Summary of Contract

The following text is a labor contract signed by a Chinese coolie in 1858 regarding his work in Havana, Cuba as an indentured servant. Earl Gregg Swem Library’s Special Collections purchased this contract through Swann Auctions in New York City, and they received this item via USPS on April 6, 2012. The original, physical contact is available for viewing at Swem’s Special Collections under Acc. 2012.146. In this contact, a 15-year-old boy named Chantau, from Shawtaw, China agrees to work in Havana, Cuba in exchange for room and board, passage to Cuba, a monthly wage, and other benefits given to him by his patrons. The three main patrons listed in the document are Señor Don Joaquín Pedroso y Echevería, Señor Don Luis Pedroso, and Don José María Morales of Havana. Although these men are primarily responsible for underwriting Chantau’s passage, section A, part 5 of the contract allows other sponsors or financiers to claim the authority of a patron. The contract was filled out and signed in Sawtaw, China.

In following the conventional terms of a labor contract, this document specifies the conditions regarding wages, hours, and service location as well as the benefits the patron is expected to provide to Chantau. The patrons state through the contract that the wage will consist of four pesos a month (section A, part I). In another section of the contract, the patron includes a statement maintaining that the laborer agrees to work during all hours, including overtime (section 3), while at the same time promising a period of repose every 24 hours (section 4). The length of the resting period remains unspecified, as does the amount of provisions Chantau should receive on his passage to Cuba. In terms of location, section 3 of the contract states that any location that Chantua will work at, and any work associated with that particular location. This ambiguity suggests that Chantau will not have a choice in either the place where he will work, or the work he will perform, leaving him vulnerable to maltreatment. The locations listed on the contract vary greatly from domestic houses to ranches and plantations. As a result, Chantua could be assigned work that ranges from domestic tasks to manual labor in tobacco or, more commonly, sugar cane fields.

The contract also mentions benefits, which the patrons agree to deliver to Chantau including medical treatment, as well as other tangible items necessary for survival. In section A, part III, the contract states that the patron will provide Chantau with the appropriate amount of medical attention including medicines, a physician, and any other services appropriate for the severity of his symptoms. However, such assistance comes with a cost, as section 2 of the contract declares that any breaks for medical reasons will not be included in the ten years of service Chantau must complete. The patrons are also required to provide Chantau with tangible items to supplement the four pesos a month Chantau will receive as a salary. Such items include two sets of clothing (one woolen shirt and a blanket) given once a year, eight ounces of salted meat, and 2.5 pounds of sweet potatoes (or something of equal nutritional value). Lastly, the contract states that the patron will pay for Chantau’s passage and provisions to Cuba (eight pesos total), and four sets of clothing (worth six pesos in total). However, since Chantau is obligated to repay these 14 pesos, they should not be classified as benefits. Once a month, one peso will be deducted from Chantau’s salary for this purpose. Additionally, Chantau must agree to submit himself under the authority of his patrons and agents as various clauses stating subservience are repeatedly stated throughout the contract (sections 1, 5, 6). At the end of the contract, in the third-to-last paragraph, a clause stipulates that Chantau must also agree to his salary regardless of what other free laborers and slaves in Cuba earn (or what Chantau discovers they earn) under the assumption that the benefits he will receive from his patron will be sufficient for his survival.

 

Physical Description

The manuscript is 8.6 inches by 13.7 inches (21.9 centimeters by 34.8 centimeters). It is folded over three times to create a form of a letter. The contract was originally a printed form whose text was typed in Spanish, with space left to handwrite particular conditions, such as the length of time of the contract and the worker’s salary, as well as signatures of investors and imperial officials. About two-thirds of the contract is typed out with rest handwritten. It was printed out in black ink on dark paper. The main body of the contract is printed in a single, stylistic font with the titles of the front of the contract containing multiple formats. For the front title, there are four different fonts used with a decorative line separating the first three lines from the last. On the back of the contract, the font for the title remains the same as the font in the main body text.

The majority of the handwritten lines appear on the back of the document, showing where and how the contract was transferred from patron to patron. Such transfers must have been common at the time, as indicated by the printed title at the top of the back of the manuscript, “For Value Received: Transferring and Assigning This Contract to Don —-.” Underneath each transfer are the signatures of the agent who oversaw each particular step. At the bottom of the front of the contract are Spain’s consulate’s agent, J. de Aguilar, signature and seal along with the signature of Franco Armerdagle whose legal status in this contract is unknown.

