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Abstract
The British blockade of 1914 cut Germany off from its global value chains. While German planners had to develop new concepts to replace various imported goods, the embargo revealed the dependence of modern economic production on some strategic commodities. In particular, the supply of rubber, a vital raw material for many military and civilian products, posed serious problems for planners. However, conflicts over dependence on strategic commodities did not end with the lifting of the blockade. Instead, they dominated the interwar period on a global scale. This article will examine these interwar conflicts of commodities in the case of rubber. It will therefore examine the immediate response of German officials and businessmen to the blockade in the rubber sector. The second part focuses on the long-term consequences of the blockade from a global perspective. In addition to Germany, the United States experienced similar problems of dependence in the rubber market. From the perspective of global value chains, the article shows the enormous impact of the blockade on states and business and their efforts to control global markets. While substitutes such as synthetic rubber played an important role, international cooperation was another factor in securing the global supply of goods.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 ‘Moltke to Bethmann Hollweg, 29 July 1914’ in Imanuel Geiss (ed), July 1914. The Outbreak of the First World War: Selected Documents (London: Batsford, 1967), 282–284.
2 Eric W. Osborne, Britain’s Economic Blockade of Germany, 1914–1919 (London: Frank Cass, 2004); Marcel Boldorf, ‘Außenhandel und Blockade’ in Marcel Boldorf (ed), Deutsche Wirtschaft im Ersten Weltkrieg (Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2020), 479–521; Jörn Leonhard, Die Büchse der Pandora. Geschichte des Ersten Weltkriegs (Munich: Beck, 2014), 517–20; Alan R. Kramer, ‘Blockade and Economic Warfare’ in Jay Winter (ed), The Cambridge history of the First World War, Vol. I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2014), 460–489.
3 See, for the UK: Simon Ball, ʻThe German Octopus: The British Metal Corporation and the Next War, 1914–1939ʼ, Enterprise and Society, 5 (2004), 451–489; or for Germany: Jonas Scherner, ‘Preparing for the Next Blockade: Non-ferrous Metals and the Strategic Economic Policy of the Third Reich’, The English Historical Review, 137 (2022), 475–512; Jonas Scherner, ‘Germany, Blockade and Strategic Raw Materials in the Era of the Two World Wars’, The International History Review, (2024), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2024. 2323497; and Alexander Donges, ‘Import Dependence and Strategic War Planning – The German Iron and Steel Industry, 1933–1945’, The International History Review, (2024), 1–14. doi:10.1080/07075332.2024.2323490.
4 Nicholas Mulder, The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War (New Haven, CT.: Yale University Press, 2022); Jamie Martin, The Meddlers: Sovereignty, Empire, and the Birth of Global Economic Governance, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022).
5 Gabriele Lingelbach, ‘Globalgeschichtliche Perspektiven auf die Weimarer Republik. Globalisierungs- und Deglobalisierungstendenzen in der Zwischenkriegszeit’ in Christoph Cornelißen and Dirk van Laak (ed), Weimar und die Welt: Globale Verflechtungen der ersten deutschen Republik (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2020), 25.
6 For an excellent account on the development of commodities with the example of the international tin agreement, see: Jamie Martin, The meddlers, 178ff.
7 Jan-Otmar Hesse/Patrick Neveling, ‘Global Value Chains in Business History’ in Teresa da Silva. Lopez/Christina Lubinski/Heidi Tworek and Heidi J.S. Tworek (ed), The Routledge Companion to Makers of Global Business (New York, NY: Routledge, 2020), 283.Global Business
8 Originally advanced by Gary Gereffi and Miguel Korzeniewicz, Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994). For historical approaches see: Steven Topik/Carlos Marichal and Zephyr L. Frank (ed), From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500 - 2000 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006).
9 Steven Topik, ‘Historicizing Commodity Chains: Five Hundred Years of the Global Coffee Commodity Chain’ in Jennifer Bair (ed), Frontiers of Commodity Chain Research (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press 2009), 37–62.
