19世纪中叶赴美合同制华工与赊单制华工的比较

Comparison of the Contracted Labor and the Credit-Ticket Labor of Chinese to United States in the Middle of the 19^(th) Century

19世纪华工出洋的情况经常被笼统地归于契约劳工体系,美国学者当中有不少人认为华工赴美仍有苦力贸易的成分,但又缺乏有力证据证明。本文试图厘清契约劳工体系下,契约华工赴美的两种不同方式,即将债务合同与劳务合同绑定的合同制劳工和自愿且带有信贷色彩的赊单制劳工。华工出洋方式的演变既反映了晚清时期中国珠三角地区在近代化过程中不断适应西方世界经济体系的尝试,也从一个侧面折射出晚清珠三角地区民间经济的活力和潜力。

Chinese emigration in the 19th century is often broadly classified as indentured laborer,and American academia＇s stereotype of Chinese indenture labor is still“coolie”,yet this claim lacked of solid evidence. This pa-per tries to clarify and classify two different practice of Chinese indentured labor to United States and Hawaii,one is the contracted labor who bond by the joint of debt contract and labor contract,another is the credit-ticket labor vol-unteered and collateralized by his or his relatives’credit instead of labor contract. This evolution of indentured la-borer proves Guangdong province in the 19 th century is a region initiatively trying to adapt the western civilization dominated world system,and also a region has great potential in its socio-economy to join the world trade.