Item #7632 Plantation Rubio Canton Minatitlan Vera Cruz, Mexico Property of The Tehuantepec Rubber Culture Co. del. and surveyor Chas. Stadler.

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Plantation Rubio Canton Minatitlan Vera Cruz, Mexico Property of The Tehuantepec Rubber Culture Co.

New York: The Tehuantepec Rubber Culture Co., 20 Broad St., September 1908. Chromolithograph map, 21.25” x 28.312”, plus margins. CONDITION: Very good, a few minor stains.

A scarce map produced during the rubber boom in Mexico showing the seven-year progress of rubber tree plantings on Plantation Rubio in Vera Cruz, a large plantation operated by an American company which at its peak was the largest producer of rubber in Mexico. 

This map shows the 5357 acre plantation from its northern boundary abutting the property of Ignacio Ceballos to its southern boundary abutting land owned by S. Pearson & Son Ltd., and from Loma Grande in the west to Segundo Semillero in the east. Seven different colors indicate the stages of rubber tree planting from 1902 to 1908; the trees planted in 1908 had not been surveyed at the time of publication and thus are not shown. A table of areas in both acres and hectares specifies the portions of the plantation composed of rubber plants, second growth forest, camps, pastures, low lands, and virgin forest. The map shows roads (“caminos”), water-holes (“ojo de agua”), and settlements, including the nearby cities of Minatitlan and Coatzacoalcos. Two inset maps show Plantation Rubio’s location in the wider context of Mexico (and portions of the U.S. and Central America), and also in relation to the adjacent property of Capoacan and the towns Rubio and San Cristobal. Bounding the Rubio Plantation are a number of properties whose landowners are identified (Miguel Montalvo, Telésforo Hernandez, et al.). Contour lines indicate elevation.

The Tehuantepec Rubber Culture Co. was founded in 1894 in New York by a group of investors led by Henry Clay Pierce. In 1907, the company recorded owning some 5,000 acres of rubber lands on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico, on which over one million young rubber trees had been planted. The company estimated it would take about a decade for these trees to reach maturity and be ready for tapping. An inspector made an examination of the plantation and noted, “No one can visit Plantation Rubio without being impressed with the capable management of the property, which is everywhere in evidence.” The company also owned a large coffee plantation at Dos Rios. 

The rubber boom brought U.S. companies and thousands of Americans to the thinly populated tropics. By 1905, Tehuantepec was known as “Uncle Sams District” for the many Americans living in the region. The fever- and alligator-ridden isthmus jungles became among Mexico’s most frequented tourist destinations. Americans who came to cultivate their lands in the hope of quick riches, however, often found only difficult work, disease, and bankruptcy.

No copies of this map are recorded in OCLC.

REFERENCES: Pan American Union. Bulletin of the Pan American Union, Vol. 10 (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1901), p. 257; Schell, Jr., William. “American Investment in Tropical Mexico: Rubber Plantations, Fraud, and Dollar Diplomacy, 1897-1913” The Business History Review Vol. 64, No. 2, American Business Abroad (Summer, 1990), pp. 217–254; The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, Vol. 85, Issue 3 (1907), p. 1516. 

Item #7632

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