10 Jan-Otmar Hesse, ‘Die globale Verflechtung der Weimarer Wirtschaft. De-Globalisierung oder Formwandel’ in: Christoph Cornelißen and Dirk van Laak (ed), Weimar und die Welt: Globale Verflechtungen der ersten deutschen Republik (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2020), 347–377. and; Simon Mollan/Andrew Smith and Kevin D. Tennent, ‘Introduction’ in Andrew Smith/Simon Mollan and Kevin D. Tennent (ed), The Impact of the First World War on International Business (New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017), 1–22.
11 Simon Renner,. ‘Canadian Nickel for Nazi Germany – How Government-Business Relationships Affected British Blockade Strategies in the 1930s’, The International History Review, (2024), 1–15. doi:10.1080/07075332.2024.2323493.
12 Especially the Records in the Federal Archive of Germany (Bundesarchiv, Berlin): R 8720 (Kautschukabrechnungsstelle) and R 8721 (Kautschuk-Konsortium).
13 The journal for the United States - India Rubber World, 1889–1954 (New York, NY); for Great Britain – India Rubber Journal, 1884–1954 (London); and for Germany - Gummi Zeitung, 1886-1942 (Berlin).
14 Especially in the British National Archives Kew (TNA) the records CO 323 (Colonies, General) and CO 852 (Colonial Office: Economic General Department).
15 There are excellent contemporary publications about the rubber industry, for instance: Wilhelm Vaas, Die Kautschukwarenindustrie Deutschlands (Berlin: Union Deutsche Verl.-Ges, 1921); Charles Raymond Whittlesey, Governmental Control of Crude Rubber: The Stevenson Plan (London: Humphrey Milford, 1931); Andrew McFadyean, The History of Rubber Regulation 1934 - 1943 (London: Allen & Unwin, 1944).
16 Charles Slack, Noble Obsession: Charles Goodyear, Thomas Hancock, and the Race to Unlock the Greatest Industrial Secret of the Nineteenth Century (New York, NY: Hyperion, 2002).
17 For the characteristics of rubber, see: Georg Abts, Einführung in die Kautschuktechnologie, 2. ed. (Munich: Hanser, 2019), 21ff.
18 See: William C. Geer, The Reign of Rubber (London: Allen & Unwin 1923), 5.
19 Joseph Froude Woodroffe/Harold Hamel Smith and James Bryce (ed), The Rubber Industry of the Amazon and How its Supremacy Can Be Maintained: Based on the Experience (London: Bale, Sons & Danielsson, 1915), 101f.
20 Ibid.
21 Jens Soentgen, Konfliktstoffe: Über Kohlendioxid, Heroin und andere strittige Substanzen (Munich: oekom verlag, 2018), 103ff.
22 Bair, Jennifer, Global Capitalism and Commodity Chains: Looking Back, Going Forward, Competition & Change, 9 (2005), 160.
23 The term ‘Commodity Frontiers’ was developed by Jason W. Moore to analyse the expansion of the capitalist economy and its impact on environmental destruction. See. Jason W. Moore, ‘Sugar and the Expansion of the Early Modern World-Economy: Commodity Frontiers, Ecological Transformation, and Industrialization’, Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 23 (2000), 409–433. It was then expanded into a research agenda by Sven Beckert/Ulbe Bosma/Mindi Schneider and Eric Vanhaute. See: S. Beckert, U. Bosma, M. Schneider, E. Vanhaute, ‘Commodity Frontiers and the Transformation of the Global Countryside: A Research Agenda’, Journal of Global History, 16 (2021), 435–450.
24 Barbara Weinstein, The Amazon rubber boom, 1850–1920 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1983).
25 Carl Heinz Wieduwilt, Die Kautschukproduktion und der Kautschukhandel der Welt (Köln: Beyer & Schmeißer, 1912), 49ff.
26 Glenn D. Babcock, History of the United States Rubber Company: A Case Study in Corporation Management (Bloomington, IN: Bureau of Business, 1966), 421.
27 Valerie J. Fifer, The Empire Builders: A History of the Bolivian Rubber Boom and the Rise of the House Suárez, Journal of Latin American Studies, 2 (1970), 113–146.
