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80-533: The Raphaël Fishing Company Ltd is a Mauritian fishing company incorporated on 7 July 1927 in Port Louis , Mauritius. It is the second oldest commercial company in Mauritius, after Mauritius Commercial Bank (1828). The company is a fisheries company which is notable under common law for having set legal precedent in the conversion of its 123-year old unlimited jouissance (permanent lease/ 999-year lease ) into

160-1263: A permanent grant by the UK Privy Council in 2008 giving it title to thirteen islands known as The Thirteen Islands of St Brandon in the Indian Ocean on the isolated archipelago of the Cargados Carajos shoals . Raphael Fishing Company has resident fishermen and fishing stations on the Cargados Carajos shoals . The company provides support, victuals and infrastructure to sustain fishing and associated activities from fishing stations in St Brandon and through offices in Port Louis . Fishing operations are artisanal, being carried out by about forty fishermen in teams of two using hand lines in fibre glass pirogues. Nets are illegal in St Brandon. The company's primary ships in 2022 were MV Albatross and MV Fregate which were specially designed and commissioned in 2017 to transport fish, supplies and personnel between fishing stations in St. Brandon and Port Louis (a distance of approximately 469 km), where

240-710: A Mr Talbot who purported to own six islands and the Iles Boisées. The proceedings were against M. Talbot with the State of Mauritius as a co-defendant. On 30 May 2005, the legal proceedings by Raphael Fishing Company Ltd., appeared to have come to an unsuccessful end in Mauritian Courts which refused the Raphael Fishing Co. Ltd., leave to appeal to the UK Privy Council . On 27 July 2006, the UK Privy Council (which has

320-602: A cheap source of manpower. As a consequence, a large-scale trade of primarily Indian and Chinese indentured labourers began in the 1820s to fill this need. In 1838, 396 South Asian workers arrived in British Guiana, and such a stream of migrant labour would continue until the First World War . Other European nations, especially colonial powers such as France, Spain, and Portugal, soon followed suit, especially as Britain, through several treaties such as Strangford Treaty and

400-561: A dollar would be taken from coolies every month in order to pay off their debts. Workers from China were mainly transported to work in Peru and Cuba . However, many Chinese labourers worked in British colonies such as Singapore , New South Wales , Jamaica , British Guiana (now Guyana ), British Malaya , Trinidad and Tobago , British Honduras (now Belize ), as well as in the Dutch colonies within

480-413: A labour force, and maintained better hygiene habits in comparison to Indian labourers, who were viewed as being lower in status and treated as children who required constant supervision. Unlike slavery, coolie labour was (in theory) under contract, consensual, paid, and temporary, with the coolie able to regain complete freedom after their term of service. Regulations were put in place as early as 1837 by

560-409: A long struggle by the indentured for respect. The term applied to the indentured during this period, and which has since become a derogatory term for Mauritians of Asian descent, was coolie . The island soon became the key-point in the trade of indentured labourers, as thousands of Indians set forth from Calcutta or Karikal ; not only did they modify the social, political and economic physiognomies of

640-500: A million indentured labourers were present on the island. They worked on sugar estates, factories, in transport, and on construction sites. In 1837, the British East India Company issued a set of regulations for the trade. The rules provided for each labourer to be personally authorised for transportation by an officer designated by the company, limited the length of service to five years subject to voluntary renewal, made

720-510: A much greater extent than their Indian counterparts, and consequently, there was a much higher level of Chinese emigration during this period. The trade flourished from 1847 to 1854 without incident, until reports began to surface of the mistreatment of the workers in Cuba and Peru. As the British government had political and legal responsibility for many of the ports involved – including Amoy – such ports were immediately closed. Despite these closures,

800-404: A severe minority, their morality was questioned and the actions of men as a result of having so few women was blamed on the women. Between 1858 and 1859, laws were put into place stating that the ratio of men to women could not exceed 2:1, whereas before it was 3:1. However, there continued to be a severe shortage of women. This gave women a new sense of power when it came to choosing a partner. With

880-587: A term of service. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act barred the entry of any Chinese labourer to the U.S. Despite attempts to restrict the influx of cheap labour from China, beginning in the 1870s Chinese workers helped construct a vast network of levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta . These levees made thousands of acres of fertile marshlands available for agricultural production. Although Chinese workers contributed to

