Conflict between Colonies and Migration Networks: A Failed Attempt to Recruit Chinese Laborers in Amoy for British North Borneo during the Period of the Xinhai Revolutio

In contrast to the "coolie trade, " which has been extensively studied, Chinese migration from south China to Southeast Asia has not been studied thoroughly. Additional research is needed on Chinese migration networks and their economic rationality, as well as recruitment at the treaty ports in south China, and specifically, the reasons for the failure of direct recruitment at these treaty ports by foreign merchant firms or colonial governments in competition with these networks. In this study, I will analyze these problems by examining a failed attempt by the British North Borneo Chartered Company to recruit migrants during the period of the Xinhai Revolution. The British North Borneo Company consistently had trouble securing good quality Chinese laborers at low cost, because planters in British North Borneo recruited their laborers through middlemen in Hong Kong. Therefore, the British North Borneo Chartered Company attempted to exclude these middlemen and directly recruit laborers at the treaty ports. British government offices such as the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office, and the Hong Kong colonial government were slow to approve the direct participation of the colonial government (the British North Borneo Chartered Company) in the recruitment of Chinese laborers. Yet, the terms of contracts were revised, and the treatment of Chinese laborers began to improve. However, when the recruitment project started, various parties interested in immigration in Amoy objected to the project and moved local officials to arrest the Chinese recruiters who cooperated with the project. As a result, recruitment in Amoy became impossible. Furthermore, British authorities could not legally oppose the Chinese authorities in negotiations in Peking because the project aimed to recruit contract laborers at treaty ports, which would invoke the terms of the Convention of 1904. As a result, the effort of the British North Borneo Chartered Company to directly recruit Chinese laborers in southern China ended in failure. This episode demonstrates the difficulty in the direct recruitment of Chinese laborers by foreign governments or foreign firms at treaty ports in China, where migration networks already existed. Given that the British North Borneo Chartered Company failed even with the support of the British government, it would surely have been almost impossible for foreign firms to develop their own networks. This case also shows that the competitiveness of the Chinese migration networks cannot be fully explained in economic terms alone