White blood, black gold : the commodification of wild rubber in the Bolivian Amazon, 1870–1920

Abstract

Abstract: The “rubber boom” played a decisive role in the integration of the Amazon rainforest into the global economy. Between 1870 and 1920, most Amazonian countries eagerly engaged in the rubber trade: first, Brazil, accounting for nearly 80–90 percent of the world market, followed by Bolivia and Peru, with 5–10 percent, and, finally, by Colombia and Venezuela, with a lower production.1 This article discusses the commodification of rubber in Bolivia from 1880 until its decline in the 1910s. It poses the question of how social perceptions of rubber as a wild, inexhaustible natural resource grounded, and affected, the structure of its exploitation.