Impact of the Gutta Percha Trade – Opportunity

chapter 7 Impact of the Gutta Percha Trade – Opportunity

The dyaks have for many months past been actively engaged in searching for gutta and rattans … Many of these Dyaks had never come downriver so far in their lives before and, as they obtained good prices for their gutta, they went away much pleased with their visit.1 sarawak gazette, 1 September. 1890 ∵

Who benefited and who suffered when local economies were drawn into the world-system in the colonial era? What evidence might be used to find an- swers to questions about whether globalization was a good or a negative fea- ture of the nineteenth century world? Such questions are addressed in this and the following chapter. One way to determine the effect is to identify and measure the things people traded, reflecting both the extent and possible causes of change and the motivations to trade. For example, this reveals that collectors traded gutta percha for subsistence items like rice or cloth, but also sought opportunities to trade for prestige goods that enhanced social standing and the sense of spiritual wellbeing. In this chapter, evidence from the historical record is matched with trade data to reveal connections between traders and the external economy. While much is made of the way peripheral economies and populations have been affected by the force of global trade and the spread of empire, surprisingly little use has been made of the statistical trade evidence to identify patterns of change, a previously missed opportunity noted by Cleary.2 That opportunity is taken here. Statistical and narrative evidence also gives some voice to otherwise unheard communities, provided it is used with caution when interpreting that evidence.3

1 Sarawak Gazette (hereafter sg), 1 September 1890, p. 118. 2 M.C. Cleary, ‘Indigenous trade and European economic intervention in North-West Borneo c. 1860–1930’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol.30, no.2, 1996, pp. 301–324; M.C. Cleary, ‘From hornbills to oil? Patterns of indigenous and European trade in colonial Borneo’, Journal of Historical Geography, Vol. 23, No. 1, 1997, pp. 29–45. 3 For historiographical reasons, this material is presented as annual trade figures which can be compared with specific evidence from the documentary record – as a means of establishing,

Impact of the Gutta Percha Trade – Opportunity 209

Interaction with the External Market

Collectors alternated between collecting gutta percha and other forest produce according to changes in the market place – this can be seen in the documentary record which provides examples that report how collectors quickly adapted to changing market prices or collecting conditions – as Dunn suggested, they were well aware of market demands.4 One example of this can be seen when comparing the connection between the gutta percha and rattan trades. Rattan was one of the most valuable of the forest produce trades after gutta percha. Rattans (sometimes known as rotan) were types of cane collected from palms growing in Sarawak and most of Southeast Asia (they are also found in other equatorial regions of the world). Rattan was useful because of its flexibility, strength and lightness and featured in items such as basketry, furniture, and structural support. The international trade in rattan expanded in the nineteenth century, although it had a long history in the Southeast Asian region before that time.5 Rattans from Borneo were, according to Hugh Low, ‘esteemed finer’ than those produced anywhere else in the world.6 As an important forest resource, rattan was a likely choice for collectors to turn to if the external market or local conditions changed. Collectors switched to working rattans instead of gutta at Lundu, for example, when the price of gutta fell relative to that of rattan, but elsewhere at the same time others were collecting gutta to pay for padi when their crop had failed:7 that is, each group was responding to local market, collection and crop conditions and balancing their choices ac- cordingly. In 1887, the Sarawak Gazette noted that Muruts were holding back

and at times measuring, connections in a process of globalization. This process was not always a parallel and steady process of integration and trade relationships over the four de- cades of data shown here, that would necessarily result in strong theoretical, statistical correlations. Therefore, correlation graphs are not used. Rather, certain significant or spasmodic events are connected that link various types of evidence, both documentary and trade, from various sources. The intention is to point to inter-connections rather than to look for long term trends in the form of strong statistical correlations. 4 F.L. Dunn, Rain-forest Collectors and Traders: A Study of Resource Utlilization in Modern and Ancient Malaya, Monographs of the Malaysian Branch, Kuala Lumpur, Royal Asiatic Society, No. 5, 1982. 5 Summarised from J. Dransfield and N. Manokaran, (eds), prosea: Plant Resources of South- East Asia 6, Rattans, Bogor Indonesia, prosea, Yayasan Obor, 1994, ‘Introduction’, which in- cludes an historical overview of the global rattan trade; see also F.W. Foxworthy, ‘Minor forest products of the Malay Peninsula’, Malayan Forest Records No. 2, 1922, pp. 154–155. 6 H. Low, Sarawak. Notes During a Residence in That Country with H.H. The Rajah Brooke, London, Richard Bentley, 1848, Reprinted 1988, Singapore, Oxford University Press, p. 42. 7 sg 1 June 1874.