The Amazon Bubble: World Rubber Monopoly

The Amazon Bubble: World Rubber Monopoly, by Charles E. Stokes Jr.; Fort McKavett, Texas: Stokes, 2000, 1 map, 56 plates.

This privately published volume, which is the author's Tulane doctoral dissertation, reflects enthusiasm for the topic and, judging by the lengthy list of acknowledgements, a desire to honour intellectual and research debts accumulated over many decades. Two stories lie at the heart of the book: the emergence of Acre as a major source of rubber (the territory was ceded by Bolivia to Brazil in 1903); and the history of Suárez Hermanos, a Bolivian merchant house that became a key player in the commodity boom.

The emergence of commercial high-quality rubber production in Acre is a story of Brazilian economic and demographic imperialism and futile Bolivian resistance, of speculation and adventure (Acre rubber commanded a premium over other varieties), of principle and piracy, and of moments when events in the territory assumed international significance, provoking rumours of US-British ambition and competition. The latter included the construction of the ill-fated Madeira Mamoré Railway and the short-lived Independent Republic of Acre. These events are vividly narrated and the flamboyant characters involved brought to life. The story of the growth of the Suárez business captures the life-cycle of merchant house during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The politics as well as the commerce of doing business in ill-defined territories and unknown markets is neatly presented. The telling of the story sheds light on merchant practices and the nature of strategic alliances in a highly competitive environment in which luck, good connexions, and well-timed risk-taking enabled a 'small' Bolivian trading firm to establish a global presence.

In addition to the Suárez documents, the study is based on research at the national archives of Bolivia and the USA, the Itamaraty (the Brazilian Foreign Ministry), and the archive of the Republic of Acre, held at the Institute Arqueológico, Histórico e Geográfico, Pernambuco, Brazil. The author also makes extensive use of contemporary newspapers and publications. The secondary bibliography is largely confined to works published from the 1940s to the 1960s. The book is a detailed doctoral dissertation, with all the positive features and flaws that this involves. There is commitment and engagement. And the author brings to the study insights gained from several decades of doing business in South America as a commodity trader and financier.

Students of the personalities of the Amazonian territories, the politics and the economics of rubber, filibustering, the blood and profits of commodity production, the mechanics of merchant capitalism, the rise and fall of a commercial dynasty, and the business-politics nexus in an age which may be portrayed as witnessing the dawn of modern corporations will find much in this study. The narrative is carefully documented and the chapters loaded with detail.