Premise: But the major breakthrough for the Malay economy was the triumph of rubber, when Singapore's new garden director, Henry Ridle ( Rubber Ridley  to his friends,  Mad Ridley  to all doubting Thomases) had developed new planting and tapping methods and painstakingly spread his faith in rubber around the peninsula.

Hypothesis: The Malay economy was the first economy to produce rubber. 
Relation: neutral