The Chinese labour trade to New South Wales 1783-1853: An exposition of motives and outcomes

Abstract

This thesis examines how and why indentured Chinese labourers were suggested for, and then imported into the colony of New South Wales, from when the first suggestions were made, until the trade finished in 1853, stressing the mercantile and familial networks that underlay the whole process. These networks had been important in the establishment and expansion of the pastoral industry in New South Wales and were to prove vital to the successful operation of the trade in Chinese labour. A shift in the political balance within the colony was to undermine the strength of these networks and connections, one result of which was to lead to the cessation of the trade in Chinese labourers as the squatters in the Northern Districts of the colony fought for political and economic independence. Once this independence was gained the same networks were again utilised to acquire another form of servile labour to staff the Northern squatter's vast holdings.