The Forgotten Trade: Global communications and the gutta percha trade - the response in nineteenth century Sarawak

Abstract

The Forgotten Trade examines the effects of a trade of economic and geopolitical significance arising from the role of gutta percha in submarine telegraphy. The study documents relationships and processes along stages of the gutta percha commodity chain, taking into account the peculiarities of the commodity, the actors involved in it, and the environment in which it was found. In that sense the study could be considered a trade ecology: a study of the interaction between a community of actors and the habitat that shaped the particular commodity trade. The thesis considers the effect of global economic forces on local collectors of a forest product. Evidence from commercial archives and trade data collated from contemporaneous colonial and local government reports reveal a history of gutta percha trade that was shaped by the powerful yet idiosyncratic decisions of metropolitan consumers who left control of much of the trade in the hands of others. This dependence helped shape the formation of power positions within the trade, leaving regional and local actors in control of collection and supply. In the Southeast Asian region and in Sarawak, prevailing conditions that included effective trade networks, better local knowledge, and colonial administrations that relied upon local elites, lay the ground for the operation of the trade and power positions within it. Economic and social interests as well as geographic and political forces shaped local strategies as the gutta percha trade brought local communities more closely into the world economic system. The study shows how local actors actively sought the opportunities provided by this global trade. It proposes a re-assessment of aspects of nineteenth century Sarawak history, revealing the previously unrecognized way in which the operation of the trade altered communities, and the political economy. It emphasizes the role and responsiveness of local actors and intermediary traders at the so-called periphery of the global trade network. Harnessing world-system, commodity chain and social capital theories, the thesis concludes that the modes and strategies adopted by local collectors and traders were shaped by geographic, political, social and cultural factors. The study also concludes that in order to comprehend the nature of global trade and its effects, we need to understand global to local relationships and responses. It reveals how the theme of an exploiting metropole and exploited periphery tells only part of the story: the so-called periphery may be vulnerable to the external economy but plays a significant role with its own complex responses.