 

Methodology

For the translation of this work, I attempted to stay as close to the original meaning and format as possible in order to convey a sense of the historical background and tone of the contract to the reader. In this regard, I lean heavily on Lawrence Venuti’s translation strategy of “foreignization” rather than that of “domestication” (Munday 2009: 146). Although for the large majority of this work I hope to maintain, to a small extent, some element of what Venuti opposes in standard translation theory – the “translator’s invisibility” – , I nevertheless strove to give readers a sense of the historical period and context in which Chinese laborers arrived in Cuba, rather than terms we are comfortable with today. For example, I stayed as close to the original formatting of the contract in order to demonstrate impersonalized and businesslike manner in which the Chinese coolie trade was conducted. For elements of the contract that could not be directly transcribed in English (such as the 1.a, 2.a, 3.a meaning “primera,” “segunda,” “tercera,” much like the English 1st, 2nd, 3rd meaning “first,” “second,” “third”), I translated them to convey a sense of the original contract even if the transcription is not a direct one (1.a, 2.a, 3.a into 1., 2., 3. to maintain the sense of formality in the contract). I also attempted to maintain the register of the contract by using legalistic terminology and preserving the high formality of the tone.

Although I tried to stay as close to the original wording as possible, in some sections of the contract, I adjusted the syntax of the sentence from Spanish into English so that the same clear meaning comes through in English as it would in Spanish. For example, in section 5, the phrase “The abovementioned Agent and whomever else it may concern” was shifted from the end of the sentence and combined with the first part of the sentence to make the meaning clear. At other times, I added in additional words to retain the same meaning of the Spanish text in the English translation (ex: Section A, part III, I chose to add in the phrase “It will also be guaranteed”). For other words and phrases, instead of translating them fully in English, I chose words that would also retain a sense of the Spanish text and the historical period whence it came from. For example, in the first paragraph, I use “Señor Don” rather than simply “mister,” and in section 3, I use “hacienda” rather than “factory” or “plantation.”

 

Historical Context

Prior to the migration of Chinese coolies to Cuba, black and mixed-race laborers and enslaved peoples were the main source of labor for a variety of industrial and agricultural areas, such as cigar making and sugar cane cultivation (Casanovas 1998:36). However, England’s abolishment of slavery in 1838 and its continuing protests against slavery in the colonies led to an increasing amount of tension and competition between the British and Spain. Slavery in Cuba and Creole planting interests turned into the main focuses of the nineteenth-century incarnation of a much longer Anglo-Spanish rivalry (Triana et al 2009:141). Despite the fact that England’s persecution of Spain and its colonies’ habit of using slavery did not lead to its abolishment until 1886 in Cuba (fifty years after England’s emancipation), British harassment of planters in Cuba did lead to the Creole government to turn toward importing Chinese indentured laborers to Cuba rather than to continue to rely on the labor of enslaved people (Triana et al 2009:141). It was not until after international pressure from England that Cuban officials, administrators, and slave traders started to move away from slavery and toward importing indentured Chinese migrants to Cuba as “quasi-slaves” (Casanovas 1998:36).

The very first experimental group of Chinese coolies to migrate to Cuba arrived in 1806 and landed in Trinidad. About 192 Chinese laborers traveled to Cuba, but in the 1820s only 20-30 laborers continued to live and work in Cuba. Around this time, in 1809, the British set an embargo, enforced by the strength of their navy, on the movement of African slaves through the Atlantic (Yun 2008:4-5). England began its own “Chinese experiment” to bring Chinese laborers to the Caribbean in 1838 as an alternative form of labor from African slavery. The British experiment lasted until the 1880s as British agents continued to bring over Chinese coolies to the West Indies (Yun 2008:5-6). Although the French followed the British example in importing Chinese immigrant labor (Yun 2008:5), it was not until 1846, after a Spanish trader first suggested the proposal, that Cuba’s Creole government began taking steps to bring Chinese coolies to the island as indentured servants.

In addition to these external, geopolitical factors, there were important drivers of policy change within the island, as well. Perhaps most notably, the Creole government’s decision to import Chinese coolies was also in response to the growing crisis in the Cuban sugar industry (Triana et al 2009:141) which grew from Cuba’s heavy dependence on sugar exports and the instabilities of world sugar prices (Himes ?; Schroeder 1982:179-180). From 1844 to 1845, the African slave trade dropped by 90 percent, as the 10,000 African laborers who disembarked in 1844 were met by only 1,300 enslaved people the next year. These labor shortages in Cuba were soon filled by the trafficking of Chinese coolies (Yun 2008:6).

