Expanding Possibilities 409
They held temple festivals to celebrate the birthdays of the Protectress of
the Sea, Mazu (or Tian Hou, the Heavenly Queen) and the God of Fortune,
enlivened by processions and banquets. Besides strengthening the
comradeship among the members, these social functions provided good
occasions for building close-knit tripartite relationships, as in Amoy and
other cities, among the merchants, ofβicials and members of the gentry.^214
In the Nanyang, the Chinese migrant population had been increasing
throughout several centuries of contacts. John Crawfurd estimated the
Chinese immigrants in Southeast Asia around 1830 to be 800,000. Some
7,000 came to Siam annually while he was there.^215 Although there is no
way to verify the accuracy of the βigures, the numbers must have been
large. In Bangkok, the population composition resembled that of Manila
and Batavia, all three having a large Chinese community. The Chinese
population in Bangkok was 31,000 in 1822. In 1849, it had increased to
81,000 out of a total population of 160,000.^216 By the early nineteenth
century, the Chinese of Chaozhou origins had formed the majority among
their Chinese compatriots. In the economic arena, the Chinese were
granted preferential treatment by the Siamese authorities. John Crawfurd
acknowledged his envy of the privileged position of the Chinese:
[The Chinese] were allowed to buy and sell without any
inconvenient restriction. However, [an] American ship sailed about
this time, after being detained near six weeks; and the commander,
although he required but a small quantity of sugar to make up his
cargo, and had paid for it in ready money, was subjected to much
vexation, and imposition. The English vessel from Calcutta was
treated in the same manner.^217John Crawfurd also remarked that the Siamese shipping amounted to
about 24,562 tons and employed 4,912 Chinese. It was an average of 20
hands to each hundred ton.^218 In their capacity as investors, executives
or managers, the Chinese were also the business partners of royalty and
the nobility. The reason for the Chinese success in often being trusted
by the local regime could be ascribed to what Crawfurd depicts, just like
elsewhere in the region, that “[t]he peaceful, unambitious, and supple
character of the Chinese, and the conviction of their exclusive devotion
to commercial pursuits” had disarmed the native governments of their
- Ng Chin-keong, Trade and Society, pp. 178‒83.
- John Crawfurd’s testimony, 1830, pp. 448, 451.
- Sarasin Viraphol, Tribute and Proϔit, p. 213.
- John Crawfurd, Journal of the Embassy, p. 175.
- Cited in Sarasin Viraphoy, Tribute and Proϔit, p. 187.