Oil Palm: A Global History (Flows, Migrations, and Exchanges)

432 Pages·2021·17.927 MB·English

by  Jonathan E. Robins

Oil Palm
Flows, Migrations, and Exchanges
Mart A. Stewart and Harriet Ritvo, editors
The Flows, Migrations, and Exchanges series publishes new works
of environmental history that explore the cross- border movements
of organisms and materials that have shaped the modern world,
as well as the varied human attempts to understand, regulate,
and manage these movements.
Oil Palm
A Global History
JONATHAN E. ROBINS
The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill
This book was published with the assistance of the Luther H. Hodges Jr. and
Luther H. Hodges Sr. Fund of the University of North Carolina Press.
© 2021 Jonathan E. Robins
All rights reserved
Set in Charis by Westchester Publishing Ser vices
Manufactured in the United States of Amer i ca
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member
of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Robins, Jonathan, author.
Title: Oil palm : a global history / Jonathan E. Robins.
Other titles: Flows, migrations, and exchanges.
Description: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2021] |
Series: Flows, migrations, and exchanges | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2020056875 | isbn 9781469662886 (cloth ; alk. paper) |
isbn 9781469662893 (paperback ; alk. paper) | isbn 9781469662909
(ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Palm oil industry— Africa— History. | Palm oil industry—
Southeast Asia— History. | Palm oil industry— Political aspects— History. |
Oil palm— Industrial applications. | Capitalism.
Classification: lcc hd9490.5.p343 A357 2021 | ddc 338.1/73851096— dc23
lc rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2020056875
Cover illustration: Palm nut harvesting in Côte d’Ivoire © Cirad; black rolled
ink texture © Shutterstock.com/Itsmesimon.
An earlier version of chapter 7 appeared as “Shallow Roots: The Early Oil
Palm Industry in Southeast Asia, 1848–1940,” Journal of Southeast Asian
Studies 51, no. 4 (2020). Material in chapters 5 and 6 appeared in “Food and
Drink: Palm Oil versus Palm Wine in Colonial Ghana,” Commodities of Empire
Working Paper Series 25 (2016); “Smallholders and Machines in the West
African Palm Oil Industry,” African Economic History 46, no. 1 (2018), and
“ ‘Imbibing the Lesson of Defiance’: Oil Palms and Alcohol in Colonial Ghana,
1900–40,” Environmental History 23, no. 2 (2018). Material in chapters 4 and
9 appeared in “Oil Boom: Agriculture, Chemistry, and the Rise of Global
Plant Fat Industries, ca. 1850–1920,” Journal of World History 29, no. 3 (2018).
Contents
Abbreviations Used in the Text, ix
Introduction, 1
1 The Oil Palm in Africa, 9
2 Early Encounters and Exchanges, 25
3 From “Legitimate Commerce” to the “Scramble for Africa,” 42
4 Oil Palms and the Industrial Revolution, 75
5 Machines in the Palm Groves, 97
6 African Smallholders under Colonial Rule, 121
7 The Oil Machine in Southeast Asia, 142
8 From Colonialism to Development, 173
9 Industrial Frontiers, 195
10 The Oil Palm’s New Frontiers, 217
11 Globalization and the Oil Palm, 244
Acknowl edgments, 263
Notes, 265
Bibliography, 333
Index, 407
This page intentionally left blank
Figures, Graphs, and Maps
Figures
1.1 Man climbing a tall oil palm with single- rope technique, 10
1.2 Mature oil palms in a Malaysian plantation, 11
1.3 Halved tenera palm fruit impaled on a frond spine, 12
1.4 Tenera palm fruit bunch, 13
1.5 Man tapping oil palm for wine, 21
2.1 Elizabeth Blackwell’s “Oily Palm” illustration, 27
3.1 Men making palm oil at Ouidah (Whydah), 54
4.1 Advertisement for Price’s Distilled Palm Candles, 83
5.1 Stamp mill for pounding palm fruit, 103
5.2 Clean- weeded palm grove in Congo, 112
6.1 Duchscher-type oil press, 126
6.2 Va ri e ties of palm fruit, 129
7.1 Cover image for The Planter, 1931, 150
7.2 Men carry ing Deli palm fruit bunch, 151
7.3 Preserved Deli dura fruit sample, 156
7.4 Artificial pollination of oil palms, 168
9.1 Anti– palm oil advertisement, 1986, 205
9.2 Shell advertisement for palm oil substitutes, 210
10.1 Protest poster, ca. 1984, 218
Graphs
3.1 UK palm oil imports and prices, 1818–1914, 46
4.1 British, French, and German palm oil imports 1840–1914, 80
7.1 Global trade of palm oil and prices, 1850–1939, 170
9.1 World vegetable oil supply by type, 1980–2018, 200
Maps
1.1 Oil palm distribution in Africa, 14
3.1 West Africa during the first palm oil boom, 44
7.1 Colonial Southeast Asia and the major areas for oil palm plantations
to 1941, 143
Abbreviations Used in the Text
CDC Colonial Development Corporation (Commonwealth
Development Corporation in 1963; CDC Group Plc. in 1999)
FAO Food and Agriculture Organ ization of the United Nations
FELDA Federal Land Development Authority
FFA Free fatty acid
FMS Federated Malay States
GOPDC Ghana Oil Palm Development Com pany
H&C Harrisons & Crosfield
HCB Huileries Congo Belge
INEAC Institut national pour l’étude agronomique du Congo belge
IRHO Institut de recherches pour les huiles et oléagineux
MPOB Malaysian Palm Oil Board
NEI Netherlands East Indies
NES Nucleus Estate- Smallholder
NGPI National Development Corporation– Guthrie Philippines
NIFOR Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research
PNG Papua New Guinea
POEM Palm Oil Estates Man ag ers, Ltd.
PORIM Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia
RBD Refined, bleached, deodorized
RSPO Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil
SOCFIN Société Financière des Caoutchoucs
UAC United Africa Com pany
UFC United Fruit Com pany
WAIFOR West African Institute for Oil Palm Research