Dannhauer - 2013 - Deutscher Reishandel 1850 bis 1914 die zentrale R

Summary:
German Rice Trading from 1850 to 1914
Background
By the middle of the 19* Century, rice had become
a standard cooking ingredient in Germany.
It had been known in Europe for centuries as a
foodstuff, but until then it had not featured on
the menus of middle-class or working-class society.
Now, however, as a result of the ever growing
volume of rice imported, it was no longer
considered exotic and had become a familiar
household item.
In Bremen rice became a standard commodity
around the time that the city on the Weser advanced
to become Germany’s biggest port of
emigration. Many ships were leaving for the
southern states of the USA with a cargo of slaves
bound for South Carolina or Georgia. The crops
cultivated there were then taken on board for the
return voyage. After tobacco and cotton, rice became
the third most important commodity in
Bremen. The American rice industry was booming
around 1850. Irrigation systems and processing
machinery in the mills were being constantly
improved, and this led to improved harvests and
higher export volumes. Nevertheless, cultivating
rice was so labour-intensive and difficult that it
could not be done using white labourers. Black
slaves were the foundation on which the American
rice plantations prospered. This situation
changed dramatically with the onset of the Civil
War. Within a few years, the USA changed from
being Europe’s main supplier of rice to a country
which had to import the same commodity. The
emergence of Asia as the top supplier of rice to
the world had begun. Even before the advent of
German rice trading, the commodity had been
bought and sold across continents. The surprising
thing is that in the time that followed, German
entrepreneurs were able to establish themselves
sustainably in a market which had previously
had no ties with Germany.
Although there was no great surplus of rice from
India and Asia in 1850, and in spite of British
navigation laws which until 1849 restricted access
of foreign trading vessels to British territorial
ports, occasional shipments of rice from Asia
did sometimes complement the large-scale imports
from America. At this time, German captains
were also able to gather their first experience
in the Asian trading zone shortly before the
rapid growth of the rice trade. The structure of
the global rice business changed fundamentally
after the British took over Burma in 1852.
Colonisation of Burma
The British colonisation of Burma was a major
step in the development of the German rice
trade. Within a few years, state-subsidised cultivation
projects transformed Burma into the
world’s largest producer and exporter of rice. As
in America, the rice industry here was also based
on migrant labour, in this case mostly from India
or China. Peasants were often at the mercy of
money-lenders, middle-men and bulk buyers,
while the labourers in the mills were forced to
toil like slaves. The main beneficiaries of the
new rice economy were British merchants, who
played a pioneer role in establishing rice mills
in the ports of Burma. German entrepreneurs
were among the first to follow in setting up operations
in the Burmese economy.
German traders achieved this on the one hand
through shipping activity within Asia - bringing
tea and spices to the west from eastern Asia and
returning with rice from Burma to points as far
east as China. At the same time, the Germans
managed to establish a strong foothold in Burma.
After the British, the Germans made up the
largest European minority group in Burma. Unlike
the British, Germans were willing to learn
the local language and assimilate the local culture,
which in turn facilitated German access to
the Burmese rice market.
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