28 Otto Warburg, Die Kautschukpflanzen und ihre Kultur (Berlin: Kolonial-Wirtschaftliches Komitee, 1900), 109ff.
29 Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa (Boston, MA: Houghton Migfflin, 1998).
30 Robert Harms, ‘The End of Red Rubber: A Reassessment’, The Journal of African History, 16 (1975), 87f.
31 John H. Drabble, Rubber in Malaya 1876-1922. The Genesis of the Industry (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford Univ. Press, 1973).
32 McFadyean, The History of Rubber Regulation, 226f. All data is in metric tons.
33 For the transformation from wild rubber to plantation rubber see: Linneweh, Bastian. ‘Global Trading Companies in the Commodity Chain of Rubber between 1890 and the 1920s’, Business History, 65 (2023), 863–79.
34 Geoffrey Jones and Judith Wale, ‘Merchants as Business Groups: British Trading Companies in Asia Before 1945’, Business History Review, 72 (1998), 367–408.
35 For Germany: Vaas, Die Kautschukwarenindustrie Deutschlands, 19; For UK and the United States: P. W. Barker, Rubber statistics 1900–1937: Production, Absorption, Stocks and Prices (Washington, D.C.: Gov. Pr. Off., 1938., 1938), 14ff.
36 For the manufacturing industry see: Paul Erker, Vom nationalen zum globalen Wettbewerb: Die deutsche und die amerikanische Reifenindustrie im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2005).
37 Paul Hirschfeld, Hannovers Grossindustrie und Grosshandel (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1891), 38.
38 See: Goodrich Raw Rubber Invoice Ledger, Sep. 1877- Feb. 1898 [Archival Services, University of Akron, Akron Ohio (UAA)], R(esearch) G(roup) 99/132, Series XI: Financial Records, Oversized Material.
39 ‘Die Zukunft der Kautschukindustrie ‘, Gummi Zeitung, Vol. 27 (1913), 1724.
40 Michael J. French, ‘The Emergence of a US Multinational Enterprise: The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, 1910–1939’, Economic History Review, 40 (1987), 64–79. Also: Glenn D. Babcock, History of the United States Rubber Company.
41 See the market reports in: India Rubber Journal, 41–60 (1911–1920).
42 Vaas, Die Kautschukwarenindustrie Deutschlands, 217.
43 ‘Die Gummiindustrie im Weltkriege’, Gummi Zeitung, Vol. 30 (1916), 1030-1031.
44 Vaas, Die Kautschukwarenindustrie Deutschlands, 209ff.
45 Otto Heinrich Goebel, Deutsche Rohstoffwirtschaft im Weltkrieg: Einschliesslich des Hindenburg-Programms, (Stuttgart: Dt. Verl.-Anst., 1930), 20ff.
46 Regina Roth, Staat und Wirtschaft im Ersten Weltkrieg: Kriegsgesellschaften als kriegswirtschaftliche Steuerungsinstrumente (Berlin: Duncker und Humblot, 1997), 53f.
47 Vaas, Die Kautschukwarenindustrie Deutschlands, 235ff.
48 Ibid., 217; and: Second Meeting of the Kautschuk-Schätzungs- und Verteilungskommission, 28. Nov. 1914 [Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde (BArch)] Kautschukabrechnungsstelle R8720/6, 27.
49 Julius Ausbüttel, Die deutsche Kautschukwarenindustrie (Würzburg: R.- u. staatswiss. Diss. 1922), 291.
50 Protocol of meeting by the Deutsche Bank about Überseeverschiffung, 5. Feb. 1915, BArch Kautschuk-Konsortium R8721/1, 2-276.
51 Correspondence of Projekt I für das Kautschukkonsortium, 1915–1916, BArch Kautschuk-Konsortium R8721/23, 2-173.
52 Jan Heitmann, Unter Wasser in die Neue Welt. Handelsunterseeboote und kaiserliche Unterwasserkreuzer im Spannungsfeld von Politik und Kriegführung (Berlin: Berlin-Verl. Spitz, 1999), 177ff.
53 Hans-Joachim Thiele, ‘Probleme der deutschen Gummi-Industrie’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Leipzig), 68 ff.
