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The Recruiting of Chinese Indentured Labour for the South African Gold-Mines, 1903–19081

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Peter Richardson
Peter Richardson
Affiliation:
S.O.A.S., University of London
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Extract

One of the responses of the Transvaal gold mining industry to the economic crisis after the South African War of 1899–1902 was to import Chinese indentured mine labour. To facilitate this process and to integrate it with the overall demands and requirements of the industry, the mining companies established a recruiting and shipping company in 1904, known as the Chamber of Mines Labour Importation Agency. This short-lived company, which was characterized by a high degree of vertical integration, operated as recruiting and shipping agency in China, receiving agent in Natal and co-ordinating and advising agent in the Transvaal. Despite complex arrangements designed to exploit the Chinese labour market, the company was, generally speaking, successful in securing the requisite labour force of suitable size and quality for the Transvaal mines. However, it showed a longer-term susceptibility to competitive pressures in the northern Chinese labour market. The company was amalgamated with WNLA in 1908.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , January 1977 , pp. 85 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

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5 Articles of Association of CMLIA, 15 July 1904, ATCM, Ch. 60. Minutes of the Representatives of Mining Groups, 10 Oct. 1903, ATCM, Ch. 14. The following groups resolved to guarantee £100,000 for preliminary expenses, which was actually found by Wernher/Beit, London, and were represented by the Committee of Agents: H. Eckstein & Co.; Rand Mines Ltd.; Consolidated Gold Fields; Farrar Brothers/Anglo-French Exploration Company; Barnato Brothers; J. B. Robinson; A. Goerz & Co.; G. & L. Albu; S. Neumann & Co.; Transvaal Goldfields; B. Kitzinger; Lewis and Marks; Compagnie Française de Mines d'Or et de l'Afrique du Sud.; Memorandum of Agreement between WNLA and CMLIA, 3 Feb. 1908, ATCM, Ch. 63; Articles 3 and 7 of Memorandum of Agreement between WNLA and CMLIA, 3 Feb. 1908, op. cit.

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11 Johnstone, Frederick A., Class, Race and Gold, (London, 1976), 19Google Scholar. See 17–20 for an excellent discussion of the problems affecting the realization of the accumulation of profit through the investment of capital in, and operation of, the South African gold mining industry. See also Jeeves, A., ‘The Control of Migratory Labour on the South African Gold Mines in the Era of Kruger and Milner’, J. of Southern African Studies (JSAS), ii, 1 (Oct. 1975), 3–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Wilson, F., Labour in the South African Gold Mines, 1911–1969, (London, 1972), 39–40Google Scholar for discussions of the pay limit and determinants affecting it. Contrary to the expectations of neo-classical economists, the grade of ore in the Witwatersrand mines showed a continual decline in this period, indicating that falling production and rising costs could not even be temporarily offset within the tightly determined productive process of the Witwatersrand mines. See Frankel, op. cit. 21–8 for an elaboration of the neo-classical argument; for a critique, see my review article, ‘South and Central African mining, c. 1900–1933’, African Affairs, forthcoming.Google Scholar

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13 Report of the Committee on White and Coloured Labour, 2 Dec. 1902, ATCM, W6(c); for an elaboration of these points see also the Report of H. Ross Skinner presented to the WNLA, 22 Sept. 1903, ATCM, Pte. Chinese Labour; speech by Sir George Farrar in the Leg. Co., 28 Dec. 1903, encl. in Milner, to Lyttelton, , 5 Jan. 1904, CO. 291/68/2494Google Scholar. For a similar ‘shortage’ of labour related to its costs see Van Onselen, C., Chibaro: African Mine Labour in Southern Rhodesia, 1900–1933, (London, 1976), 75–91.Google Scholar

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16 See for example Chamber of Mines support for the repression of the Liquor Trade after the war—Van Onselen, C., “The Randlords and Rotgut, 1886–1903’, History Work-Shop, no. 2 (Autumn, 1976)Google ScholarPubMed. This paper was first presented to the I.C.S. (London) Seminar on Southern Africa, in 1975.

