Rubber industry in Malaysia

The Colonial Era · Chronicle · 16 min read

Who Planted These Rubber Trees? Who Came to Plant Them?

In 1897, there were only 345 acres of rubber estates in the Federated Malay States; forty-three years later, over two million acres

Tin mines needed people to dig, rubber needed people to plant and tap. Between 1850 and 1930, the demographic structure of this land was completely rewritten—and that didn't happen naturally; it was organised by a specific set of recruitment systems, contract terms, and shipping routes. The most popular picture is "the Chinese dig mines, the Indians tap rubber, the Malays grow rice in the countryside". The actual composition of estate labour in 1918 knocks this down with just one number.