THE EMERGENCE AND and governmental institutions, which were THE WAY OF LIFE OF THE changed in King Rama V’s reformation. WAGE LABORER CLASS IN The research found that the laborer class THAILAND FROM THE END in Thailand emerged at the end of the 18th OF THE 18TH TO THE 19TH century in a situation where production 1 for export and trade prospered. They were CENTURY all Chinese laborers. They used the “kongsi” system in their community and in 2 Punnee Bualek their ways of production. Moreover, they used the “kongsi” system for trading and protecting themselves from outsiders. The Abstract “kongsi” system had a horizontal relationship that emphasized brotherhood, This research explores the answers to partnership and equality among its three significant questions. 1) When and members. Later on, this system was in what conditions did the wage laborer superseded by the triad system, which was class emerge in Thailand? 2) What kinds a vertical relationship. The triad, or of relationships were there between the T’ien-ti Hui, or secret societies, were wage laborers and the productivity governed by a hierarchy and had strict process? 3) Under those relationships, rules, so in this organization equality what were their real lives and way of life disappeared. Its ritual oath-taking ceremony like? and use of opium made the triads tightly- knit. Consequently, coolies and employers The first groups of hired laborers in could not be separated within the triad Thailand were Chinese coolies, the “kongsi” system. Coolies would be well outsiders of the “phrai” system. To study taken care of if they demonstrated loyalty this laborer group, we should understand to and worked hard for their employers, four inter-related factors. The first are the but they would be severely punished if they problems within China that pushed lacked these qualities. Chinese emigrants from their homeland. The second are the trading and production This research draws a clear picture of the changes in Southeast Asia, which came coolies’ lives in the early Rattanakosin from many factors both inside and outside period to the beginning of King Rama VI, the region. The third is the power of in the shipping and the ship-building Western countries, which influenced industry, the sugar industry, pirate Southeast Asia at that time. The fourth are organizations, tin mines and various the conditions and problems in Thai economic activities in the capital, “sakdina” society, including the political Bangkok. The triad “kongsi” system gradually faded 1 The research project on which this article is out at the end of the 19th century when based was financially supported by The there were many changes in Thai society Thailand Research Fund (TRF). brought about by both Western influences 2 Associate Professor, Graduate School, Krirk and the attitude of the Thai government. University, Bangkok, Thailand At that time, Bangkok became the hub of Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 10:37:21PM via free access MANUSYA: Journal of Humanities 11.2, 2008 export production. After that, the triad Chew, in which he specifically studies the “kongsi” system was not suited to the kongsi system in Sarawak (Chew 1990). urban way of life in a modern city such as Bangkok. The employers or the rich were The three works are different when the first to separate themselves from the explaining the characteristics of the kongsi “kongsi” system. Some of them moved to system but they are similar in explaining become aristocratic Thai. They absorbed their establishment and ruin. Moreover, both Western and Thai “sakdina” culture they emphasize that the kongsi system and then neglected the “kongsi” Chinese were almost inevitable for most overseas culture. They established, instead, new Chinese as is shown by their establishment organizations like merchant guilds and in Borneo by the Hakka from the end of chambers of commerce. These groups of the eighteenth until the end of the merchants were called “thaokae.” At the nineteenth century. Trocki does not entirely same time, the coolies themselves agree with many points in Wang Tai established their new organizations, which Peng’s kongsi concept that the kongsi subsequently became the modern laborer system which appeared in Southeast Asia organizations. At first, the coolie were unique in their combination of the organizations were controlled by Chinese brotherhood tradition within an “thaokae” groups who employed them for economic partnership and that the kongsi their own advantage. These kinds of system of Southeast Asia were different organizations were “angyi” or gangsters, from the “secret” societies of China. which were latterly subdued by the Thai Trocki explains that the Chinese kongsi government towards the end of King Rama systems were organized for economic V’s reign and the beginning of King Rama purposes. They emerged in the eighteenth VI’s reign. century within Chinese settlements in Southeast Asia and they were primarily Introduction workers’ organizations. Some of them were characterized by some forms of triad ritual This paper is a