17 Jennings, Hennen, Chinese Labour on the Rand, Imperial South Africa Association Pamphlet (3 Feb. 1904)Google Scholar, ATCM ‘H’ Series Pamphlets; Cd. 1895, Evid. of Jennings, S. to the Transvaal Labour Commission, 8 Sept. 1903, no. 9,958, pp. 454.Google Scholar

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21 See Cd. 1895, evid. of Jennings, S. to the Transvaal Labour Commission, 8 Sept. 1903, no. 9,923, pp. 454.Google Scholar

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23 The number of Mozambique Africans in the Rhodesian mines might have had some effect on the absolute numbers distributed by WNLA between 1902 and 1004: see Onselen, Van, Chibaro, 86–90Google Scholar; Annual Report, WNLA, 1902Google Scholar: Table Showing Geographical Origins of Africans distributed by WNLA. This figure includes Africans from Portuguese East African territories north of Lat. 220 S. Annual Report, WNLA, 1903Google Scholar; Annual Report, WNLA, 1904Google Scholar. The number of short-term contracts also showed an alarming tendency to rise, posing a threat to the quota system and raising the prospect of increased turnover rates: the average of ‘locals’ in the numbers distributed by WNLA between 1902 and 1907 averaged out at 27.08 per cent of all Africans distributed annually; Annual Reports, WNLA, 1902–1907Google Scholar: Tables of Geographical Origins of Africans Distributed by WNLA. British Central Africans accounted for 0, 1–10 and 1.31 per cent of Africans distributed by WNLA between 1902 and 1904. Locals, including a significant number of non-British South Africans, offset this decline somewhat, but the unreliability of local numbers meant that a shortage in recruited Africans in Portuguese East Africa was still very serious. See Jeeves, op. cit. 17–18.

24 WNLA to Skinner, Ross, 14 Feb. 1903Google Scholar, quoted in the Report of Skinner, H. Ross presented to WNLA, 22 Sept. 1903, ATCM, Private—Chinese Labour FileGoogle Scholar; report of a meeting between the combined Boards of WNLA and the Chamber of Mines re Chinese Labour, 6 Oct. 1903, ATCM, Private—Chinese Labour File.

25 For an elaboration of the complementary roles of Chinese and Portuguese East African Labour, see Perry, F., The Transvaal Labour Problem, a paper read before the Fortnightly Club, Johannesburg, 1 Nov. 1906Google Scholar, in the Archives of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

26 Ross Skinner Report, op. cit. 6, 12; for discussions of the development of British and Chinese government positions on the Coolie traffic, see P. C. Campbell, op. cit. 86–216; Irick, Robert L., ‘Ch'ing Policy towards the Coolie Trade, 1847–1878’ (unpubl. Ph.D. thesis, Harvard 1971), passimGoogle Scholar. For full English and Chinese texts of the 1904 Emigration Convention, 13 May 1904, see Imperial Maritime Customs Service, Treaties between China and Foreign States, (Shanghai, 1917), ii, 643–51.Google Scholar

27 Brazier, to Bagot, , 15 Aug. 1905, endGoogle Scholar. in Bagot, to Jamieson, , 14 Sept. 1905, FLD 131, file 20/-.Google Scholar

28 For a list of shareholders in the CMLIA see CMLIA Circular no. 1097, Draft Minutes of Special Meeting of the Board of Management, 26 June 1907, ATCM, Ch. 65; Articles 5, 6, 9, 33, 34 and 59 of the Articles of Association of CMLIA, op. cit.; Memorandum of Agreement between WNLA and CMILA, 3 Feb. 1908, Preamble, Ch. 63. The capitalization compares with a nominal capital for WNLA of £39,486 divided into 39,486 shares of £1 each, all issued, paid up to 12s. per share, realizing £23,691 12s. (ibid.). Thus the original investment in Chinese labour was six times as great as in African labour. Between 1902 and 1904 the mining industry invested £166,475 14s. in its recruiting companies—a sizeable investment. Bagot, Walter L., ‘Chinese Labour on the Witwatersrand’, unpubl MS. dated 1906, ATCM, Ch. 26Google Scholar. If advances on wages and repatriation allowances are included, the initial expenses of importation comes to £21 10s. Capital charges against compound and other alterations (incurred by the individual companies and not chargeable by the CMLIA) raised the overall costs to £31 10s. per head. To secure African labour cost, on average, only £4 10s. Bagot wrote ‘Even when it is borne in mind that the renewal of capital outlay is less frequent with the Chinese who work for three years as against the Kaffirs average of fifteen months (i.e. presuming each Kaffir works ten months and 40–50 per cent old hands re-engage each time) yet the balance of expense against the Chinese is at least £7 18s. (i.e. £17 10s.–£9 12s.)’.

