Chapter 16 Chapter Ten Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and the Rubber Industry

Before the 19th century, rubber was regarded as Brazil's "national treasure", and the Portuguese colonialists who ruled Brazil strictly prohibited the export of seeds.Through its monopoly on the rubber trade, the Brazilian government reaped huge profits.In order to break this monopoly, Britain, France and other countries began to explore ways to grow rubber. In 1873, an Englishman was sent to Brazil to steal 1,000 seedlings and transported them to London for trial planting. Six of them were sent to Calcutta, India for planting. The result was in vain, and none survived. In 1876, an Englishman named Herry Wickham collected 70,000 seeds in Brazil by smuggling and buying them, and transported them to the Royal Botanic Garden in Kiev, London for sowing. As a result, 2,700 seeds grew. seedlings.Among them, 22 were transplanted to the Singapore Botanic Garden in the second year, and several were sent to Malaya for planting. Most of them survived. This is the earliest batch of rubber trees in Southeast Asia.However, the success of rubber transplantation did not cause much repercussions. Even the British Governor in Malaya thought it was a waste of time and money.The rubber tree is only grown as an ornamental plant in botanical gardens and private yards.

The large-scale commercial planting of rubber as a valuable economic crop should first be attributed to the overseas Chinese.The leaders are Lin Wenqing, known as the "Father of Rubber Planting", and Chen Jixuan (Qi Xian), the "Father of Rubber Art". In 1894, Lin Wenqing organized Lianhua Rubber Plantation Co., Ltd. to purchase 4,000 acres of land in Singapore and start planting. In 1896, with the encouragement of Lim Boon Keng, Chen Jixuan succeeded in experimenting with rubber planting in Malacca, and his confidence greatly increased.He also united a group of overseas Chinese capitalists, invested 200,000 yuan, reclaimed more than 5,000 acres of land, planted 500,000 rubber plants, and built the first commercial rubber plantation in Malaya, which opened the history of the rubber plantation industry in Malaya. the first page of .The success of Lin Wenqing, Chen Jixuan and others greatly encouraged the overseas Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia. They invested in this emerging planting industry one after another, and large and small rubber plantations spread all over the place.The famous patriotic overseas Chinese leader Tan Kah Kee bought 180,000 seeds from Chen Jixuan and Lin Wenqing for 1,800 yuan in 1906 and planted them in the "Fushan Garden" in Singapore, thus starting his rubber plantation industry.

Along with the development of the rubber plantation industry, the rubber processing industry also appeared.Overseas Chinese established many processing factories.For example, Tan Kah Kee started planting rubber in 1906. After 20 years of development, in 1925, in addition to a 15,000-acre rubber plantation, he also established a Qianyi Rubber Manufacturing Factory with more than 30,000 employees. Sales are integrated into one, which is a large-scale enterprise. Overseas Chinese did make pioneering contributions to the rubber industry in Southeast Asia.