How The Rubber Tree Changed A Nation..

 

Trees have played a very essential role in the development and launch off of the economies of several nations. Before the RUBBER TREE came along the India Rubber Tree was it's predecessor. It's trunk exuded a milky sap called latex. Although somewhat like 200 plants in the world can produce latex, but over 99 percent of the world's natural rubber is made from the latex that comes from a tree species called Hevea brasiliensis, . However it was not until 1839 that this latex saw its first practical application in the industrial world. That year, Charles Goodyear accidentally dropped rubber and sulfur on a hot stovetop, causing it to char like leather but it remain plastic and elastic however. Vulcanization, a refined version of this process, transformed this whitish liquid into an essential product for the industrial age. But how the rubber tree began to change the economies of nations around the world had its beginnings with Henry Wickham. In 1876, this English planter, collected 70,000 seeds [ Brazil] and shipped them to England. 2,800 of the seeds germinated. In 1895 . Henry Ridley, the head of Singapore's Botanical Garden, convinced two coffee growers to plant two acres (.8 ha) with Hevea trees from these seedlings . Nine of these seedlings were sent to Sir Hugh Low, then Resident in Perak, where they were planted in the Residency gardens at Kuala Kangsar , Malaya. Twelve years later more than 300,000 ha of rubber trees filled plantations in Ceylon and Malaya .At the turn of the 20th century the industry began to grow dramatically with the advent of the bicycle and automobile industries .Every tire, hose, seal, valve, and inch of wiring required rubber. The rubber boom launched off . Rubber planting became highly profitable and rubber plantations spread across the Malay Peninsula

By the 1930s, Malaya had become the world’s largest natural rubber producer.And it rode this 'rubber' economy to the necks of the 80s'.But this international trade with the rest of the world was the first time Malaya earned foreign earnings in US Dollars. Thus the nation rose from a laid back sleepy hollow of an economy to a roaring tiger economy through the 'rubber ' years.