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960-599: A total of up to half a million Chinese workers had been exported. However, by 1890, there were still newspaper reports of coolie labour being used in Madagascar. The term coolie was also applied to Chinese workers recruited for contracts on cacao plantations in German Samoa . German planters went to great lengths to secure access to their coolie labour supply from China. In 1908, a Chinese commissioner, Lin Shu Fen, reported on

1040-485: A transition between slaves and free labour. They were neither free nor slaves. Indentured Chinese servants also laboured in the sugarcane fields of Cuba well after the 1884 abolition of slavery in the country. Two scholars of Chinese labour in Cuba, Juan Pastrana and Juan Pérez de la Riva , substantiated horrific conditions of Chinese coolies in Cuba and stated that coolies were slaves in all but name. Researcher Denise Helly believes that despite their slave-like treatment,

1120-515: A treaty with the United Kingdom on the recruitment of contract workers in 1870. In Mauritius, the Indian population is now demographically dominant, with Indian festivals being celebrated as national holidays . This system prevailed until the early twentieth century. Increasing focus on the brutalities and abuses of the trade by the sensationalist media of the time incited public outrage and led to

1200-527: A variety of negative implications. In modern-day English, it is usually regarded as offensive. In India, its country of origin, it is considered a derogatory slur. In many respects it is similar to the Spanish term peón , although both terms are used in some countries with different implications. In the 21st century, coolie is generally considered a racial slur for Asians in Oceania , Africa, Southeast Asia, and

1280-434: A way that they became dependent on the plantation owners so that in practice they remained there long after their contracts expired; possibly as little as 10% of the coolies actually returned to their original country of origin. Colonial legislation was also passed to severely limit their freedoms; in Mauritius, a compulsory pass system was instituted to enable their movements to be easily tracked. Conditions were much worse in

1360-501: Is a form of human slavery, and is forever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for coolie labour shall be void." In 1938, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the term in one of his fireside chats (Number 13, 24 July 1938) while telling a story about "two Chinese coolies" arguing in a crowd. In South America, Chinese indentured labourers worked in Peru's silver mines and coastal industries (i.e., guano , sugar, and cotton) from

1440-662: Is a major reference for identity opened to otherness and is widely used in Mauritius where it represents a humanism of diversity . Subsequent to a Constitutional amendment in 1982, there is no need for Mauritians to reveal their ethnic identities for the purpose of population census. Official statistics on ethnicity are not available. The 1972 census was the last one to measure ethnicity. Statistics Mauritius compiles data on religious affiliation every ten years during census. The Mauritian diaspora consists of Mauritian emigrants and their descendants in various countries around

1520-633: Is preferable to life on a par with the Chinese." In 1868, the Burlingame Treaty would ensure certain protections for Chinese immigrants in the U.S. and emphasise that any Chinese immigration to the U.S. must be free and voluntary, reaffirming that "coolies", being unfree, were unwelcome and prohibited from entering the U.S. In 1875, Congress passed the Page Act , which prohibited the bringing of any Chinese subjects without their consent in order to hold them for

1600-621: Is set to release in 2025. It is generally understood that the term comes from the Hindi and Telugu word kulī ( कुली ), (కూలి) , meaning "day-labourer", which is probably associated with the Urdu word quli ( قلی ), meaning "slave". The Urdu word is thought to come from the Tamil word kulī ("hire" or "hireling"). The word kūli , meaning "wages", is present throughout the Dravidian language family, with

1680-437: Is the holder of a Permanent Grant of the islands mentioned in the 1901 Deed (...) subject to the conditions therein referred to". This effectively transferred ownership of the thirteen islands to the company. These conditions were: Mauritians Mauritian Creoles trace their origins to the plantation owners and slaves who were brought to work the sugar fields. When slavery was abolished on 1 February 1835, an attempt

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1760-646: The Atlantic slave trade and slavery itself, which for centuries had served as the preferred mode of labour in European colonies in the Americas . The British were the first to experiment with coolie labour when, in 1806, two hundred Chinese labourers were transported to the colony of Trinidad to work on the plantations there. The "Trinidad experiment" was not a success, with only twenty to thirty labourers remaining in Trinidad by

1840-581: The Atlantic slave trade . Mortality was very high; it is estimated that from 1847 to 1859, the average mortality rate for coolies aboard ships to Cuba was 15.2%, and losses among ships to Peru were as high as 40% in the 1850s, and 30.44% from 1860 to 1863. Coolies were sold and taken to work in plantations or mines with very bad living and working conditions. The duration of a contract was typically five to eight years, but many coolies did not live out their term of service due to hard labour and mistreatment. Survivors were often forced to remain in servitude beyond