 

Breaking the Contract

Despite England’s intentions, the Chinese coolie trade did not eliminate slavery as the main form of labor in the colonies. In fact, Chinese labor became central to some of the most important economic sectors in nineteenth-century Cuba, including sugar and coffee plantations. Chinese coolies immigrated to Cuba with expectations of being treated like free men, but instead they were treated like slaves (Triana et al 2009:141). Nonetheless, the immigration of Chinese coolies to Cuba became formally legalized under the trade treaty in 1864 (six years after the Chantau’s contract was signed) between Madrid and China (Triana et al 2009:141). The Treaty of 1864 stipulates that only free emigration is permitted, and it provides complete protection for the Chinese emigrant as well as guarantees the emigrant’s right to return China once he has completed their services (Foreign Relations: China). Despite this treaty and because of the increasing instances of abuses, the growing number of Chinese men imported overseas led to new generations of diplomats and modernizers expressing concern over the Chinese emigrants abroad. Because of the increasing amount of Chinese coolies trafficked in response to British anti-slavery efforts, and because of the growing concern from Chinese officials (including imperial viceroys from Guangzhou), a Commission led by Chin Lan-pin was sent to gather information on the rapidly-increasing Chinese populations in Cuba and the abuses they faced while working abroad (The New York Times; Triana et al 2009: 141). The Commission gathered over 1,200 depositions from various coolies in Cuba with 1,665 additional names added (Foreign Relations: China; Triana et al 2009:141-2), and the Qing Court agreed to the arbitration of these affairs by the Ministers of Russia, Britain, France, Germany, and the United States (Triana et al 2009:142).

The Commission’s investigation revealed the extreme hardships and abuses suffered by Chinese coolies in Cuba. The majority of the Chinese indentured servants arrived through contracts like the one translated here, and these people were horribly abused before they stepped foot on Cuban ground. In Chantau’s contract, the Agent in the contract promises him safe passage and provisions to Cuba as well as four sets of clothing before leaving Sawtaw, China. However, the Commission report paints an ugly picture starting with voyage from China to Cuba. According to the report, of the 140,000 Chinese laborers who immigrated to Cuba, up to 16,000 died on the voyage there (Triana et al 2009:145). The mortality rate was around 12 percent, a percentage higher than the actual African slave trade. Such numbers are only the official statistics presented to the public and do not reflect the thousands of Chinese coolies who were kidnapped and shipped as contraband (Yun 2008:7). With this mind, it is not unrealistic to imagine that Chantau may have been one of many young men who were kidnapped and brought to Cuba to work. The appearance of the Consulate General’s seal and signature, and the absence of Chantau’s own signature, tellingly reveals the broader power relationship between the Chinese agents and Spanish traders. At best, Spain’s consulate fails to ensure the safety of those put in his charge, and at worst, he has chosen to take part in exploiting the Chinese coolies. At worst, imperial officials willingly draft and authorize exploitative contracts for colonial laborers. Nonetheless, considering Chantau’s young age, there is no fault on the part of the Consulate General. It would be legal for Chantau, as a 15-year-old boy, to take on the work of a laborer. The legal age for work, at least from a European perspective, varied much more than the modern day concept of adulthood. For example, in Colonial Latin America, on average, apprentices entered contracts at the age of 15 years, although other children may have been as young as 8 years old or as old as 25 (Jefferson 2011:52-53). Regardless of age, on the ship to Cuba, Chinese coolies endured physical and mental abuse from the Chinese traders from being “shut up in bamboo cages” to being “indiscriminately selected and flogged” as an example towards others. Suicide was a common practice, and many died from sicknesses. A few Chinese coolies were treated relatively well on board, but the vast majority was abused, and many were deprived of food and water. If they chose to request or fight for more provisions — provisions that were guaranteed in the printed contract, but left undistributed in practice — they were beaten and flogged, or possibly killed (Triana et al 2009:145-151).