29 Articles 2 and 63 of the Articles of Association of CMLIA, op. cit.; Praagh, L. V. (ed.), The Transvaal and Its Mines, (London, 1906), 534Google Scholar. For the appointment of expert advisers, see for example the appointment of A. W. Child as Chinese Advisor to CMLIA, Brazier, to Bagot, 4 May 1905Google Scholar, ATCM, ‘G’ Letters from China: ‘For seventeen years he [Child] has been at Sir Robert's [Hart] beck and call at Peking—his “fidus achates”— and his knowledge of the Northern people, their ways, customs, manners and spoken language is unequalled’. Report by Mr Raleigh on Landing Facilities at Durban and Delagoa Bay, 1903, in Barlow-Rand Archives, H. Eckstein Papers, HE65B. For examples of travel arrangements see Principal Immigration Restriction Officer, Port Natal, to Superintendent of FLD at Natal, 5 Jan. 1907; Bagot, W. L. to Chief Traffic Manager, Central South African Railways, 16 Dec. 1906, CMLIA Circular No. 1007Google Scholar; Bagot, W. L. to Chief Traffic Manager, CSAR, 5 Jan. 1907, CMLIA Circular No. 1007aGoogle Scholar; FLD 124, file 16/34; also FLD Annual Report, 1904–1905, appendix IV of Cd. 3025.Google Scholar

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31 Complete Staff List of the CMLIA in China, encl. 1 in Brazier, to Bagot, , 29 June 1905Google Scholar, op. cit.; Brazier, to Bagot, , 5 Aug. 1905Google Scholar: encl. 1 in Bagot, to Jamieson, , 14 Oct. 1905, FLD 131, file 20/-Google Scholar; Annual Report of the FLDfor 1905–1906, Pretoria 1906, 4056–12/9/06–600Google Scholar; Brazier, to Bagot, , 7 Apr. 1905Google Scholar; and Moorhead, to Perry, , 19 Sept. 1904Google Scholar, encl. 3 in Brazier, to Bagot, , 7 Apr. 1905, ATCM, ‘G’ Letters from China.Google Scholar

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39 Sheppard, H., Attorney for Livingstone, Halton & Co., London, to Brazier 5 Nov. 1904Google Scholar, end. 1 in Brazier, to Bagot, , 8 Nov. 1904Google Scholar; Brazier, to Bagot, , 22 Mar. 1905Google Scholar and Brazier, to Bagot, , 27 Apr. 1905, ATCMGoogle Scholar, op. cit.

40 Encl. in Cowie, Sec, Transvaal Chamber of Mines, to the Pte. Sec. of the Gov., 29 Dec. 1905, op. cit.; See Tables in Ch. 9 of S. Moroney, op. cit.; Shipping Returns of CMLIA, 1904–7, in CMLIA Circular No. 1029, 8 Feb. 1907. 59 per cent of all Chinese labourers had been landed by 30 Apr. 1905, 11 months after the embarkation of the s.s. Tweeddale.

41 Brazier, to Bagot, , 8 Nov. 1904Google Scholar; Brazier, to Bagot, , 8 Apr. 1905Google Scholar, op. cit.; Richardson, P., ‘Recruiting Activities of the Chamber of Mines in South China, 1903–5’Google Scholar, op. cit.; Perry, F. to C.O. 10 Feb. 1905, C.O. 879/85/761.Google Scholar

42 Reports of the Transvaal Government Mining Engineer, 1906–7; 1907–8.

43 S. Moroney, op. cit. pp. 125–6.

44 Annual Reports, WNLA, 1904–1906Google Scholar: Geographical Origins of Africans Distributed. Figures calculated from the Annual Reports, WNLA and Government Mining Engineer, 1905–7.

45 Denoon, , A Grand Illusion, pp. 156Google Scholar; Annual Report, Transvaal Government Mining Engineer, 1905–1906Google Scholar, For a discussion of the role of cheap Black and Chinese and White scab labour in the 1907 strike see Davies, op. cit.; also ATCM, W9–1907.

46 Memo re Importation Costs, probably Jan. 1904 in ATCM, Ch. 16 as to the possibility of an average importation cost for African and Chinese labour. This was a matter of considerable debate: see Minutes of the Representatives of Mining Groups, 16 Feb. 1904 on the appointment of a sub-Committee to determine whether members should be groups or companies, op. cit.; CMLIA Statistical Return of Chinese Labourers in Employment of Members for July 1907, in ATCM, Ch. 66. The following is the group breakdown:

47 Clauses 5 and 6 of the Contract of Service printed in full in A Handbook of Ordinances, Proclamations, Regulations and Instructions Connected with Importation of Foreign Labour into the Transvaal, (Pretoria, 1906), 4335–3/10/1906–700Google Scholar; see also CO. 291/75/21207, Lyttelton, to Milner, 16 June 1904.Google Scholar

