Growth, Structural Change and Plantation Crops: A Brief History of Rubber Cultivation in Travancore

Abstract

Plantation crops are commodities worthy of serious attention because of the central and longstanding place it has held in the world economy and in the lives of millions of people. The introduction of it marked a distinct departure from the peasant agriculture of Travancore. Large scale mono-culture of these crops for the export market introduced certain new features of structure and pattern. In this chapter a product-oriented approach has been chosen and attention has been focused on a limited number of crops (Coffee, Tea, Rubber) which account for a major share in the plantation economy .One of the few holdovers from the era of the spice trade and colonialism, these crops had been a major traded commodity since the second half of the nineteenth century. Colonial plantations in Travancore had three phases. The first period started in the 1850s, and the first plantation crop was coffee. During the first thirty years after the planting of coffee, the principal form of ownership was proprietary. From the eighties, the ownership structure began to change and partnership firms became common. The main plantation crop of this period was Tea. The rise of rubber cultivation in 1900 introduced changes in the structure of ownership. Before going to the details it would be apt to discuss about the cultivation of these particular crops.