African Nationhood

Chapter 246 Rubber Tapping and Rubber Industry

(Thanks to book friend 20171031121159931 for the tip, thank you puppet!)
  "Do you know about the rubber trees in the botanical garden?"

Louise nodded, "In 1876, Wycombe shipped 7 rubber seeds from Brazil and planned to plant them in the UK. However, the temperature in the UK was too low, so he had to transplant these seedlings to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and here. Botanic Garden.”

Wang Zhongyi nodded, "Have you not thought about studying these rubber trees in depth?"

"No, we previously focused on researching tea trees and coffee trees. In addition, we also researched how to prevent pests and diseases of vegetables and fruits and techniques to increase production."

In the original time and space, the Singapore Botanic Gardens will welcome a new director next year. This director is named Henry Nicholas Ridley.

It was this British botanist who actively carried out research on rubber trees after taking office, and published a paper on the "New Rubber Tapping Method" in 1889, which significantly increased the production of natural rubber.

Southeast Asia has also accounted for half of the world's natural rubber production since the 20s.

The great development of the rubber industry has also led to the great development of automobiles and other industries.

In the original time and space, the reason why Japan wanted to conquer Southeast Asia was that in addition to gasoline, another important factor was rubber.

It was with this time in mind that Shi Jintang urgently ordered Wang Zhongyi to come to Singapore to take a seat.

When the Nanhua Company established the Sumatra Tropical Agriculture Company, it first sent people to Ceylon to find the British to purchase the established rubber forests.

A large number of rubber tree seeds were obtained from there, and after the seedlings were successfully raised, they were planted in Sumatra.

Once the new rubber tapping method was announced, Nanhua Company took control of the rubber forests in Southeast Asia and would also control the production and industrial upgrading of natural rubber in the future.

……

But there is no need to inform Wang Zhongyi about this. He only needs to obey his orders and acquire the Singapore Botanic Garden.

In the future, Nanhua Company will send personnel from the Agricultural Technology Institute here to exchange and learn, and ultimately improve the agricultural technology level of Nanhua Company.

The Singapore Botanic Gardens has accumulated a lot of agricultural technologies over the years, and these technologies have a profound foundation.

It will not only enrich the technology accumulation of Nanhua Company, but also promote the industrial upgrading of Nanhua Company’s agriculture.

……

"Here are the rubber trees that were introduced before, 11 in total."

With Louise's introduction, Wang Zhongyi finally saw the rubber tree that Mr. Shi paid special attention to.

These rubber trees are tall and strong, and because they have not been tapped all year round, they are covered with rubber seeds.

Later, the rubber seeds here can be used to breed new rubber saplings.

“There are only so many rubber trees in the botanical garden?”

“There are others from other places, but only these 11 are ‘trefoil’ rubber trees from Brazil.

Some experiments have been done in the botanical garden and it was found that the Brazilian 'trefoil' rubber tree produces the most abundant gum.

Because this kind of tree is too rare, we did not continue to study it. "

What Louise was talking about was that before Ridley's "continuous tapping method", people collected rubber in a very crude and direct way.

People usually use an ax to directly cut a gap in the trunk of the tree to collect rubber. A mature rubber tree can only be harvested a few times before it will die due to too much damage.

Wild rubber trees in Brazil and central Africa also declined significantly. Ridley's discovery saved wild rubber trees.

It also promoted the development of the rubber plantation economy in Southeast Asia. Cash crops such as rubber plantations also intensified the colonial rule of Southeast Asia by European powers.

……

"I plan to conduct research on rubber trees here. Can you help me?"

Louise felt happy after hearing what Wang Zhongyi said, she smiled and nodded, "Yes, because my level is too low and I can't be assigned any research projects, so all I do is odd jobs all day long.

It's my honor for you, the boss, to assign me to work. " I was satisfied with Louise's reply, "Well, starting from tomorrow, you will be my research assistant, and we will study together how to harvest rubber for a longer period of time. "

Louise nodded happily, "Okay, boss."

……

After several months of research, Wang Zhongyi submitted a report paper on the "Long-term Rubber Tapping Method" to the business department of Nanhua Company.

The report paper pointed out that the rubber tree has a "lactiferous duct" tissue, which is specially used to store gum. Most of the "lactiferous ducts" are distributed in the bark, so you only need to use a knife to cut the "lactiferous ducts" tissue, a large amount of gum will flow out.

When tapping rubber, you only need to make a small slit in the surface of the rubber tree to harvest the rubber. There is no need to follow the old traditional "axe cutting method" to harvest rubber.

……

After Shi Jintang saw it, he immediately instructed Wang Zhongyi to go to the rubber plantation in Ceylon to guide black indentured laborers in tapping rubber.

At the same time, he did not forget to order Wang Zhongyi to strengthen the control of rubber plantations in Ceylon and strictly prohibit the outflow of rubber seeds and rubber saplings.

By the end of 1887, Nanhua Company established a rubber factory in Colombo, Ceylon (now Colombo, Sri Lanka).

When the company was founded, it harvested more than 100 tons of fresh gum from its own rubber plantation. After vulcanization and pressing, the quality of the finished product was very high.

These finished rubber products are then transported to the bicycle factory in Mapu Port. The rubber products are "reinforced" using carbon black powder, a by-product of Southeast Asian oil refining companies, and then processed into inner and outer tires for bicycles.

From rubber trees to bicycle tires, Nanhua Company has formed a closed loop in the rubber industry chain.

Because the tires are produced in-house, the cost of the bicycle is saved by at least 1 pound.

Calculated based on the annual production capacity of 5 units designed by the Max Planck Bicycle Factory, the profit from the tires alone would be 5 pounds.

……

As for the promulgation of the "Long-term Rubber Tapping Method", European countries have set their sights on rubber plantations.

The Ceylon Rubber Plantation and the Singapore Botanic Gardens controlled by the Nanhua Company have become popular.

British businessmen came to buy rubber saplings one after another. Shi Jintang instructed Wang Zhongyi to buy new saplings mainly for his own use and sell them in small quantities.

The price of rubber saplings is unlikely to drop in the short term, so we must take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune.

Because rubber saplings were in such short supply, the colonial secretary of the British Colonial Department specially called Shi Jintang and requested Shi Jintang to sell rubber seedlings for planting in Singapore and Ceylon.

Shi Jintang immediately reluctantly agreed, but the price was a little higher.

The British had nothing to do, after all, the French and Americans also wanted to grab rubber seedlings at this time.

The French approached Shi Jintang to negotiate. If he could sell rubber saplings, he could help Nanhua Company transport immigrants.

Shi Jintang naturally agreed to these requests.

After the two parties signed the contract, the Vietnamese colonial government leased French merchants' cargo ships to help the Nam Hua Company transport immigrants.

Therefore, at the end of 1887, the number of immigrants in Nanhua Company suddenly increased by more than , among whom Kinh women accounted for the majority.

This gave Nanhua Company many bachelors and solved their personal problems. Moreover, the French colonists requested more rubber saplings, and signed a secret agreement with Nanhua Company to continue cooperation in the coming year.

Nanhua Company was very happy and promised to provide the French with no less than 500 hectares of saplings next year.

The French can be taken care of, but the British are not enough.

Shi Jintang has already planned to sell the planted rubber plantations to the British.

Anyway, it takes 7 or 8 years for these rubber saplings to reach the rubber tapping stage. Therefore, in these few years, he only needs to hold on to the rubber tree seeds and rubber saplings in his hands to sit on the Diaoyutai.

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  (End of this chapter)