Such mistreatment and cruelty continued long after the voyage to Cuba. One important element to note in the contract are the many instances in which the patrons and agents fashion loopholes for their own interests, while simultaneously attempting to prevent any legal resistance from the Chinese coolies who sign the contract. For example, the time quota each patron or agent requires of the Chinese coolie is ambiguous. Rather than specifying a certain amount of work hours per day, in sections 3 and 4 of Chantau’s contract, the agents state that Chantau must work overtime if necessary, and that the pace of his schedule will depend on the work he is assigned regardless of the conditions. Almost identical clauses can be found in other contract forms, such as the one used by the Havana Asiatic Company. (See sample contracts in Triana et al 2009: 195-6).

While these labor contracts included the same conventional language of protection, in practice, sugar plantation owners and tobacco and cigar overseers alike abused such clauses to the fullest extent. According to the Commission report by Lin-pan, “the administrator who forces the Chinese to work 20 hours out of the 24 is a man of capacity” demonstrating that the attitude many administrators had towards the survival and condition of the Chinese coolies under their service. A large majority of the depositions presented in the report mention an abuse of the overtime schedule by the foreman and administrators (Triana et al 2009: 151-6). In Chantau’s contract, section A, part II, the patron lists out the food Chantau will receive per month: 2.5 pounds of sweet potatoes and eight ounces of salted meat. In reality, the patrons and foremen in charge of the Chinese coolies “fed [them] worse than dogs” so that many suffered from malnutrition or starved to death (Triana et al 2009: 151). Yet, the assumption made in the contract, in the third paragraph from the bottom, comes from the idea that with the other added benefits given by the patron, including passage to Cuba, provisions, and clothing, Chantau’s salary of four pesos per month would be sufficient to survive on.

Despite such promises, the historical record reveals that agents consistently manipulated the international legal system, and that they took advantage of diplomatic tensions between Spain and China to do so in the colony of Cuba. The third paragraph of Chantau’s contract explicitly states that the signee agrees to the stipulated salary even if the signee determines that other free laborers and slaves in Cuba earn a higher wage. These clauses reveal the many abuses the Spanish patrons anticipate on employing Chinese coolies. By setting up a legal defense within the contract, the patron attempts to undermine any resistance that a Chinese coolie may instigate and indicates resistance that may have occurred in the past. For example, a patron or agent would believe it imperative to include such a clause when considering the wage gap between Chinese coolies as indentured servants (who were required to do any work as seen in Chantau’s contract, section 3) and the average salary other workers and slaves received on the Island of Cuba. In 1899 in Cuba, the average worker on the sugar plantation earned between $15.00-21.00 per month. In the summer months, a field laborer would earn $17.00 per month, while maintaining the labor cost on average 7.50 per month in gold. In the area of domestic services, the lowest position available, houseboys or girls, were paid $6.00-8.00 per month. In the tobacco industry, cigar makers made $1 for every 25 pounds per 1,000 units (Schroeder 1982: 187-9). These differences in wages reveal yet another abuse made against the Chinese coolies as well as the legalistic maneuvering the patrons skillfully executed through the legitimacy and elasticity tied into the language of a legal contract. Chantau’s contract provides one example of the power politics tied to the legalistic language and terminology of the contracts used for trafficking Chinese coolies.

When considering Chantau’s situation and the situation of the myriad other men and boys immigrating to Cuba, it is crucial to consider how much these Chinese coolies understood the legal terminology and language of the contract. According to the findings of the Commission, signed contracts usually led to deteriorating living conditions and harsh abuse by patrons and overseers. In other words, there was no relationship between a signature on paper and a guarantee of security in Cuba. But the absence of a signature can mean much worse. In Chantau’s case, not having a signature on the contract leads to the assumption that Chantau, like many other Chinese laborers, was kidnapped and forced to work in Cuba (Foreign Relations: China). According to Ducon Clough Corbitt, many Chinese coolies could read and write in their native languages, although just barely. Relative to laborers who worked without contracts, the contract, written out in multiple languages with different combinations of characters and alphabetic letters, gave one advantage to Chinese coolies. Nevertheless, any attempt at comparison must be tempered by noting just how limited these advantages were, considering the low level of literacy attributed to Chinamen of their social status (Triana et al 2009: 195). Thus, we might ask, would it have made a difference whether Chantau could read or write more extensively? [put your answer here.] The patrons and agents manipulate the contract as a legal text in several ways. One function of the contract is to cloak the massive amount of brutality and maltreatment of the Chinese coolies migrating to Cuba. Like the legal action take against indigenous groups of Latin America, these contracts, many of which stayed the same throughout the whole period of coolie trade, were used to pacify any resistance made against the trafficking of Chinese coolies (Triana et al 2009: 195; Marrero-Fente 2010: 96-7). The contract demonstrates a least a measure of civility and provides at least some rights and benefits to the Chinese coolies who sign them. But as the Commission report by Chin Lan-pin makes clear, the colonial reality was vastly different from the livelihood portrayed in the contract. Rather, the contract provides a false expectation of what the Chinese men and boys will face upon arriving in Cuba, and grants more power to patrons and agents instead of balancing out the inequality of power between Chinamen and their superiors. Utilizing the contract in this manner may have its roots in the colonial law and legal debates developed and improved by the Spanish imperialists in order to subdue the American Indians (Marrero-Fente 2010: 27).