1920-623: The British authorities in India to safeguard these principles of voluntary, contractual work and safe, sanitary transportation. The Chinese government also made efforts to secure the well-being of their nation's workers, with representatives being sent to relevant governments around the world. Some Western abolitionists saw coolie labour as paving the way towards abolition , to gradually and peacefully replace African slave labour without loss of profit. However, other abolitionist groups and individuals – such as

2000-634: The Chinese Engineering and Mining Company was instrumental in supplying Chinese coolie labour to South African mines at the request of mine owners, who considered such labour cheaper than native African and white labour. The horrendous conditions suffered by Indian coolie labourers in South Africa led some politicians in the British Parliament to question the coolie system. In 1866, the British, French and Chinese governments agreed to mitigate

2080-521: The Dutch East Indies and Suriname . The first shipment of Chinese labourers was to the British colony of Trinidad in 1806 "in an attempt to establish a settlement of free peasant cultivators and labourers". On many of the voyages, the labourers were transported on the same vessels that had been used to transport African slaves in previous years. The coolie slave trade run by American captains and local agents, mainly consisting of debt slavery ,

2160-560: The Opium Wars , as well as the resulting political and economic instability, to broker deals for "contracted" workers. Anglophone capitalists referred to the opium trade and captive Chinese labour as "poison and pigs". Portuguese Macao was the center of coolie slavery: it was described as "the only real business" in Macao from 1848 to 1873, generating enormous profits for the Portuguese until it

2240-510: The Treaty of Paris of 1814 , also pressured other nations to abolish their involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. In most European colonies, the importation of Asian labourers began in earnest after the abolition of slavery. However, in some colonies, such as Cuba , slavery would not end until 1886, about forty years after coolies were introduced. A number of contemporary and modern historians noted

2320-720: The 1820s. However, such efforts inspired Sir John Gladstone , one of the earliest proponents of coolie labour, to seek out coolies for his sugar plantations in British Guiana in the hopes of replacing his Afro-Caribbean labour force after the abolition of slavery there in 1833 . Social and political pressure led to the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833, with other European nations eventually following suit. Labour-intensive work in European colonies, such as those involving plantations and mines, were left without

2400-458: The 1866 reforms, the scale of abuse and conditions of near slavery did not get any better – if anything they deteriorated. In the early 1870s, an increased media exposure of the trade led to a public outcry, and the British, as well as the Chinese government, put pressure on the Portuguese colonial authorities in Macau to bring the trade there to an end; this was ultimately achieved in 1874. By that time,

2480-570: The Americas; particularly in the Caribbean . The word originated in the 17th-century Indian subcontinent and meant "day labourer"; starting in the 20th century, the word was used in British Raj India to refer to porters at railway stations. The term differs from the word " Dougla ", which refers to people of mixed African and Indian ancestry. Coolie is instead used to refer to people of fully-blooded Indian descent whose ancestors migrated to

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2560-454: The Asian population was soon a major component of the island demographic. Starting in 1879, many Indians were transported to Fiji to work on the sugarcane plantations. Many of them chose to stay after their term of indenture elapsed, and today their descendants account for about 40% of the total population. Indian workers were also imported into the Dutch colony of Surinam after the Dutch signed

2640-582: The British Anti-Slavery Society and the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society , along with American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison – were highly critical of coolie labour. Proslavery advocates, particularly in the Southern United States , condemned coolie labour but used it to argue against the abolition of American slavery , claiming the latter was more "humane" than the former. In practice, however, as many opponents of

2720-463: The British authorities to regulate and mitigate the worst abuses. Workers were regularly checked up on by health inspectors , and they were vetted before transportation to ensure that they were suitably healthy and fit to be able to endure the rigours of labour. Children under the age of 15 were not allowed to be transported from their parents under any circumstances. The first campaign in England against

2800-817: The British former colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. This is particularly so in South Africa , Eastern African countries, Trinidad and Tobago , Guyana , Suriname , Jamaica , other parts of the Caribbean , Mauritius , Fiji , and the Malay Peninsula . In modern Indian popular culture, coolies have often been portrayed as working-class heroes or anti-heroes. Indian films celebrating coolies include Deewaar (1975), Coolie (1983), and several films titled Coolie No. 1 (released in 1991 , 1995 , and 2020 ). A new Tamil movie titled Coolie starring Rajinikanth

