ABSTRACT
Rubber products and products containing rubber became ubiquitous and, from an end-user's point of view, the precise identity of the rubber plant source – botanically, chemically, geographically – is largely irrelevant. In the accounts provided in the Observatory of Economic Complexity, under 'global rubber trade', the category 'Natural Rubber' includes five different natural products. That confusing assemblage under the 'rubber' heading reflects current commodity forms and designations, and is applied as well to the various forms in which rubber is presented to manufacturers: liquid rubber, diverse gums, pre-vulcanized, raw coagulate, balata and gutta-percha. The elevation of Hevea from neo-tropical forest exotic to vital commodity, and its parallel promotion from marginal droga do sertao into the subject of an unprecedented boom, saw that species of rubber achieve an iconic modern prominence. In Weinstein, certainly the major historical work, the production of rubber takes a distant second place to the trade in rubber as conducted by the aviadores and the exporting houses.
