Abstract
Abstract Natural rubber derived from latex of the Hevea brasiliensis tree constitutes over 30% of the world's rubber hydrocarbon consumption. Though known to Indians of South America centuries before Columbus, Europeans could not make practical use of “cahutchu” for some 300 years. Goodyear's discovery of vulcanization in 1839 sparked an industry that was to grow dramatically at the turn of the 20th century with the advent of the bicycle and automobile industries. The transfer of Hevea by Wickham from South America to the Orient and the development of superior tapping methods by Ridley contributed greatly to the domestication and output of the natural rubber (NR) industry. Plantation rubber from Southeast Asia thus provided abundant quantities until World War II. Competition from the synthetic rubber industry, owing to cheap oil (until 1973) and the fast-growing world market in the last 40 years, eroded NR's technoeconomic share of the market. Dynamic production and agronomic programs by the NR industry, ...
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