THE rubber cycle It was an economic cycle that happened in North region of Brazil between the 1880s and 1910s. This cycle was characterized by the extraction of latex from rubber trees present in the Amazon region for the production of rubber in order to meet the demands of the international market for this commodity.
With the rubber cycle, thousands of people have moved to the Amazon region, and cities like Manaus and Belém grew rapidly. Their populations grew in size, and prosperity brought great infrastructure to both cities. The rubber cycle ended because of competition with rubber produced in Asia.
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Summary of the rubber cycle
The rubber cycle was an economic cycle that took place in the North region of Brazil.
It was marked by the extraction of latex and rubber production.
Attracted thousands of people to the Amazon region, mainly from Ceará.
It contributed to the growth and enrichment of cities such as Manaus and Belém.
It ended because of competition with rubber produced in Asia.
What was the rubber cycle?
The rubber cycle was one of the economic cycles in Brazilian historyThe, and it was based on the export of rubber produced in Brazil. This product was produced through the extraction of latex, obtained from the rubber tree, a tree found in great abundance in the Amazon region.
This cycle was responsible for attracting thousands of workers to the Amazon region to work in the extraction of latex and contributed to making rubber the second most exported item in Brazil between the 1880s and 1910. The development of this economic activity also promoted great development in large cities in the North, mainly Manaus and Belém.
Importance of rubber
The production of rubber and its consumption on a large scale are the result of changes caused by the technological and industrial development that took place at the end of the 19th century. THE Rubber has become a fundamental item in the production of countless goods, in addition to being an essential component of cars and bicycles, great novelties of the late 19th century.
The increasing importance of rubber has made countless manufacturers dedicate efforts to develop the best methods of rubber production. The main challenge was to make the rubber maintain its elastic properties with variations in the climate, and this was achieved thanks to the vulcanization process, developed by Charles Goodyear in 1844.
With this innovation, the consumption of rubber increased exponentially, and this promoted the exploitation of latex in Brazil for the production of rubber. However, the activity only increased considerably in Northern Brazil from the 1880s onwards.
Rubber cycle in the Amazon
From 1880 onwards, the increase in rubber consumption in the international market boosted the production of this commodity in Brazil. THE Amazon region was marked by the great abundance of hevea brasiliensis, the rubber tree, the tree from which latex, the raw material for rubber, is obtained. As a result, thousands of people were attracted to work in the extraction of this input.
Historian Boris Fausto states that between 1890 and 1900 alone the population of the Amazon region increased by around 110,000 people.|1| Most of the individuals who went to the region to work with latex and rubber were people from Ceará. This large flow is believed to have been caused by the severe droughts that hit Ceará in the late 19th century.
These people were transportedThes for the Amazon in pretty bad condition, and the workers in the rubber plantations were at the mercy of the interests of their employers. In any case, the large number of individuals who moved to the Amazon region contributed to the accelerated growth of many cities.
Riverside communities developed or emerged as a result of the exploitation of rubber plantations, and large cities, such as Manaus and Belém, grew rapidly. The city of Belém, for example, saw its population increase from 50,000 to 96,000 from 1890 to 1900. In addition to population growth, Manaus and Belém have seen great development in infrastructure.
The prosperity provided by the rubber boom meant that theaters, palaces, cinemas, buildings and other constructions were built in both cities. In addition, they began to rely on electricity, electric tram lines, telephone services, piped water, sewage system, public lighting with electricity, etc.
This made the two cities the most advanced in terms of infrastructure in the country at the beginning of the 20th century. The prosperity was justified by the fact that rubber was the second most exported item in Brazil and due to the fact that the main buyer of Brazilian rubber was England, which paid in pounds sterling
The importance of the item can be measured by statistics, since between 1898 and 1910, 25.7% of Brazilian exports had beenand rubber. This is an expressive number, since this product was only behind coffee, which represented 52.7% of Brazilian exports.|2| Another fact that shows the volume of exports is the fact that only in 1910, 40 thousand tons of rubber were exported by Brazil.|3|
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rubber cycle crisis
From 1912 onwards, the rubber cycle in Brazil began to decline. This is explained by the international competition. British and Dutch managed to grow rubber trees in their colonies in Asia and were responsible for producing good quality rubber at much better prices than those offered by Brazil.
As a result, this economic activity in the country quickly went into decline. In 1915, rubber produced in Asia already controlled 68% of the international market.|4| With this decline, the economy in the Amazon region felt a strong impact and also went into decline. This is because there was no type of investment in the diversification of economic activities in the Amazon, which was dependent on money from rubber.
In the 1940s, there was a second rubber cycle, which was encouraged by North American consumption during the Second World War, especially when Japan took control of the production of the item in Asia. But this second cycle lost steam when the war ended in 1945.
Grades
|1| FAUST, Boris. History of Brazil. São Paulo: Edusp, 2013, p. 250-51.
|2| Ditto, p. 250.
|3| Rubber Economic Cycle. To access, click on here.
|4| FAUST, Boris. History of Brazil. São Paulo: Edusp, 2013, p. 251.
Image credits:
[1] Matyas Rehak and shutterstock
