Monopolists and Speculators: British Investment in West African Rubber, 1905-1914

The Journal of African History

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 1981, Pages 263-278

  Munro, J Forbes ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84971870782     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: 14695138     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700019447     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. See T. R. McHale, 'Changing technology and shifts in the supply and demand for rubber: an analytic history', Malayan Economic Review, ix (1964), 24-8. A contemporary discussion is H. Wright, ' Rubber cultivation (with special reference to parts of the British Empire)',.7. Soc. Arts lv (1906-7), 614-43.
2. J. H. Drabble, Rubber in Malaya, 1876-1922: The Genesis of the Industry (Kuala Lumpur, 1973), 109.
3. General studies include C. Christy, The African Rubber Industry and Funtumia Elastica (London, 1911), and H. N. Whitfordand A. Anthony, Rubber Production in Africa (Washington, 1926).
4. Whitford and Anthony, Rubber Production, 8, and Drabble, Rubber in Malaya, 220.
5. K. Arhin, 'The Ashanti rubber trade with the Gold Coast in the Eighteen Nineties', Africa, xlii (1972); R. Dumett, 'The rubber trade of the Gold Coast and Asante in the nineteenth century J.Afr. Hist.xii(1971); C. Cocquery-Vidrovitch, Le Congo au Temps des Grandes Compagnies Concessionaires, 1898-1930 (Paris, 1972); R. Harms, 'The end of red rubber: an assessment', J. Afr. Hist, xvi (1973).
6. J. A. M. Caldwell, ' Indonesian expo.-t and production from the decline of the culture system to the First World War', in C. D. Cowan (ed.), The Economic Development of South-East Asia (1964), 88; R. T. Stillson, 'The financing of Malayan rubber, 1905-1923', Econ. Hist. Rev. xxiv (1971), 594.
7. G. Paish, 'The export of capital', The Statist, 14 February 1914.
8. Johnston's autobiography, The Story of My Life (Indianapolis, 1923), touches upon his initial involvement with Powney and Liberia between 1904 and 1906 (pp. 371-5) but is silent about the later embarrassing failure of Powney's projects, while Roland Oliver's Sir Harry Johnston and the Scramble for Africa (London, 1952), 342-5, carries the story only a little further forward. Oliver attributes the Rubber Corporation's difficulties solely to the competition from Malayan plantation rubber.
9. Sir Harry Johnston, Liberia, vol. 1 (London, 1906), 416-25.
10. Public Record Office, London: Wallis to Grey, 6 May 1907, F.O. 367/65/1716, and Wallis to Grey, 7 February 1908, F.O. 367/113/7297.
11. PRO: Memorandum by Sir Harry Johnston on the affairs of Liberia, 25 July 1909, F.O. 367/163/28727.
12. PRO: Wallis to Grey, 12 March 1907, F.O. 367/65/10216.
13. PRO: Lt-Cmdr MacLean to Governor Probyn, 14 November 1907, enclosure in Colonial Office to Foreign Office, 12 December 1907, F.O. 367/160/3874.
14. The India-Rubber Journal, xxxvi (1908), 369.
15. PRO: Wallis to Grey, 13 February 1908, F.O. 367/113/7301.
16. The Times, 8 September 1910.
17. PRO: Braham, Manager of Liberian Rubber Corporation, to Secretary of State, Foreign Office, 23 April 1911, F.O. 367/233/13560.
18. PRO: Minute of September 1911, on F.O. 367/226/36909.
19. ' Le Mythe Parisien de la Mise en Valeur des Colonies Africaines à l'Aube du XXe Siècle: la Commission des Concessions Coloniales, 1898-1912', jf. Afr. Hist, xx (1979).
20. PRO: Head and Hill, solicitors, to Foreign Office, 29 May 1912, F.O. 367/273/2368.
21. PRO: Board of Trade, Dissolved Companies File, B.T. 31/195696/111059.
22. Vine and General controlled the Madagascar Rubber Company, the Amatonga Rubber Corporation (Natal) and Pongola Rubber Estates (Natal), and appears to have had a substantial stake in the Nyassa Rubber Company (Mozambique).
23. 'Imperial Business in Africa. Part II: Interpretations', J. Afr. Hist, xvii (1976), 264-90.
