The Merchants: Chinese Social Organisation in Colonial Australia

Abstract

In this article, the history of Chinese people in colonial Australia is viewed through the theme of social organisation. It is argued that during their peak period of emigration from the early 1850s to the mid-1870s, Chinese people in colonial Australia maintained a tightly woven, self-sufficient style of social organisation that enabled them successfully to turn economic opportunities into capital. The Chinese social structure and other relevant features of Chinese culture—particularly the ‘credit-ticket’ system for travel and kinship obligations—remained integral to the Chinese social organisation in colonial Australia.