Background of contract workers in China

At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, bankrupt farmers in Fujian and Guangdong coastal areas went to Nanyang to make a living because of difficulties in their hometown.

Due to the shortage of funds, there are generally two ways to go abroad: one is to spontaneously organize a group to go to sea, publicly recommend a "guest leader", pay for food on board, and pay off debts overseas with labor income, on the basis of "notarization"; The other is individual farmers, who mortgage themselves to boatmen, find relatives or employers overseas, pay the fees owed by boatmen in advance, and agree to repay them with labor services.

The sea ban was opened in 1684, and Chinese workers who flocked to Karoba (now Jakarta, then referred to Java Island) mostly used the latter method, which was generally voluntary. At that time, there was no case of selling Chinese workers for profit.

(Note-1, the "convention" is essentially a collective contract, with one's own body as collateral to pay off debts. ) 1786, after the British occupied Penang, they tried their best to recruit Chinese workers. By 1800, Penang had begun to see the open market of Chinese workers under the resale contract. Contract work for one year at the price of 30 yuan. By the 191920s, it had developed into a "piglet" trafficking system centered on the Taiwan Province Strait colony. First, the employer appointed a "guest head" to rent a boat, returned to his hometown in Guangdong, Fujian, kidnapped it through the relationship of fellow villagers and kin, and transported it to Singapore for the employer to contract for one to three years, with wages deducted from debts.

1876, Britain expanded the development of resources in the Malay Peninsula. In order to obtain cheap labor, it set up a Chinese affairs department in Singapore, and sent Chinese to open "pig houses" in Singapore and Penang, aiming at making profits by selling Chinese workers. In Xiamen, Shantou, Guangzhou, Macao, Hong Kong, Haikou and other places with joint numbers. This inn called "Receiving New Guests" is actually a prison for workers in China. In Singapore, the "pigsty" used torture to force Chinese workers to voluntarily sign debt repayment contracts in front of China civil affairs officials and become debt slaves.

It is estimated that from 1800 to 1940, about 1000 million Chinese workers came from the Straits Colonies and federated malay states States. Most of them come from Chaozhou, Huizhou and other places in eastern Guangdong, counties in the Pearl River Delta and Hainan Island, and a few from eight counties in southern Fujian. Chinese workers have made indelible contributions and painful sacrifices to the development of Malaya and dutch east indies. In 19 16, the "piglet" system was abolished in Malay States of the British Federation. However, after World War I, the number of Chinese workers who went to Nanyang to make a living doubled, and the disguised "piglet" system continued until the outbreak of World War II.

Contract coolies in Latin America 65438+At the beginning of the 9th century, Britain abolished the slave trade and slavery in the West Indies colonies and replaced the slaves with five-year contract workers. One is to recruit coolies from India (the word "coolies" comes from Koli, a Tamil language in South India, which is translated into English as coolies, in fact, it is synonymous with indentured laborers, so the trafficking of indentured laborers is called coolies trade). After the Opium War, colonialists from Cuba, Peru, Guyana and Panama in Latin America fled to the coastal ports of China to plunder and sell coolies. Unlike selling "piglets" in Nanyang, this coolie trade is run by white people. Generally, colonial governments around the country set aside special funds to appoint recruitment commissioners, or organized "immigration companies", and agents, coolie dealers and coolie ship captains went to China ports for looting. After these coolies were transported to the colonies, they were sold to plantations, mines, railways and other places by public auction.

1On March 7th, 845, the first coolie ship set out from Xiamen, loaded with 200 coolies, and sailed for French Bourbon Island (that is, reunion island). 1846, Xiamen British merchant deji foreign firm undertakes coolie trade. Dede, the boss of Kidd Foreign Firm, is also the consul of Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch in China. Relying on his power, he ignored the laws of the China government prohibiting human trafficking, hired a large number of thugs, bribed kidnappers and traffickers, searched for coolies in the countryside, and sent them to Balakeng (where coolies were concentrated) in Xiamen for shipment. In Balakeng, coolies were tortured and forced to sign prostitution contracts for eight years to work in foreign countries, and Chinese workers were branded with the mark of being transported to their destinations. China contract worker

From 1847 to 1853, there were 40 coolies exported from Xiamen, including 34 British ships, and * * * transported more than ten thousand people, including Shantou ship 10. 1855 Shantou coolies only 12, 1857 soared to 120. It is also estimated that from 1852 to 1858, 40,000 coolies were transported from Shantou, of which 8,000 were tortured to death before sailing, and many bodies were abandoned on the beach. Before 1860, the situation of plundering Chinese workers in other ports in South China was similar.

1860, China signed the Beijing Treaty with Britain and France, in which the fifth paragraph stipulated that people were allowed to go abroad to undertake work, and the Chinese and British sides drew up recruitment regulations and set up recruitment offices at treaty ports. This kind of "legal recruitment" is actually bought from traffickers with "head money" or is kidnapping and plundering Chinese workers. As a non-signatory country, Portugal could not set up a museum at the treaty port to recruit workers, but moved to Macao to sign contracts with local vendors to buy coolies. Britain and the United States are based in Hong Kong and compete with Macao. Hong Kong's port facilities have advantages, and coolies have to rebuild their cabins in Hong Kong to prepare materials for long-distance navigation. Finally, Portugal was forced to announce the closure of Macao coolie trade at the end of 1873.

It is estimated that from 1847 to 1874, there were 500,000 indentured coolies plundered from China to Latin America, of which about 300,000 were shipped from Macau, mostly to Cuba and Peru. The "credit" coolie who went to the western United States to engage in hard labor development ("credit" is Cantonese, which means owed a boat ticket) was born out of the "piggy" system, but it has its own characteristics. They mainly come from counties in the Pearl River Delta, and almost all of them go abroad from Hong Kong. The Hong Kong authorities insist that they are "free immigrants", but they are actually indentured laborers who are promised to pay their debts. 1849, Shanghai British businessman Xiang Sheng foreign firm chartered the British ship "Yama III" to transport 200 coolies to San Francisco. The coolies all signed the debt repayment contract, and each owed the ship and food expenses 125 yuan. This is the first coolie to go to America on credit.

From 1850 to 1880, in the development of the western United States, cheap China laborers are widely used in major projects such as railway construction, mining, and large-scale remediation of waterlogged land. After American capitalists signed a contract with the "head" of the Chinese Guild Hall in San Francisco, the "head" sent people back to their hometown in the mainland to bribe local and clan gentry, so as to trick Chinese workers into coming to Hong Kong on an appointment with the lie of paying for the boat and settling down in advance and "making a fortune in Jinshan". In order to pretend to be a "free guest", the coolie was forced to go to the United States at his own expense before boarding the ship, and the American consul issued a visa. After arriving in the United States, he signed a debt repayment contract with the creditor, was controlled by the "head" and sent to the construction site to work in groups. Pay off the debt by monthly salary. The "ringleaders" often lend money to coolies to lure them into gambling on cigarettes and sell daily necessities on credit at high prices, so as to exploit Chinese workers with heavy profits and make them in debt for a long time.

It is estimated that from 1849 to 1882, the total number of China workers in the United States reached 300,000. They have made great contributions to the development of the western United States, and at the same time, they have been persecuted, humiliated, burned, driven away and slaughtered by white racists for a long time, and all kinds of atrocities have intensified. Finally, in 1882, the American government banned Chinese workers from entering the country.