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| Rubber Tree Plantation, Indochina, 1931 |
Around
1900, rubber trees were exported little from Indochina (only about a
few hundred metric tons). At this time, France saw the importance of
this resource to their empire and aimed to increase exportation; the
French minister of colonies said that rubber was of great interest to
French colonies overseas. With French scientific aid, France
experienced a rubber boom between the mid 1920's and 1938. The
depression in the 1930's created problems for Indochina's rubber
market and rubber workers levied for a four franc tax per kilogram on
rubber imported from outside the French empire. A report suggested
that this tax was necessary because former rubber workers that were
out of work would threaten the social and political stability of the
Indochina colony, something that the French government feared. There
was also opposition to French owned plantations in Indochina.
Despite the poor economic conditions, by the late 1930's, Indochina
was exporting over 60, 000 metric tons of rubber trees and in the
agricultural sector, it was the greatest exported product next to
rice. At this point, France had reached their goal of self
sufficiency as Indochina's rubber tree exports fulfilled the French
empire's need for rubber.
Citations
Michitake
Aso. "The Scientist, the Governor, and the Planter: The
Political Economy of Agricultural Knowledge in Indochina During the
Creation of a "Science of Rubber," 1900-1940." East
Asian Science, Technology and Society: an International Journal
3, no. 2 (2009): 231-256. http://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed December 5,
2012).
"The
Origins of French Rubber Plantations in South Vietnam and Indochina,"
accessed December 9, 2012,
http://www.quanloi.org/abattery14oneandonesite/rubberplantations/originsoffrenchrubberplantations.htm
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