48 For an example of the role of the Chinese Advisor see Richardson, P., ‘Coolies and Randlords: The North Randfontein Chinese Miners “Strike” of 1905’, JSAS, (04 1976), 168–71Google Scholar; for an example of the importance of circularized information see CMLIA Circular No. 116, 7 Aug. 1907 re Disturbance on the Cason Gold Mine, 5 Aug. 1907, ATCM, Ch. 66; for the presence of the CMLIA on an industry deputation to the Government re reduction of Passport fees for Chinese labourers, see Minutes of Deputation from the Transvaal Chamber of Mines to the Acting Lt-Governor, 27 Jan. 1905 in ATCM, Ch. 59. See also Minutes of Conference between Consulting Engineers and the Superintendent of FLD re Fair-day's Work, Efficients and Inefficients, Minimum Average Wage, 3 Feb. 1905, ATCM, Ch. 59.

49 For further discussion of this point see Richardson, , ‘Coolies and Randlords’, pp. 176–7.Google Scholar

50 See Richardson, , ‘Recruiting Activities of the Chamber of Mines in South China, 1903–5’ for elaboration.Google Scholar

51 Jeeves, op. cit. pp. 22–8. For the industry's successful reduction of recruiting and shipping costs see Perry to Committee of Agents, 19 Jan. 1904 quoted in Minutes of Representatives of Mining Groups, 21 Jan. 1904, ATCM. The degree of this indebtedness was striking. For example on the s.s. Ascot which arrived on 26 Apr. 1905 at Durban with 286 labourers for the French Rand Gold Mine (inter alia) contracted at Chefoo, there was 100 per cent indebtedness to the CMLIA: 278 labourers receiving advances of $37 each, and 8 labourers receiving advances of $47 each, making a total cash outlay by the CMLIA of $10,662, or £1,066 4s. for this quarter of the shipment alone. FLD 345 Contract No. 60 of 1905, French Rand Gold Mine, from Chefoo, via s.s. Ascot. This contract was officially approved by the Transvaal Government—See Handbook of Ordinances, op. cit.

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55 See placard by Kang, Ch'en entitled An Exhortation to refrain from Emigration to the Savage Lands of New Foochow [sic], Kuyao [sic], Mexico, Manila and the Transvaal, (transl. by Consular Service), encl. in Amoy Intelligence Report for May-July quarter, 1904, F.O. 228/1545Google Scholar; Richardson, P., ‘The Recruiting Activities of the Chamber of Mines in South China, 1903–5’Google Scholar, op. cit; Statement by the Governor of Shantung, quoted in Johnstone, Secretary to the Commissioner of Weihaiwei, to Commissioner Lockhart, 29 Aug. 1904, encl. in Lockhart, to Lyttelton, , 13 Sept. 1904, CO. 879/85/755Google Scholar; Brazier, to Butler, O'Brien, 21 Mar. 1905Google Scholar, encl. in Brazier, to Bagot, , 5 Apr. 1905, ATCM, ‘G’ Letters from China.Google Scholar

56 Report on a Journey through Shantung Province with Special Reference to South African Emigration by E. D. C. Wolfe (Transvaal Emigration Agent—Chefoo) in FLD 83, file 11/-.

57 Extract from Shantung Ji-bao, 18 Apr. 1905Google Scholar, and Butler, O'Brien to Satow, , 18 Apr. 1903Google Scholar: ends. 1 and 2 in Satow, to Lansdowne, , 26 Apr. 1905Google Scholar —ends. 2 and 3 in F.O. to C.O., 27 June 1905, C.O. 291/90/22228. Report on Recruiting Work in China by Baldwin, G., 11 Oct. 1906Google Scholar; ATCM, Ch. 19. Selborne, to Elgin, , 28 May 1906, Cd. 3038.Google Scholar

58 CMLIA Circular No. 1110, 23 July 1908; ATCM, Ch. 66. Memorandum of Agreement between WNLA and CMLIA, 3 Feb. 1908; ATCM, Ch. 66. Figures for recruiting drawn from WNLA, Annual Reports, 1903–1912Google Scholar. The mobilization of mining interests to protect themselves against the effects of Chinese repatriation was very complex and requires further investigation. For isolated examples see Onselen, Van, Chibaro, 26Google Scholar; Neil-Tomlinson, B., ‘The Nyassa Chartered Company of Mozambique, 1891–1929’, J. Afr. Hist., xviii (1977), pp. 109–128, below.CrossRefGoogle Scholar