2880-477: The Chinese coolies who arrived in Peru between 1849 and 1874 died within the contract period. In 1860, it was calculated that of the 4,000 coolies brought to the Chinchas since the trade began, not one had survived. Because of these unbearable conditions, Chinese coolies often revolted against their Ko-Hung bosses and foreign company bosses at ports of departure, on ships, and in foreign lands. The coolies were put in

2960-526: The French colonies of Réunion, Guadeloupe, and Martinique, where workers were 'systematically overworked' and abnormally high mortality rates were recorded for those working in the mines. Generally, Indian coolies were noted to have higher mortality rates as a whole, and were less likely to be able to return home. Companies would often promise good food, durable clothing, adequate housing, safe passage, and schools. However, these promises were rarely kept, leading to

3040-666: The Grenadines , Grenada , Saint Kitts and Nevis , British Honduras , Barbados , the rest of the British West Indies , and British Malaya . The Dutch shipped workers to labour on the plantations on Surinam , the Netherlands Antilles , and the Dutch East Indies . The French shipped labourers to Guadeloupe , Martinique , French Guiana , the rest of the French West Indies , and Réunion . A system of agents

3120-516: The Raphael Fishing Company Ltd., purchased the rights and interests of St Brandon Fish & Manure Co. Ltd., under the 11 October 1901 deed, after it had gone into liquidation, from Mr. Ulcoq who had bought them from the liquidator in 1925. The sale to M. Ulcoq and the subsequent sale to Raphael Fishing Co. Ltd., were duly approved by the state. On 11 August 1995, court proceedings were started by The Raphael Fishing Company Ltd., against

3200-456: The abuse by requiring all traders to pay for the return of all workers after their contract ended. The employers in the British West Indies declined these conditions, bringing the trade there to an end. Until the trade was finally abolished in 1875, over 150,000 coolies had been sold to Cuba alone, the majority having been shipped from Macau. These labourers endured conditions far worse than those experienced by their Indian counterparts. Even after

3280-478: The authorities when the scale of the abuses became known, but it was soon renewed due to its growing economic importance. A more rigorous regulatory framework was put into place and severe penalties were imposed for infractions in 1842. In that year, almost 35,000 people were shipped to Mauritius. In 1844, the trade was expanded to the colonies in the West Indies , including Jamaica, Trinidad, and Demerara , where

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3360-532: The beginning of the end of slavery; in September of that year, Lincoln would also issue the Emancipation Proclamation . In another aspect, it was the beginning of Chinese exclusion in the U.S. and the beginning of federal immigration restriction. Within a decade, significant levels of anti-Chinese sentiment had built up, stoked by populists such as Denis Kearney with racist slogans – "To an American, death

3440-525: The building of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States and of the Canadian Pacific Railway in western Canada, Chinese settlement was discouraged after completion of the construction. State legislation, such as California's Foreign Miners' Tax Act of 1850 and 1852, would target Chinese immigrants in the U.S. The 1879 Constitution of California declared that "Asiatic coolieism

3520-667: The contracted period. The 1860 Reglamento para la introducción de trabajadores chinos a la isla de Cuba (Regulation for the Introduction of Chinese Workers to the Island of Cuba) passed in Cuba. This regulation stipulated that the Coolie workers must recontract with their previous employer or another employer or they must leave Cuba at their own expense within 2 months after the end of their contract. Coolies were usually unable to afford to leave Cuba and were forced to recontract. This regulation blurred

3600-637: The contractor responsible for returning the worker after the contract elapsed, and required the vessels to conform to basic health standards . Despite this, conditions on the ships were often extremely crowded, with rampant disease and malnutrition . Coolies were also not informed about the length of the trip or about the island that they would be going to. The workers were paid a pittance for their labour, and were expected to work in often awful and harsh conditions. Although there were no large-scale scandals involving coolie abuse in British colonies, workers often ended up being forced to work, and manipulated in such

3680-535: The coolie trade likened the system of indentured labour to the slavery of the past. The campaign against coolie emigration was led by Joseph Sturge , with the Society of Friends. Petitions from Sturge, the Society of Friends, various other humanitarian groups, and from citizens of entire cities were routinely sent to the Colonial Offices. In response to this pressure, the labour export was temporarily stopped in 1839 by

