The bright moon and the empty courtyard are like water like a Chinese year

Chapter 68 Chang and Kai conspire to sell Jia's piglets (1)

Ever since Meng Dekai teamed up with three bad friends from the "Dali Casino" to cheat Song Yaochang of a large sum of money at the gaming table, he opened a Deji referral shop in Shanghai.

On the surface, the Tak Kee Referral Office is mainly responsible for recruiting workers to Xiamen (Tak Kee Co., Ltd.) as coolies. In fact, it is to help Tak Kee Co., Ltd. as a "broker" and help it find "pigs".

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Speaking of Deji Foreign Firm, it was the first foreign firm to enter Xiamen.

This firm, which operates import and export business in many eastern ports, was founded by Mr. James Dedi in Xiamen in 1845.

Among the many businesses of Tak Kee Co., Ltd., there is an extremely important business, which is "labor trade".

On December 1846, 12 (October 7, 26th year of Daoguang), the British businessman Dedi came to Xiamen on a Spanish cargo ship, met with Xingquan Yongdao, and claimed that he was entrusted by Spain to establish a Spanish consulate in Xiamen.

As a result, it was approved to "rent a private house as a fan hall" in Xiamen.

At the same time, Tak Kee Co., Ltd. was established (the firm later specialized in the coolie trade, and was called Da Tak Kee Merchant Co. by the Chinese).

The establishment of Deji Foreign Firm directly aimed at plundering labor force.

Therefore, a "Balakeng" (also known as piggy house, selling people's shop, Guji shop, etc., referring to the place where slaves or criminals were imprisoned) was set up near Xiamen Customs.

On the sea, there is a ship named "Imigrant", which is specially used for labor trafficking.

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After the establishment of Tak Kee Co., Ltd., it began to "recruit workers".

The "recruitment" is generally handled by the "ketou" (or "piggy head") employed by foreign firms.

The "ketou" brought the "passengers" or "new customers" (contract laborers) to the foreign company, and the foreign company was responsible for transporting them to the colonies.

These "customers" are called "piggy heads" by Chinese people, and "coolie brokers or brokers" by Westerners.

The foreign company usually pays 20 to 30 yuan per person to recruit workers, and when the foreign company transfers the labor to the ship owner or the representative of the foreign receiver, it can get 60 to 75 yuan per person, and the foreign company earns a net profit from it. A profit of around 40 yuan.

And the ship owner or the representative of the receiver can get a huge profit after transporting the labor to the destination.

Transporting Chinese laborers abroad was once the most profitable business in the maritime industry at that time.

The fifth paragraph of the Sino-British "Beijing Treaty" signed in 1860 stipulates that "any Chinese people who are willing to export, or work in various parts of the United Kingdom, or in other places overseas, are allowed to make a contract with the British people, regardless of single Perhaps I would like to take my family members to various ports of trade and disembark from British ships without hindrance."

The Sino-French "Beijing Treaty" of the same year also had the same clause.In the following years, the Netherlands, the United States and other countries successively received the same treatment.

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Since then, the labor market has been opened to overseas, and a large number of Chinese laborers have poured out to meet the needs of colonial development and employment.

"Passing over" at one's own expense is expensive.

Poor people, unable to raise funds for going abroad (travel expenses, board and lodging expenses), signed contracts with recruiters.

It is the "single credit worker" in "contract Chinese labor".

There is another kind of "contract Chinese laborers", called "pigs", and foreigners call them "coolies".

There are various theories about the origin of the name "Zizai", Lin Zexu said: "When he was on the boat, he would serve food in a wooden basin, and he called those who were on the boat to eat together.

Its voice is similar to that of the inland Huzhu, so people see this boat as buying piglets."

These "piggies" also signed contracts with the merchants, which stated the location of the application, the nature of the job, the number of years, the amount of salary, and the salary in advance.

But the contract is only the beginning of the deception. During the contract period, the Chinese workers completely lose their personal freedom and become slaves.

