ABSTRACT
The development of Natural Rubber (NR) is partly a story of technical change, in which methods of producing and processing this initially wild material were progressively improved. Such change is first examined, and then reviewed along with other economic, political, and social factors affecting the supply of and demand for NR in successive periods. This further development occurred in both the East Indies and Malaya, which in the years up to the Second World War were the chief focus of the huge plantation expansion outlined. Technical progress with NR largely ceased during the Second World War, and barely resumed in the following years of political uncertainty and insurrection in South-East Asia. Smallholding production and plantings advanced more steadily, however, due to what for East Indian and Siamese farmers in particular was the continuing attractiveness of rubber-even at minimal returns per kilogram.