3760-467: The cruel treatment of coolie workers on German plantations in the western Samoan Islands. The trade began largely after the establishment of colonial German Samoa in 1900 and lasted until the arrival of New Zealand forces in 1914. More than 2,000 Chinese coolies were present in the islands in 1914 and most were eventually repatriated by the New Zealand administration. Debates over coolie labour and slavery

3840-547: The distinction between indentured servitude and slavery. It allowed for the Coolies to serve as a source of semi-captive labour given the intentional difficulty of returning home. The coolies who worked on the sugar plantations in Cuba and in the guano beds of the Chincha Islands ('the islands of Hell') of Peru were treated brutally. 75% of the Chinese coolies in Cuba died before fulfilling their contracts. More than two-thirds of

3920-616: The early 1850s to the mid-1870s; about 100,000 people immigrated as indentured workers. They participated in the War of the Pacific , looting and burning down the haciendas where they worked after the capture of Lima by the invading Chilean army in January 1880. Some 2,000 coolies even joined the Chilean Army in Peru, taking care of the wounded and burying the dead. Others were sent by Chileans to work in

4000-675: The exception of the North Dravidian branch. It is also thought that the Hindi word qulī could have originated from the name of a Gujarati aboriginal tribe or caste. The Chinese word kǔlì ( 苦力 ) is an instance of phono-semantic matching that literally translates to "bitter strength" but is more commonly understood as "hard labour". In 1727, Engelbert Kämpfer described coolies as dock labourers who would unload Dutch merchant ships at Nagasaki in Japan. Merriam-Webster classifies

4080-535: The fish is sold immediately upon arrival. The company is named for a Captain Raphaël, who owned the lease to Île Raphaël and had installations on the corner of rue des Pamplemousses and rue Fanfaron in Port Louis. Captain Raphaël travelled regularly to Île Raphael , St Brandon from Port Louis and, on 17 May 1816 and November 1817, is on record as bringing back salted fish on a Lugger called 'Le Cheriby'. In 1928,

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4160-503: The free and legal status of the Asian labourers in Cuba separated them from slaves. According to Rodriguez Pastor and Trazegnies Granda, the coolies could challenge their superiors, run away, petition government officials, and rebel. By 1870, labour contractors called enganchadores were used to manage and negotiate the contracts for Chinese Coolies in organised labour squads called Cuadrillas. “The enganchador negotiated all terms of work for his squad and handled all aspects of employment for

4240-583: The great majority of them carried men. This led to a high rate of Chinese men marrying women of other ethnicities, such as Indian women and mixed-race Creole women. The contrast in the female-to-male ratio between Indian and Chinese immigrants has been compared by historians. In Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies, just 18,731 Chinese women and 92,985 Chinese men served as coolies on plantations. Chinese women migrated less than Javanese and Indian women as indentured coolies. The number of Chinese women as coolies

4320-496: The higher mortality rate and image of Indian coolies being "dirty". The voyage itself was often a highly dangerous venture, especially for coolie women. Though some ships had made attempts to prevent assault, rape, and general mistreatment in sailor contracts, these crimes were still common. Even with punishments in place, on ship and land, men who assaulted women and children were rarely punished, leaving women in an even more vulnerable position. However, there were also attempts by

4400-593: The influence of the old form of colonial slavery on the coolie system. The coolie trade, much like the slave trade, was intended to provide a labour force for colonial plantations in the Americas and the Pacific whose cash crops were in high demand across the Atlantic World . Coolies frequently worked on slave plantations which had been previously worked by enslaved Africans, and similarly brutal treatment could be meted out by plantation overseers in response to real or perceived offences. On some Caribbean plantations,

4480-618: The island, but some also went farther, to the West Indies . Indo-Mauritians are descended from Indian immigrants who arrived in the 19th century via the Aapravasi Ghat in order to work as indentured labourers after slavery was abolished in 1835. Included in the Indo-Mauritian community are Hindus (48.5% of the Mauritian population) and Muslims (17.2%) from the Indian subcontinent. The Franco-Mauritian elite controlled nearly all of

4560-528: The large sugar estates and was active in business and banking. As the Indian population became numerically dominant after independence from British rule and the voting franchise was extended, political and economic power shifted from the Franco-Mauritians and their Creole allies to the Indo-Mauritians. The meeting of a mosaic of people from Europe, India, Africa and China began a process of hybridisation and intercultural frictions and dialogues, which poet Khal Torabully has termed "coolitude". This social reality

