Colons and Coolies: The Development of Cambodia's Rubber Plantations by Margaret Slocomb Search Amazon for other books by or about Margaret Slocomb. Rating: Reviewed by: John Walsh

Many of the evils of colonization have been well-documented and the determination with which so many of the colonized fight for their independence indicates just how strongly the process is resented. Yet there are many aspects of the process by which colonization has actually been put into practice remain elusive. In particular, the interactions between the imperial project and capitalism, the conjunction that is between the public and private sectors, are not well understood, particularly in the less accessible parts of the world. Margaret Slocomb's excellent investigation into the nature of the development of the rubber industry under the French occupation of Cambodia goes some way towards filling in that gap in knowledge.

European empires in Asia differed in nature, partly in tune with different natures of the societies from which they originated. While, for example, the British Empire was run largely as a commercial enterprise and the Spanish thirsted for souls to justify the use of the sword, the French remained firm in the belief that they were genuinely bringing culture and civilization to people who would not otherwise have been able to benefit from these benisons. This civilizing mission consumed those members of the French society who joined the government services so as to work for good in distant overseas lands. Yet civilization does not necessarily pay any bills and there was a need for less high minded individuals to pursue economic activities that would generate the revenues (and hence imperial taxes) that would pay for the whole procedure. At the time when the French presence in Southeast Asia began in earnest, in the second half of the nineteenth century, the world economy was being transformed through processes of empire-led globalisation and for the radical changes in demand and, hence, supply for industrial goods. The American Civil War, for example, led to the huge increases in demand for tin (for preserving food) and rubber (for the emergent vehicle industries) that, in turn, inspired and made profitable the mines and plantations of British Malaya. It was the example of the rubber plantations that struck the French as a suitable way forward for the internal territory of Cambodia and, as a result, concessions were organised with the supposed monarch and the French capitalists given sufficient license to operate their businesses. To do so, they needed to hire workers and manage them and it is the story of these events that forms the basis of the book. Using a conceptual framework informed principally by Polanyi's The Great Transformation and through access to company and government records, Slocomb has created a fascinating account of the lives of workers and bosses and the problems between them.

From the beginning of the system, which finally took off after the First World War, the colons (French colonists) were bedeviled by the rapidly declining price for rubber on world markets. Most demand for rubber came from the American automobile industry--more than half of global demand came from that country. By contrast, the amount of rubber produced in French Indochina was never sufficient for even the limited demand of the home country. The conclusion of the war led to lowered demand and the world economy never really recovered until the Great Crash and Depression a decade later. The effects of this were felt around the world and there were constant requests from the investors to reduce the revenues they were expected to provide to government coffers. Simultaneously, the complaints of the workers, who suffered greatly from neglect, abuse and under payment among other things, inspired the civil service to compel the investors to provide better conditions in the workplace--a vegetable garden, for example, equitable payment terms and a medical facility. Squeezing the margins all round meant that no one came out of the process entirely happily, although there are always those who enjoyed their power and the ability this provided to mete out abuses to those of lower status.

Slocomb provides an account with as much detail as can be reasonably expected without stretching the patience of her readers. This will be of great assistance to those people wishing to understand more the labour history of the Mekong region under colonization and those, more generally, who want to know more about the conditions people faced in the not too distant past.