54 Aufstellung der Altgummi-Aufkäufer (Listing of reclaimed rubber buyers), no date, BArch Kautschuk-abrechnungsstelle R8720/3, 1.
55 Bekanntmachung Fabrikationskontrolle (Announcement about the production control), 25. June 1915, BArch Kautschukabrechnungsstelle R8720/2, 21-22.
56 Vaas, Die Kautschukwarenindustrie Deutschlands, 233.
57 Gottfried Plumpe, Die IG-Farbenindustrie-AG: Wirtschaft Technik und Politik 1904 - 1945 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1990), 343.
58 Vaas, Die Kautschukwarenindustrie Deutschlands, 228ff.
59 In his book, Vaas makes no distinction between Goldmark and Papermark. However, the price of natural and synthetic rubber is increased several times, suggesting that inflation is taken into account and therefore the currency must be Goldmark. Vaas, Die Kautschukwarenindustrie Deutschlands, 231.
60 McFadyean, The history of rubber regulation, 232f.
61 Drabble, Rubber in Malaya 1876-1922, 125f.
62 ‘Importation of Crude Rubber into the United States during September 1918’, India Rubber Journal, 56 (1918), 21.
63 Whittlesey, Governmental Control of Crude Rubber, 122ff.
64 Mark Finlay, Growing American Rubber: Strategic Plants and the Politics of National Security (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2009), 55f.
65 Ibid., 63.
66 Alfred Lief, The Firestone Story: A History of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1951), 151ff.
67 Babcock, History of the United States Rubber Company, 85 ff.
68 Warren Dean, Brazil and the Struggle for Rubber: A Study in Environmental History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1987), 67ff.
69 Finlay, Growing American Rubber, 74ff.
70 J. W. F. Rowe, Studies in the Artificial Control of Raw Material Supplies: No. 2: Rubber (London: London & Cambridge Economic Service, 1931), 62.
71 John K. Smith, ‘The Ten-Year Invention: Neoprene and Du Pont Research, 1930-1939’, Technology and Culture, 26 (1985), 36ff.
72 Minutes of the visit of Continental AG, 22 May 1933. [B(ayer) A(rchive) L(everkusen)] 151-007. The synthetic rubber BUNA is named after the German names for Butadiene (BU) and sodium ((Na)trium), which are the main substances for the polymerization.
73 McFadyean, The History of Rubber Regulation, 232f.
74 TNA, CO 825/7/10.
75 Item No. 13: Other Matters World Monetary and Economic Conference, in: [L(ondon) M(etropolitan) A(rchives)], CLC/B/194/MS24863/037.
76 Agreement between the Governments of France, the United Kingdom, India, the Netherlands and Siam to Regulate Production and Export of Rubber, London, May 7, 1934, London 1934.
77 For the British Industry Sir George Beharrell (Dunlop), for Europe Otto A. Friedrich (Reichsverband der deutschen Kautschukindustrie) and A. F. Townsend (Raybestos-Manhattan Inc) for the United States of America.
78 IRRC-Protocoll, 30. October 1934, in: TNA, CO 323/1304/1.
79 McFadyean, The History of Rubber Regulation, 236.
80 See: Correspondence of the Reichswirtschaftsministerium, 1919-1920, BArch Reichswirtschaftsministerium R 3101/2233.
81 Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich, ‘Aus dem Alltag des Reichswirtschaftsministeriums während der Großen Inflation 1919-1923/24’, in Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich (ed), Das Reichswirtschaftsministerium der Weimarer Republik und seine Vorläufer (Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2016), 224–360.
82 Dietmar Petzina, Autarkiepolitik im Dritten Reich: Der nationalsozialistische Vierteljahresplan (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1968), 26f.
83 Rubber is mentioned in Hitler’s memorandum on the Four Year Plan. Wilhelm Treue, ‘Hitlers Denkschrift zum Vierjahresplan 1936’, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 3 (1955), 208.
84 Kautschuk-Besprechung IG Farben, 5 July 1933, BAL 153-003-001.
85 Plumpe, Die IG-Farbenindustrie-AG, 359.
86 Niederschrift der Besprechung über Zusammenarbeit auf dem Gebiet des synthetischen Kautschuks mit den Continental-Gummiwerken, Hannover, 7. Nov. 1929, BAL 151-007.