4640-447: The last part of the nineteenth century alone, there were 24 famines. Without permission from the British colonial authorities , the French transported Indian workers to their Pacific colony, Réunion, from as early as 1826. By 1830, over 3,000 labourers had been transported. After this trade was discovered, the French successfully negotiated with the British in 1860 for permission to transport over 6,000 workers annually, on condition that

4720-422: The nation. Their ancestors and more recent migrants are now known as Mauritian Australians . Aboriginal people from islands south of the continent likewise settled in Australia. Coolie Coolie (also spelled koelie , kouli , khuli , khulie , kuli , cooli , cooly , or quli ) is a pejorative term used for low-wage labourers , typically those of Indian or Chinese descent. The word coolie

4800-632: The newly conquered nitrate fields . By the 1820s, many Indians were voluntarily enlisting to go abroad for work, in the hopes of a better life. European merchants and businessmen quickly took advantage of this and began recruiting them for work as a cheap source of labour. British merchants began transporting Indians to colonies around the world, including Mauritius , Fiji , New South Wales , Natal , Kenya , Tanganyika , Somaliland , Bechuanaland , Seychelles , Uganda , Northern Rhodesia , Southern Rhodesia , Nyasaland , British Guiana , Trinidad and Tobago , Jamaica , Saint Lucia , Saint Vincent and

4880-566: The numbers of coolies present could reach up to six hundred. In 1878, historian W. L. Distant wrote an article for the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute , detailing his time spent on West Indian plantations observing the work ethic and behaviours of coolies, and noted that many overseers believed that Asian coolies, much like enslaved Africans, held an affinity for intensive outdoor labour work. The views of overseers towards coolies differed based on ethnicity: Chinese and Japanese coolies were perceived to be harder working, more unified as

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4960-506: The official ending of the coolie trade in 1916 by the British government. By that time, tens of thousands of Chinese workers were being used along the Western Front by the allied forces (see Chinese Labour Corps ). A major difference between the Chinese and Indian coolie trades was that women and children were brought from India, along with men, while Chinese coolies were 99% male. Although there are reports of ships (so called 'coolie ships') for Asian coolies carrying women and children,

5040-531: The period 1863 to 1877 reveals great variation in the terms of the new contracts, diverging not only from the original ones, but from each other. First, most coolies signed up for only one year, at most two years, and some for as few as three and six months – all far short of another eight years. Second, the monthly wages not only varied, but were always greater than the 4 pesos in the original contracts, in some cases significantly greater. Many specified payment in “peso fuerte,” that is, hard currency, not vouchers, which

5120-442: The power to do this under the Mauritian Constitution) intervened to grant the Raphael Fishing Company Ltd., leave to appeal. On 30 July 2008, in keeping with the Constitution of Mauritius, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council rendered its verdict as follows: "For the reasons given in the above judgment the Board will allow this appeal, set aside the orders made in the courts below and declare that [the Raphael Fishing Co. Ltd.,]

5200-564: The same neighbourhoods as Africans and, since most were unable to return to their homeland or have their wives come to the New World, many married African women. The coolies' interracial relationships and marriages with Africans, Europeans, and Indigenous peoples , formed some of the modern world's Afro-Asian and Asian Latin American populations. In Spanish, coolies were referred to as colonos asiáticos ('Asian colonists'). The Spanish colony of Cuba feared slave uprisings such as those that took place in Haiti , and used coolies as

5280-425: The sugar cane fields from the port of Xiamen , one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened to the British by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The trade soon spread to other ports in Guangdong , and demand became particularly strong in Peru for workers in the silver mines and the guano collecting industry. Australia began importing workers in 1848. These workers were deceived about their terms of employment to

5360-570: The system argued, abuse and violence in the coolie trade was rampant. Some of these labourers signed employment contracts based on misleading promises, while others were kidnapped and sold into servitude; some were victims of clan violence whose captors sold them to coolie merchants, while others sold themselves to pay off gambling debts. Those who did sign on voluntarily generally had contracts of two to five years. In addition to having their passage paid for, coolies were also paid under twenty cents per day on average. However, in certain regions, roughly

5440-414: The term coolie as "usually offensive". Oxford English Dictionary states it is "dated, offensive". Dictionary.com considers it "disparaging and offensive". The importation of Asian labourers into European colonies occurred as early as the 17th century. However, in the 19th century, a far more robust system of trade involving coolies occurred, in direct response to the gradual abolition of both