 

On Notaries and Contract Transfers

Although a large portion of the contract is typed, vital information can be gleaned from the handwritten portions of the contract, especially in terms of the notaries and agents in charge. According to Kathryn Burns, the doodling (e.g. flowers, faces, arrows) on legal documents by the apprentices of notaries in Colonial Peru exhibits the social hierarchy inherent in the workplace of a notary (2010: 70-1). The majority of the apprentices were young boys under the authority of older, sometimes cantankerous men. At times, the notary’s apprentice’s doodles would target their superiors by mocking them and displaying them in an unkind manner (Burns 2010: 70-1). At other times, such as the case of the ornamental flower that was integrated into Jaquiñ Pedroso Echeverra’s signature in this document, the apprentices would decorate the legal document with embellishments that were pleasing to the eye (Burns 2010: 73). Often times, notaries utilized these embellishing flourishes – seen in almost all the signatures in Chantau’s contract, with the most elaborate flourish below Boutencourt’s signature in the final lines — to help control the amount of “blank space” on the paper and to prevent any tampering of the document (Burns 2010: 75-6). In this manner, notaries and the apprentices of notaries exerted control over the legal texts they dealt with on a daily basis, like Chantau’s contract.

While the notaries exert their authority through control of blank space, the statements of transfer from one family to another — handwritten on the back of the contract — reveal the power that patrons and agents held over the lives of Chinese coolies like Chantau. Chantau’s indenture, worth ten years of hard labor and service, is transferred four separate times over the course of a month through the highly legalistic language of the contract (“I transfer on this contract in favor of”). The movement of the contract through signatures and legalistic phrasings discloses the authority and power legal language carries, and the authority it grants patrons and agents over the life of Chantau. Such authority uncovers the viewpoint of the agents, which transforms Chantau into a commodity; if the signatures reveal his potential as an item to be traded, the language of the contract and the possibility of shifting patrons (“The same said Agent and to whomever else it may concern”) reveal how Chantau and his labor could be bartered over and negotiated between and among different commercial interests in Cuba. As such, the language in Chantau’s contract and the legal forms in which such terms find their fullest expressions expose the power of legalistic language and its engagement by Spanish agents during the height of the Chinese coolie movement.

In sum, the study of Chinese coolie laborers, and the contracts that they signed to regulate the terms of that labor, offer to shed new light on the study of labor and ethnicity in the nineteenth-century Atlantic and Pacific worlds, as they met in still-colonial Caribbean entrepots like Cuba. These contracts invite us to ask interesting and important questions about literacy and labor, exploitation and equality. These issues were as complex and negotiated in Chantau’s time as they are in our own.

 

Works Cited

Ballou, Maturin Murray, 1854. History of Cuba, or, notes of a traveller in the tropics being a political, historical, and statistical account of the island, from its first discovery to the present time. Boston: Phillips Sampson and company.

Birch, Arthur, and William Robinson. 1867. The Colonial Office List for 1867 Comprising Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the Colonial Dependence of Great Britain with an Account of the Services of the Principal Officers of the Several Colonial Governments. London: Harrison and Sons, St. Martin’s Lane.

Burns, Kathryn. 2010. Into the Archive: Writing and Power in Colonial Peru. Durham [N.C.]: Duke University Press.

Casanovas, Joan. 1998. Bread, or Bullets!: Urban Labor and Spanish Colonialism in Cuba, 1850-1898. Pitt Latin American Series. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Corbitt, Duvon Clough. 1971. A Study of the Chinese in Cuba, 1847-1947. Wilmore, Ky.,: Asbury College.

“Foreign Relations: China.” 1876. In Congressional Series of United States Public Documents: The First Session of the Forty-Fourth Congress. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1876.