87 Plumpe, Die IG-Farbenindustrie-AG, 356ff.
88 Adam Tooze, The Wages of Destruction. The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy (London: Allen Lane, 2006), 80–3.
89 ‘Rohstoffüberwachung und Devisenlage’, Gummi Zeitung, 48 (1934), 338.
90 Paul Erker, Zulieferer für Hitlers Krieg: Der Continental-Konzern in der NS-Zeit (Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2020), 110ff; and: Minutes 16. June 1934, BAL 151-007.
91 McFadyean, The history of rubber regulation, 235.
92 Jonas Scherner, Die Logik der Industriepolitik im Dritten Reich (Stuttgart: Steiner 2008), 84ff.
93 Graph showing German Buna production, as of 1944, BAL, 151-001.
94 Negotiations in: BAL 151-005.
95 See: Karl Heinz Blumenhagen, Die deutsch-sowjetischen Handelsbeziehungen 1939–1941: Ihre Bedeutung für die jeweilige Kriegswirtschaft (Hamburg: Kovač, 1998), 141ff; and: Paul H. Kratoska, The Japanese occupation of Malaya: A social and economic history (London: Hurst, 1998), 225f. Especially about the role of rubber exploitation: Paul Ferdinand Schmelzing, ‘Did Raw Material Shortages Decide World War Two? New Data for the Example of Nazi Rubber Supplies’, Essays in Economic and Business History, 35 (2017), 26–60.
96 Susanne Heim, Kalorien, Kautschuk, Karrieren: Pflanzenzüchtung und landwirtschaftliche Forschung in Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituten 1933–1945 (Göttingen: Wallstein-Verlag 2003), 125-198.
97 These figures do not distinguish between natural and reclaimed rubber. Schmelzing, ‘Did Raw Material Shortages decide World War Two, 39.
98 Vernon Herbert and Attilio Bisio, Synthetic Rubber: A Project That Had to Succeed (Westport, CT: Greenwood Pr., 1985), 14.
99 On the role of the RFC in the New Deal: James Stuart Olson, Saving Capitalism: The Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the New Deal, 1933–1940, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988).
100 Peter J. T. Morris, ‘Transatlantic Transfer of Buna S Synthetic Rubber Technology 1932-45’, in David J. Jeremy (ed), The Transfer of International Technology: Europe, Japan, and the USA in the Twentieth Century (Brookfield, VT: Elgar, 1992), 57-89.
101 Jochen Streb, ‘Internationale Wettbewerbsfähigkeit durch nationale Technologiepolitik?: Die staatliche Förderung der Synthesekautschukproduktion in Deutschland und in den USA während des zweiten Weltkriegs’, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 50 (2002), 367–398.
102 R. F. Dunbrook, ‘Historical Review’, in G. S. Whitby (ed), Synthetic Rubber (New York, NY: Wiley, 1954), 52.
103 See for Brazil: Xenia Vunovic Wilkinson, ‘Tapping the Amazon for victory: Brazil’s “Battle for Rubber” of World War II’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Washington D.C. 2009); and: Emergency Rubber Procurement Program, Washington Administration [National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 234], Reconstruction Finance Corporation, P1-173, E 281, Box 1; for Africa: William G. Clarence-Smith, ‘Africa’s “battle for rubber” in the Second World War’, in Judith A. Byfield/Carolyn A. Brown/Timothy Parsons and Ahmad Sikainga (ed), Africa and World War II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 166–182.
104 For instance tin: Mats Ingulstad/Andrew Perchard and Espen Storli (ed), Tin and Global Capitalism: A History of the Devil’s Metal, 1850–2000, (New York, NY: Routledge 2015).
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Bastian Linneweh-Kaçmaz
Bastian Linneweh-Kaçmaz is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Economic and Social History, at the University of Göttingen. Recent publications include ‘Global Trading Companies in the Commodity Chain of Rubber between 1890 and the 1920s’, Business History, 65 (2023), 863–79.