Even after the contract expires, the employer uses various means to force the Chinese workers to continue their service.

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Starting from Dedi of Deji Foreign Trade Co., Ltd., Xiamen became the earliest and most important base of "pig trade" along the coast of China. In 1852, it became the largest plundering and selling center.

At that time, in addition to Deji and Heji, there were also foreign firms such as Ruiji, Jardine, Baoshun, Dynaudio, and Lindsay who were engaged in the "coolie trade" in Xiamen.

Deji Foreign Firm was one of the five largest foreign firms in the country at that time, and it was also the largest seller's firm in Xiamen. On the surface, they were doing business as rice merchants, using rice merchants as a cover.

In fact, they make money by selling piglets. It only costs three to ten yuan to sign a contract, but it can be sold for one hundred yuan or even five hundred yuan in Nanyang.

In order to prevent the exposure of piglet trading, piglets are often transported on board at night, and outsiders have no way of knowing.

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These coolies were all locked in wooden sheds like slave camps, with ten to twelve people per room.The inside is filthy, each room is 12 by 12 feet, there is only a place to lie down, the roof is extremely low, and the floor is covered with bamboo.

Almost all of them were naked, and many of them were imprisoned after they were lured to come here, and there were English signs saying "No Entry for Idlers" outside the door.The chests of the "piggies" to be sold are stamped with the stamps of the sold countries, such as "C" (California), "P" (Peru), or "S" (Sandwich Islands) to prevent them from escaping .The "piggies" who cannot get out lose their personal freedom, and then they will be arranged to be put on a "coolie ship" and transported to various colonies.

The indentured Chinese laborers stayed on the sea ships for several months and were often locked in the bilge. The living conditions were very poor, and a large number of deaths often occurred due to disease, hunger and lack of water. The tragedy was unspeakable, so people called this kind of The ship is a "floating hell".

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After arriving at the destination, they were sent to large plantations or mines to do hard work, working 18-21 hours a day under the whip of the foreman.

The oppression, exploitation and abuse suffered are even more miserable, as if they have entered a "hell on land".

In the "floating hell on the sea", countless people died of illness, starvation, thirst, beating, throwing into the sea, abandoning on a deserted island, or committing suicide due to unbearable torture.

In addition, the riots because they could not bear the persecution of the shipowner also caused a large number of "pigboys" to die.

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Since the mid-nineteenth century, when the "black slave trade" in the West was gradually abolished, there was a labor shortage all over the world.

Colonists in Southeast Asia needed a large number of cheap labor to develop Southeast Asia; countries such as America and Australia also needed a large number of cheap labor to open gold mines and repair railways.

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The mining of tin mines in Southeast Asia, the development of rubber plantations, the gold mining and railway construction in North America, Australia, and South Africa, and the expansion of plantations in South America all require a lot of labor.

The crazy pursuit and drive of capital profits made these Western colonists (human traffickers) turn their eyes to the east of the world, so they went to Eastern China to seek "labor"-Chinese laborers who can endure hardships and stand hard work with low wages. the most ideal object.

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In addition, shortly after the Second Opium War, the Qing government was forced to recognize the legalization of Chinese workers going abroad (the "Beijing Treaty" at the time stipulated that the Qing government allowed Chinese people to work in British and French colonies and abroad).

So far, all the biggest obstacles from the Qing government for Chinese going abroad have been eliminated.

Western human traffickers even put on a "legal" cloak and set up a "recruitment bureau" in Shantou to recruit contracted Chinese laborers, setting off a climax of plundering cheap Chinese labor coolies.

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The so-called "contract" refers to the contract concluded after the person who is willing to sell himself as an immigrant agrees with the "recruitment bureau" on working conditions, a certain location, and a time limit.Although there is a contract in form, in fact, once the contract is concluded, the buyer can treat the seller as a "piggy" at will.

The procedures for buying and selling Chinese laborers are almost the same as buying and selling livestock in the livestock market.

Chapter 68 (End)
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(End of this chapter)