The tale of how we come to have Rubber is forever tainted by one man’s actions. If it weren’t for the debateable actions of one Henry Wickham, officially an “explorer”, to some but more a thief to others. Rubber and its production could well have remained the sole province of South America, an area that had avoided the interest and domination of the British Empire.
What did Wickham do that was so bad? He took seventy thousand rubber tree seeds out of the country under the guise of it all being for scientific purposes. He did this with the knowledge of the Brazillian authorities who were happy for him to have a few to take back to Kew gardens to study. However when they discovered it was way more their first reaction was “hang on a minute, that’s enough for a plantation”.
This is precisely what Wickham wanted. Under the cover of science the seeds were taken from Kew to South East Asia where it was thought they would do well due to the similar climate. This was a region firmly in British control and soon it became the hub of rubber production. Even though under a quarter of the seeds germinated there was indeed enough to start a plantation. So, even though Rubber Injection Moulding and other rubber products are done via synthetic means now it is still one of the biggest cases of biotheft ever recorded.