, 1,211 plants were disseminated from Ceylon to various botanic
gardens as well as private planters. In ] 881 the Andaman Islands and J ohore
26
were the recipients, and a Mr. Davidson in Singapore obtained 12 plants.
In the early 1880s, some of the trees in botanic gardens in Ceylon and Malaya
began to yield seeds for distribution. The first Hevea tree to flower in Asia was
one planted at Kuala Kangsar in 1877. It flowered in 1880, followed closely by
PERPUSTAKAAN
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23 p etc h , op.
.
p. 515 ; Netherlands East-India San Francisco Committc:c:, Rubber in
Netherlands East India, Semarang-Surabaya-Dc:n Haag, 1914, p. 7.
Cit. ,
24petch, ibid., p. 505; Ridley, op. cit., p. 95; W. Wicherley, Tbe Whole Art of Rubber
Growing, London, 1911, p. 47.
25 Pc:tch , ibid. , p. 442.
26 Ibid ,
pp . 459, 461 and 464.
,•
7
DIFFUSION OF RUBBER PLANTS IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA
A
CALCUTTA
INDIA
~
- N-
......
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---- --- -- - \8&3" lP~Sl
.,r --
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/
... -
--
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I
.... 'L ..... -
SEEDS AND PLANTS
BELOW 2!1
1
J
I
200 Km.
I
,
•
PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYS--I
A
NORTH
I'
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- -
-
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/
INTERNATlONAL
BOUNDARY
0,
10<X)
~·--~KruIL~OMiUE~I~RE~S;---~'
:......_ _ JAIIA
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FIG 3.
DISTRIBUTION OF SEEDS AND PLANTS OF HEVEA BRASILIENSIS
FROM CEYLON TO INDIA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA. A. FROM THE
ORIGINAL STOCK, 1878- 1883 AND B. FROM STOCK RAISED IN
CEYLON,1882 - 1897.
B