5520-400: The trade simply shifted to the more accommodating port within the Portuguese enclave of Macau . Many coolies were first deceived or kidnapped, and then kept in barracoons (detention centres) or loading vessels in the ports of departure, as were African slaves . Their voyages, which are sometimes called the Pacific Passage, were as inhumane and dangerous as the notorious Middle Passage of

5600-451: The trade would be suspended if abuses were discovered to be taking place. The British began to transport Indians to Mauritius starting in 1829. Slavery was abolished there in 1833, with Mauritian planters receiving two million pounds sterling in compensation for the loss of their slaves. The planters turned to bringing in a large number of indentured labourers from India to work in the sugar cane fields. Between 1834 and 1921, around half

5680-475: The workers, including obtaining advances from the planters for salaries, distributing tools, arranging housing and food, and assuming responsibility for discipline, control, and supervision.” (Hu-DeHart). The enganchador had flexibility in the length of the Coolies’ recontract. The Coolie was also able to negotiate their wages and often had the upper hand as the employer had to yield to market forces. “Recontracting terms varied considerably. A batch of recontracts from

5760-403: The world, mainly Great Britain ( United Kingdom ), Australia , New Zealand, Canada, France, Ireland and Belgium. Given the island's importance for international shipping routes and limited opportunities locally, Mauritian Creole people settled internationally before some of these countries were founded as nations. For example, Mauritians settled on the continent of Australia before federation of

5840-404: Was "very small" while Chinese men were easily taken into the coolie trade. In Cuba, men made up the vast majority of Chinese indentured servants on sugar plantations; in Peru, non-Chinese women married the mostly male Chinese coolies. Polyandry was a common practice among Indian coolies. Between 1845 and 1917, twenty-five per cent of all Indians brought to the Caribbean were women. With women as

5920-489: Was banned due to pressure from the British government. Between 1851 and 1874 approximately 215,000 Chinese were shipped from Macau overseas, primarily to Cuba and Peru, with some being shipped to Guiana, Suriname, and Costa Rica . These coolies were obtained via a variety of sources, including some who were entrapped by brokers in Macau through loans for gambling, and others who were kidnapped or coerced. In 1847, two ships from Cuba transported workers to Havana to work in

6000-473: Was called the 'pig trade' as the living conditions were not dissimilar to that of livestock; on some vessels as many as 40 per cent of the coolies died en route. As many as 500 were crammed into a single ship hold, leaving no room to move. The coolies were also stamped on their backs like livestock. Foreign merchants took advantage of the unequal treaties negotiated between the Qing government and Western powers after

6080-404: Was first used in the 16th century by European traders across Asia. In the 18th century, the term more commonly referred to migrant Indian indentured labourers . In the 19th century, during the British colonial era , the term was adopted for the transportation and employment of Asian labourers via employment contracts on sugar plantations formerly worked by enslaved Africans. The word has had

6160-602: Was key in shaping the history of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. In February 1862, "An Act to Prohibit the 'Coolie Trade' by American Citizens in American vessels", also known as the Anti-Coolie Act , was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln, which prohibited any U.S. citizens and residents from trading in Chinese subjects, known as "coolies". In one aspect, the Anti-Coolie Act was the last of the U.S. slave trade laws, as well as

6240-408: Was made to secure a cheap source of adaptable labour for intensive sugar plantations in Mauritius. Indentured labour began with Indian, Chinese, Malay, African and Malagasy labourers, but ultimately, it was India which supplied the much needed labourers to Mauritius, mainly sugar cane workers. This period of intensive use of Indian labour took place during British rule , with many brutal episodes and

6320-643: Was often used during the eight year original indenture.” (Hu-DeHart). Once they had fulfilled their contracts, colonos asiáticos integrated into the countries of Peru, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. They adopted cultural traditions from the natives and welcomed non-Chinese to experience and participate in their traditions. Before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Havana had Latin America's largest Chinatown . From c.  1902–1910 ,

6400-537: Was used to infiltrate the rural villages of India and recruit labourers. They would often deceive the credulous workers about the great opportunities that awaited them for their own material betterment abroad. The Indians primarily came from the Indo-Gangetic Plain , but also from Tamil Nadu and other areas to the south of the country. Indians had faced a great number of social and economic disasters, causing them to be more eager than other groups to leave India. In

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