Volume 47, Part A, September 2014, Pages 12–22
Studies C Essay
Science in the service of colonial agro-industrialism: The case of cinchona cultivation in the Dutch and British East Indies, 1852–1900
Highlights
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- A comparative study of cinchona and quinine in the Dutch and British Empires.
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- We study the interplay between science, industry and government.
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- The Dutch case represents an early example of commodification of colonial science.
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- The laboratory as a new device in colonial agricultural and industrial production.
Abstract
The
isolation of quinine from cinchona bark in 1820 opened new
possibilities for the mass-production and consumption of a popular
medicine that was suitable for the treatment of intermittent (malarial)
fevers and other diseases. As the 19th century European empires expanded
in Africa and Asia, control of tropical diseases such as malaria was
seen as crucial. Consequently, quinine and cinchona became a pivotal
tool of British, French, German and Dutch empire-builders. This
comparative study shows how the interplay between science, industry and
government resulted in different historical trajectories for cinchona
and quinine in the Dutch and British Empires during the second half of
the 19th century. We argue that in the Dutch case the vectors of
assemblage that provided the institutional and physical framework for
communication, exchange and control represent an early example of
commodification of colonial science. Furthermore, both historical
trajectories show how the employment of the laboratory as a new device
materialised within the colonial context of agricultural and industrial
production of raw materials (cinchona bark), semi-finished product
(quinine sulphate) and plant-based medicines like quinine. Hence,
illustrating the 19th century transition from ‘colonial botany’ and
‘green imperialism’ to what we conceptualise as ‘colonial
agro-industrialism’.
Keywords
- Cinchona;
- Quinine;
- Netherlands Indies;
- Colonialism;
- Laboratory revolution;
- Pharmaceutical industry
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