Law and the regualtion of life: the case of indentured Chinese labourers

Abstract

The nineteenth century witnessed the mass movement of thousands of Chinese nationals under contract to areas of high labour demand. A very small part of this movement was to the colony of New South Wales in order to satiate the squatters' desires for cheap, servile shepherds. The indenturing of the Chinese labourers in Amoy (Xiamen) was in many respects a last resort for the squatters who had lost the convict option and been denied Indian labourers. This paper examines the contracts that bound the Chinese to their “masters”, compares these contracts to those indenturing European labourers in the colony and Indian and Chinese labourers elsewhere, and highlights variations over time within these contracts. The final section of the paper presents the manner in which the law was used, and abused by the squatters to regulate the working and non-working lives of theindentured Chinese labourers in New South Wales.