24. The India Rubber Journal, xxxiv(i907), 815; see also The Times Trade Supplement: Rubber Section, December 1916, p. 19.
25. The Economist, 9 April 1910, p. 771.
26. H. C. Belfield, ' Report on the Legislation Governing the Alienation of Native Lands in Gold Coast Colony and Ashante', Cmd 6278 (1912); PRO, Memorandum on conditions on which grants of land bearing rubber, and other tropical produce, are made in various colonies, C.O. 533/82/39363.
27. E. Ashmead, 'Twenty-five years of mining', The Mining Journal, lxxxiv (1908), 484.
28. C. V. Ilegbune, 'Concessions Scramble and Land Alienation in British Southern Ghana, 1885-1916', Afr. Stud. Rev. xxix (1976); O. Omosini, 'The Gold Coast Land Question, 1894-1900', Int. J. Afr. Hist. Stud, v (1972); R. Howard, Colonialism and Underdevelopment in Ghana (1978), ch. 2.
29. PRO: Boyle to Harcourt, 28 June 1910, C.O. 520/104/2330, and Boyle to Secretary of State, 13 June 1911, C.O. 520/104/19532.
30. Issues, xxxix (1910), 356-7.
31. PRO: B.T. 31/17788/89165; B.T. 31/19089/111089; B.T. 31/19411/109019; B.T. 31/19647/111704. Particularly revealing of the complicated affairs of this group are the report on the meeting of creditors of Avreboo Rubber Estates (The India-Rubber Journal, xlvi (1913), 91), the public enquiry into the bankruptcy of the Gold Coast Rubber & Mahogany Estates (The India-Rubber Journal, xlviii (1914), 235), the meeting of creditors of the Ankobra Rubber Estates (The Times, 12 January 1912), and the public enquiry into Ankobra Rubber Estates (The India-Rubber Journal, xlvi (1913), 1078).
32. Report of public enquiry into Essequibo Rubber and Tobacco Estates (The India-Rubber Journal, xlv (1913), 486), and Official Receiver's summary of accounts and observations for Axim and Tarkwa Goldfields Ltd (The India-Rubber Journal, xlv (1913), 1111).
33. PRO: Report by C.I.D., New Scotland Yard, 8 March 1911, C.O. 96/513/4947.
34. Ashmead, 'Twenty-five years of mining', The Mining Journal, lxxxv (1909), 647.
35. Hewett versus Peach, High Court of Justice (Chancery Division), The Times, 16 July 1913
36. PRO: Minute by Gray on Bryant to Crew, 3 November 1910, C.O. 96/500/36038.
37. PRO: W. A. Boyd to Colonial Secretary, Accra, enclosure in Bryant to Harcourt, 8 August 1912, C.O. 96/520/26908, relates the tribulations of the 'reform party' within the Boinsu Rubber Company. For the shareholders' revolt in the Keraia Rubber Estates see The Economist, 1 July 1911, p. 31, and The Times, 14 November 1911; for the Aguna Company's unsuccessful attempt to raise working capital, see Issues, xlv (1913), 229.
38. For the use of the rubber companies in the campaign see The Times, 26 June 1910 p. 6, 5 July 1910 p. 6, 23 July 1910 p. 5, 30 March 1911 p. 13, 31 May 1911 p. 21, and 20 July 1912; also Gold Coast correspondence (PRO: C.O. 96) 449/32507, 498/28754, 500/33682, 500/26038, 500/37262, 502/17491,and 502/14278.
39. Statutory meeting of Christineville Rubber Estates, 9 May 1910, The India-Rubber Journal, xxxix (1910), 664; Hewett versus Christineville Rubber Estates, The India-Rubber Journal, xli (1911), 323; Blair versus Christineville Rubber Estates, The Times, 3 November 1911, p. 3.
40. The India-Rubber Journal, xxxiv (1907), 525.
41. R. Tigwell, 'James Deemin and the Organization of West African Trade, 1880-1915 ' (unpublished MPhil. thesis, University of Liverpool, 1978), 254-5.
42. F. Pedler, The Lion and the Unicorn in Africa (1974), 245-6; R. K. Udo,'Sixty years of plantation agriculture in Southern Nigeria, 1902-1962', Economic Geography, xli (1965), 356-68.
43. The India-Rubber Journal, xli (1912), 1261; xlvi (1913), 91; xlii (1911), 1012;and xlvi (1913), 780.
44. Hopkins, 'Imperial Business: Part II', 277.
45. For example, Holt to Deemin, 17 December 1908, quoted in Tigwell, 'James Deemin', 254.