Comprador
Comprador or Compradore (Chinese: 江摆渡, jīangbăidù; or 康白度, kāngbăidù) is a term used to describe native managers of European business houses in East Asia, and, by extension, social groups that play broadly similar roles in other parts of the world.
[edit] History
The term comprador, a Portuguese word that means buyer, derives from the Latin comparare, which means to procure.[1] The original usage of the word in East Asia meant a native servant in European households in Guangzhou in southern China or the neighboring Portuguese colony at Macao who went to market to barter their employers' wares.[1][2] The term then evolved to mean the native contract suppliers who worked for foreign companies in East Asia or the native managers of firms in East Asia.[1][2] Compradors held important positions in southern China buying and selling tea, silk, cotton and yarn for foreign corporations and working in foreign-owned banks.[2] Robert Hotung, a late nineteenth century compradore of the British owned trading conglomerate History of Jardine, Matheson & Co. was believed to be the richest man in Hong Kong by the age of 35.[3] Notable compradors during the Republican Period in 20th century China included Zhang Jiaao of Shanghai and Tong King-sing of Guangdong.
In Marxism, the term comprador bourgeoisie was later applied to similar trading-class in regions outside of East Asia.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Comprador". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. - ^ a b c Bergere, Marie-Clarie (1989). The Golden Age of the Chinese Bourgeoisie 1911-1937. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 38–39. 0521320542.
- ^ Tsang, Steve (2007). A Modern History of Hong Kong. I. B. Taurus & Company. ISBN 9781845114190.
- ^ Slobodan Antonić: Компрадори
[edit] External links
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