Compagnie et consulat : lois germaniques et emploi des travailleurs sur les plantations de Samoa, 1864-1914

Summary. Compagnie et Consulat. Plantation development in Samoa until the outbreak of the First World War was overwhelmingly dominated by the Hamburg firm of J. C. Godeffroy & Sohn and their commercial successor, the DHPG. Far from being a triumph of free enterprise capitalism, the company's Samoan plantations were only successful because the directors in Berlin and the managers on-the-spot so assiduously and successfully courted state support. During the 1860s and 1870s the local company manager doubled as the German consul, and operated in the absence of any regulations covering the imported labour force. Even when protective legislation was introduced between 1882 and 1884 the material conditions of labourers on the DHPG's plantations deteriorated. Since the DHPG plantations constituted Germany's sole political claim to Samoa, a succession of German consuls (by now a post for a career diplomat) functioned as the official arm of the firm and they worked to ensure its survival in the face of critical labour shortages and severe profitability constraints. Consular co-operation involved easing the company's labour crisis, minimising its labour costs and by endorsing a system of harsh discipline, and was reinforced by the company directors lobbying their political and personal contacts in the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office, and sometimes even the Chancellor himself. Even after the hoisting of the German flag over the western islands of Samoa in 1900, official policy continued in the DHPG's favour. Annexation was followed by an influx of smaller cacao and rubber plantation companies and individual planters who languished while the DHPG prospered in the circumstances of privileged access to New Guinea labour. Other planters had to employ expensive Chinese labour, and they attributed their problems to Governor Wilhelm Soif s partiality towards the DHPG. But Solf survived their attacks and the status quo continued, in part because he was supported the company which dominated German Samoa and which wielded most influence in Berlin, the DHPG. The paper concludes by suggesting that although the DHPG grew up under the shelter of massive state and government support and was harsh in its treatment of labourers, parallels are to be found in the British Pacific. Depending on wider political and economic circumstances, the British labour trade could display all the abuses of its German counterpart.Firth Stewart, Munro Doug. Compagnie et consulat : lois germaniques et emploi des travailleurs sur les plantations de Samoa, 1864-1914. In: Journal de la Société des océanistes, 91, 1990-2. pp. 115-134