brief account of research and could thus be considered as “secret” that studied the kongsi system and the societies. Trocki argues that the kongsi laborer class in Thailand. The concept of systems of Southeast Asia were not the Chinese kongsi system that is used in unique. Particular circumstances led to this research comes from three important different kongsi configurations. In certain historical works. The first one is The situations, kongsi ties based on kinship or Origins of Chinese Kongsi by Wang Tai speech group or regional origin cut across Peng, which tries to explain the origins oaths of brotherhood. The significance of and erosion of the kongsi system in the kongsi systems was their economic Southeast Asia (Wang 1995). Another function. The Kongsi system grew up item of research is Opium and Empire: around certain occupations and industries, Chinese Society in Colonial Singapore in different places and at different times, 1800–1990 by Carl A. Trocki. He and they maintained a variety of describes the kongsi system of Singapore relationships with external political and Southeast Asia (Trocki 1990). The structures. Likewise, whether or not a third source is Chinese Pioneers on the kongsi system was a “secret” society was Sarawak Frontier 1841–1941 by Daniel largely a function of its situation. Rituals were probably always private but in 2 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 10:37:21PM via free access Wage Laborer Class in Thailand situations where the kongsi system was not distinctly displays are the story and a forbidden organization secrecy was statistics of Chinese immigrants. probably only a formality. Viraphol’s work emphasizes the trade between Siam and China from its Trocki explains that the kongsi systems in prosperity to its decline. Iawsriwong Southeast Asia and in some colonies did studies Chinese immigrants as Siam’s not always form a self-governing bourgeois class and their activities in both community but, rather, some were under foreign and inland trade. These three do the power of local government. The kongsi not study Chinese activity in production systems were thus economic organizations and consequently the story of laborers is that assumed the functions of government only inexplicitly shown. when necessary. Some kongsi systems lacked democracy and equality. The triad The three works of Wang Tai Peng, Carl concept of brotherhood, the “heaven-earth- A. Trocki and Daniel Chew have been man,” seems to have formed the umbrella, used to provide the conceptual framework particularly in frontier situations. Some for this research in studying the kongsi systems had political and military circumstances and conditions of the wage aspects. The early settlements of the laborer class in Thailand. The study can overseas Chinese were an extension of the be outlined as follows. maritime world dominated by anti- Manchu rebels. The settlers came in ships 1. Chinese coolie immigrants or as groups, perhaps already organized as formed the first group of the wage laborer kongsi. Another reason for maintaining class in Thailand. This class originated in the military-political function was that sakdina society at the end of the these overseas settlements had to provide eighteenth century co-inciding with the their own defense in a relatively hostile end of the Ayutthaya and the beginning of and unsettled environment. Even where a the Rattanakosin periods. During the reliable local government provided reigns of King Rama I to King Rama III of security, the Chinese were generally left to the Rattanakosin Period, they developed as manage their own internal affairs. These an exclusive class in Thai society. Chinese were undertaken by the kongsi system. coolies worked at first in the shipping and the ship-building industry, in pepper plants Even though there have been some and the sugar industry and later in tin historical studies portraying the economic mines, rice mills and saw mills. All of and social changes in the early these were part of the export business and Rattanakosin period, the story of wage had the Chinese merchants as the real laborer class in Thailand is still unclear. employers. In some businesses, Chinese The three major works on the topic are merchants had to deal under the umbrella Chinese Society in Thailand: An of members of the Thai upper class who Analytical History by William Skinner, facilitated their activities by lending (Skinner 1957) Tribute and Profit: Sino- capital or giving extra legitimacy. In the Siamese Trade 1631–1853 by Sarasin nineteenth century, some Chinese coolies Viraphol (Viraphol 1977) and Pak Kai Lae worked in the public works of the modern Bai Rua by Nithi Iawsriwong (Iawsriwong city of Bangkok replacing the phrai corvee 1995). Skinner generally studies Chinese laborers. society in Thailand. The pictures that he 3 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 10:37:21PM via free access MANUSYA: Journal of Humanities 11.2, 2008 The arrival of Chinese coolies coincided with a period of expansion in commerce and a high demand for laborers in Southeast Asia.