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Bringing In The Latex (1)
This early, posed, photograph shows an unusually mixed bag of races of rubber tappers having brought in the latex from the plantation for weighing. Very apparent are the large coolie hats, paper umbrellas and all the assorted buckets, coolie poles and other paraphernalia involved in the daily chore of tapping. In the background is the rubber shed where the raw latex would be turned into rubber sheet ready for export.
Two famous names in the rubber industry are Charles Goodyear, who in 1839, discovered how to vulcanize rubber and John Dunlop (a veterinary surgeon) who invented the pneumatic tyre in 1887. With the rise of the American car industry, the demand for pneumatic tyres increased dramatically and Para rubber was found to be entirely suitable.
It was in 1877, when the first rubber seedlings came to Malaya that Sir Hugh Low, set up the first experimental rubber garden in Kuala Kangsar, Perak. The plants were named Para rubber (Hevea Brasiliensis) to distinguish them from other experimental plantings. Although a successful project, the commercial planting of rubber in Perak was confined to small native cultivators until 1896, but when the coffee prices were depressed, large-scale rubber planting started to take off.
The first true rubber plantation in Malaya was established in 1896 and by 1899 there were over one-million seedlings planted in rubber growing areas of the peninsular.
Of course rubber growing, particularly collecting the latex by daily tapping is very labour intensive and as the requirement increased and more labour was required, the British colonials (who owned most of the plantations) had to seek their labour from overseas as the native Malays (the Bumiputra) and immigrant Chinese were unwilling to work on the rural plantations. Consequently as Malayan production grew they turned their thoughts towards British India and in particular workers from the southern states (mainly from the Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam language communities, with the Tamils in the majority because they lived in the lands closest to Malaya). These were recruited as 'indentured workers' and to protect their investment, the plantation owners closely regulated and supervised their new workers and held them in debt bondage. This way, Malaya became the world's largest source of rubber.
To read more about Sir Hugh Low, click here.
To read more about actual Rubber Tapping and Production, click here.
Now have a look at this video how smallholding rubber is still produced in Thailand.