REFRAMING CHINESE BUSINESS INTERMEDIARIES: A HISTORIOGRAPHICAL COMPARISON OF THE COMPRADORS, TOWKAYS AND REVENUE FARMERS IN 19TH CENTURY SINGAPORE AND HONG KONG

Abstract

This thesis serves as a comparative review of the Chinese business histories of nineteenth century Singapore and Hong Kong. For two British colonies that have always been noted for the similarities in their economic character and further hedged within the deeply intertwined business environments of East and Southeast Asia, it is surprising that there has not been much dialogue between scholars of both fields in their interrogation of each localities’ business actors and institutions. Through a comparison of their key intermediary business characters (the towkay and comprador), colonial economic institutions (revenue farms), and Chinese mercantile leadership patterns, this thesis serves as a starting point to facilitate inter-regional dialogue on intra-Asian Chinese business networks and challenge the scholarship on both sides to be clearer about their unique specificities and potential blind spots. Pushing past surface semblances, I argue that the diverging Chinese business patterns in either port city can ultimately be traced to the contrasting colonial economic structures of southern China and Southeast Asia. And as much as their commercial roles were derived from the specific economic environments they were embedded in, the compradors, towkays and revenue farmers will in turn mould the contours of the fascinating economic and sociopolitical landscapes of British colonial Hong Kong and Singapore as their characters mature.