Rubber Trade Industry in the 19th Century in the European Countries

Rubber Harvesting in the 19th Century in the European Countries

Introduction

A significant raw material in 19th century that began to surface was rubber and ivory. The products of rubber and ivory have been essential for the economy of Europe. Since the 19th century era when the demand of such products was high, European countries sought to find the supply from countries such as various countries in Africa and South America. While pursuing these interests, other social-political and economical issues arose. The following four sources highlight driving forces with industrialization, and competition that came into play with rubber and ivory harvesting in the 19th century. Rubber is na naturally occurring hydrocarbon polymer with elastic properties. In aits a anatural astate, arubber, aalso aknown aas alatex, ais atapped afrom aseveral adifferent atypes aof atrees athe amost aimportant abeing aHeve a abrasiliensis, athe amajor acommercial asource aof anatural arubber (Dean, 2002). aThis atree ais anative ato athe aAmazon aBasin ain aBrazil. aIt agrows abest aat atemperatures aof a20- a28 adegrees aC awith a a awell-distributed aannual arainfall aof a1,800-2,000 amillimeters.Its aprime agrowing aarea, abetween a10-degree alatitudes aon aeither aside aof athe aequator, ais arestricted aby aits arequired atemperature aand arainfall. aOther aplants acontaining alatex ainclude afigs a(Ficus aelastica), aeuphorbias, aand athe acommon adandelion.

Thesis

Rubber has played significant role in the industrialization of European industry. But the rubber harvesting remains debatable issue because the subject has been under influence of social political and economic interests of European nations during 19th century.

Line of Argumentation

Before 1910, most arubber awas aharvested afrom a“wild atrees” agrowing ain athe aAmazon aBasin aand ato a a alesser aextent afrom aother anatural asources aof anatural arubber asuch aas aFicus aelastic a agrowing awild ain athe aCongo aBasin aof aAfrica. aIn a1876, aHenry aWickham agathered aover a70,000 aseeds afrom athe aBrazilian arubber-bearing atree, aHeve a abrasiliensis, awhich ahe athen asmuggled ato aKew aGardens ain aEngland (Dean, 2002). aFrom athere, aHeve a awas aintroduced ato aBritish acolonial apossessions ain aSri aLanka, aSingapore, aand aMalaysi a aby athe aBritish aColonial aOffice, awhere ait awas agrown aexperimentally aand alater aon aplantations. aHenry aWickham ais aaccredited awith ahaving acontributed agreatly ato athe arubber aplantation aindustry. aCultivation aof arubber athen aspread athroughout athe atropics ato aVietnam, aCambodia, aIndonesia, aand aThailand ain aSoutheast aAsia, aand asubsequently ato aLiberia, aNigeria, aand aCote ad'Ivoire ain aAfrica. aInitially, acultivation atook aplace aon aplantations, abut asmallholders arapidly aadopted ait aas a a asource aof aincome.

Although amany apeople athink athat arubber aoriginated ain a19th-century aEurope, athe atruth ais athat athe aancient aMayan apeople aused alatex ato amake arubber aballs, ahollow ahuman afigures, atemporary ashoes, awater-resistant acloth, aand aas abindings ato asecure aaxe aheads ato atheir ahandles. aThe aMayans alearned ato amix athe arubber asap awith athe ajuice afrom amorning aglory avines aso athat ait abecame amore adurable aand aelastic aand aless abrittle. aBoth athe arubber atree aand athe amorning aglory awere aimportant aplants ato athe aMayan apeople—the alatter abeing a a ahallucinogen aas awell ...