Rubber Imperialism

Abstract This article investigates how American interests influenced the evolution of one of British Malaya's most significant agricultural exports—natural rubber—from the 1920s into the 1950s. It situates colonial plantations as the loci of the relationship between two contemporary world powers as they locked horns over one of the world's most valuable commodities. In so doing, it frames the colonial plantation as a contested site where international politics fashioned the fortunes of rubber estates and smallholdings in Malaya, speaking to the global entanglements and challenges that informed the industry's evolution. Following the industry over four decades, it charts the story of one of the world's largest rubber producers across a period of intense economic challenges, warfare, and a changing world order as Britain trailed toward the end of empire and sought to reposition the Malayan smallholder in an increasingly aggressive international market.