Politics of Protection and the Southeast Asian “Coolie Trade”

Abstract

Through a combination of migration history and imperial history, this chapter addresses the interimperial rivalry between the British, Dutch, and German empires in the recruitment and regulation of Chinese labor migration in colonial Southeast Asia in the period of 1870-1914. It argues that British attempts to “protect” Chinese labor migrants through migration regulations served both political and economic imperial purposes. The influence of these regulations stretched beyond the borders of the British colonies and influenced colonial affairs in neighboring colonies. Resultingly, these regulations established the regional dominance of Singapore in the Southeast Asian “coolie trade.” However, this dominance was continuously challenged by other empires, most notably the Germans and the Dutch, who respectively resisted the British by expanding their shares in the profitable markets of transporting and recruiting Chinese labor migrants. By exposing these regional power dynamics in a highly competitive and transimperial labor market, this chapter aims to lay bare the various intermediary and transimperial agents involved in the organization, recruitment, and regulation of Chinese labor migration to Southeast Asia.