The Rubber Industry

28.2.2: The Rubber Industry

In the 1890’s, rubber saw a major price boom with the invention of inflatable rubber bicycle tubes and the growing popularity of the automobile. This led to massive profits for the Belgian colonists in the Congo and increased exploitation of the native population.

Learning Objective

Calculate the value of the rubber industry to the Belgian government

Key Points

  • King Leopold II, who owned the Congo Free State as a private enterprise, systematically exploited the native population for his own commercial benefit, most notably with the production of wild rubber.
  • To enforce the rubber quotas, the colonists cut off the limbs of the natives as a matter of policy.
  • To extract the rubber, Congolese workers would lather their bodies with latex, which hardened and was painfully scraped off the skin.
  • By the final decade of the 19th century, John Boyd Dunlop’s 1887 invention of inflatable rubber bicycle tubes and the growing popularity of the automobile dramatically increased global demand for rubber, leading to major economic boom for rubber production and an increase in the exploitation of the natives.
  • The Abir Congo Company was one of the main companies that exploited rubber during the time of Leopold’s rule.

Key Terms

Casement Report
A 1904 document written by the British diplomat Roger Casement (1864–1916) detailing abuses in the Congo Free State under the private ownership of King Leopold II of Belgium. This report was instrumental in Leopold relinquishing his private holdings in Africa. He had owned the Congolese state since 1885, granted to him by the Berlin Conference, and exploited its natural resources (mostly rubber) for his own private wealth.
Congo rubber
Rubbers obtained from a wild species of vines, namely the Landolphia. Unlike rubber from Brazil and other places, which comes from trees, this type of rubber cannot be cultivated. The intense drive to collect latex from wild plants was responsible for many of the atrocities committed under the Congo Free State.
Abir Congo Company
A company that exploited natural rubber in the Congo Free State, the private property of King Leopold II of Belgium.

Rubber Production in the Congo Free State

In the Congo Free State, colonists brutalized the local population into producing rubber, for which the spread of automobiles and development of rubber tires created a growing international market. Rubber sales made a fortune for Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honor himself and his country. To enforce the rubber quotas, the army, the Force Publique, cut off the limbs of the natives as a matter of policy. Rubber revenue went directly to King Leopold II, who paid the Free State for the high costs of exploitation. Because of the human rights abuses suffered under King Leopold II’s rule, Congo rubber was eventually nicknamed “red rubber,” in reference to the blood of the Africans killed during production.

By the final decade of the 19th century, John Boyd Dunlop’s 1887 invention of inflatable rubber bicycle tubes and the growing popularity of the automobile dramatically increased global demand for rubber. To monopolize the resources of the entire Congo Free State, Leopold issued three decrees in 1891 and 1892 that reduced the native population to serfs. These forced the natives to deliver all ivory and rubber, harvested or found, to state officers, thus nearly completing Leopold’s monopoly of the ivory and rubber trade. The Congo rubber (genus Landolphia) came from wild vines in the jungle, which cannot be cultivated, unlike the rubber from Brazil (Hevea brasiliensis), which was tapped from trees and could be cultivated. The intense drive to collect latex from these wild plants was responsible for many of the atrocities committed under the Congo Free State. To extract the rubber, instead of tapping the vines, the Congolese workers slashed them and lathered their bodies with the ensuing latex. When the latex hardened, it was painfully scraped off the skin, taking the hair with it.

Leopold ran up high debts with his Congo investments before the beginning of the worldwide rubber boom in the 1890s. Prices increased throughout the decade as industries discovered new uses for rubber in tires, hoses, tubing, insulation for telegraph and telephone cables, and wiring. By the late-1890s, wild rubber had far surpassed ivory as the main source of revenue from the Congo Free State. The peak year was 1903, with rubber fetching the highest price and concessionary companies raking in the highest profits.

However, the boom sparked efforts to find lower-cost producers. Congolese concessionary companies faced competition from rubber cultivation in Southeast Asia and Latin America. As plantations were started in other tropical areas—mostly under the ownership of the rival British firms—world rubber prices started to dip. Competition heightened the drive to exploit forced labor in the Congo to lower production costs. Meanwhile, the cost of enforcement and the increasingly unsustainable harvesting methods ate away at profit margins. As competition from other areas of rubber cultivation mounted, Leopold’s private rule was left increasingly vulnerable to international scrutiny.

A cartoon depicting Leopold II as a rubber vine entangling a Congolese rubber collector.

In the Rubber Coils: A cartoon depicting Leopold II as a rubber vine entangling a Congolese rubber collector.

Abir Congo Company

The Abir Congo Company (founded as the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company) exploited natural rubber in the Congo Free State, the private property of King Leopold II of Belgium. The company was founded with British and Belgian capital and was based in Belgium. By 1898 there were no longer any British shareholders and the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company changed its name to the Abir Congo Company and its residence for tax purposes to the Free State. The company was granted a large concession in the north of the country and the rights to tax the inhabitants. This tax was taken in the form of rubber obtained from a relatively rare rubber vine. The collection system revolved around a series of trade posts along the two main rivers in the concession. Each post was commanded by a European agent and manned with armed sentries to enforce taxation and punish any rebels.

Abir enjoyed a boom through the late 1890s, by selling a kilogram of rubber in Europe that cost them just 1.35 francs for up to 10 francs. However, this came at a cost to the human rights of those who couldn’t pay the tax, with imprisonment, flogging, and other corporal punishment recorded. Abir’s failure to suppress destructive harvesting methods and maintain rubber plantations meant that the vines became increasingly scarce, and by 1904 profits began to fall. During the early 1900s, famine and disease spread across the concession, a natural disaster judged by some to have been exacerbated by Abir’s operations, further hindering rubber collection. The 1900s also saw widespread rebellions against Abir’s rule in the concession and attempts at mass migration to the French Congo or southwards. These events typically resulted in Abir dispatching an armed force to restore order.

A series of reports into the operation of the Free State were issued, starting with the British Consul Roger Casement’s “Casement Report” and followed by reports commissioned by the Free State and Leopold II. These detailed unlawful killings and other abuses by Abir, and Leopold II was embarrassed into instituting reforms. These began with the appointment of American Richard Mohun by Leopold II as director of Abir. However, rubber exports continued to fall and rebellions increased, resulting in the Free State assuming control of the concession in 1906. Abir continued to receive a portion of profits from rubber exports and in 1911 was refounded as a rubber plantation harvesting company.

Attributions