García Triana, Mauro, and Pedro Eng Herrera. 2009. The Chinese in Cuba, 1847-Now. Asiaworld. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Himes, Joshua. “Cuban Development and the Sugar Economy: The Effects on Cuban Development of Changing International Economic Relation.” http://www.ascecuba.org/publications/proceedings/volume3/himes.asp (accessed April 29, 2014).

Jefferson, Ann, and Paul Lokken. 2011. Daily Life in Colonial Latin America. Greenwood press “Daily Life through History” series. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood.

Marrero-Fente, Raúl. 2010. Bodies, Texts, and Ghosts: Writing on Literature and Law in Colonial Latin America. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America.

Mitchell, B. R. 1998. International Historical Statistics: The Americas, 1750-1993. 4th ed. London: Macmillan Reference.

Schroeder, Susan. 1982. Cuba: A Handbook of Historical Statistics. Reference publication in International Historical Statistics. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall.

Staten, Clifford L. 2005. The History of Cuba. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

The New York Times, “Travels of a Chinese Diplomat,” June 6, 1880. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F10A13FD3D541B7A93C4A9178DD85F448884F9

Thomas, Willys. “AN AMERICAN IN CHINA: 1936-39 A Memoir: SWATOW (now Shantou).” Swatow (Shantou) information. http://www.willysthomas.net/Swatow.htm (accessed March 7, 2014).

Yun, Lisa. 2008. The Coolie Speaks: Chinese Indentured Laborers and African Slaves in Cuba. Asian American History and Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Zanetti Lecuona, Oscar, and Alejandro García Alvarez. 1998. Sugar & Railroads: A Cuban History, 1837-1959. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press.

 

[Transcription]

Emigracion China,

Para

La Isla de Cuba

Cedula de Embargo

Num—7931—

=============

Contrata.

Carimira

No 39

Conste por este documento que yo ___Chantau___ natural del pueblo____Swatow____en China, de edad de __15__ años he convenido con el agente de los Señores D. JOAQUIN PEDROSO Y ECHEVERRIA, D. LUIS PEDROSO, Y D. JOSE MARIA MORALES de la Habana, en enbarcarme para dicho puerto en el buque que se me designe bajo las condiciones siguentes:

1. Me comprometo á trabajar en la Isla de Cuba á las ordenes de dichos Señores ó de cualquiera otra persona á quien traspasen este Contrato, para lo cual doy consentimiento.
2. Este Contrato durará ___diez___años que principiaran á contarse desde el dia que entre á server, siempre que el estado de mi salud sea bueno pues si me hallare enfermo ó imposibilitado para trabajar, entonces no sera hasta que pasen ocho dias despues de mi restablecimiento.
3. Trabajaré en todas las faenas que alli se acostumbra, ya sen en el campo, ó en las poblaciones;–ya en casas particulares para el servicio domestico, ó en cualquier establecimiento comercial ó industrial :—ya en ingenios, vegas, cafetales, sitios, potreros, estancias, &c. En fin, me consagraré á cualquiera clase de trabajo urbano ó rural á que me dedique el patron.
4. Las horas de trabajo me serán fijadas por el patrono á cuyas ordenes se me ponga,–y dependerán del genero de trabajos en que me ocupe. En todo caso, cada 24 horas se me deberá conceder cierto tiempo para descansar y ademas, el preciso para mis comidas el cual se arreglará tomando por norma el que se acostumbra dar para este objeto á los demas trabajadores asalariados en Cuba.
5. Quedo desde luego sometido al orden y disciplina que se observe en cualquier parte donde se me emplee, asi como al sistema de correccion que esté en planta para castigar las faltas de aplicacion y constancia en el trabajo, la desidia; y la desobediencia á las ordenes de los amos, sus representantes, ó administradores, y por todo aquello cuya gravedad no exiga la intervencion de las leyes.
6. Bajo ningun concept podré durante los ___diez____ años de mi compromiso, negar mis servicios á la persona á quien se traspase este Contrato, ni evadirme de su poder, ni siquiera intentarlo por causa alguna.

 

El Agente de los espresados Señores se oblige á su vez á lo siguiente:

A:

1. Que desde el dia en que principien á contarse los ___diez___ años de mi compromise, principie tambien a correrme el salario de cuatro pesos al mes, el mismo que dicho Agente me garantiza y asegura por cada mes de los __diez__ años de mi Contrato
2. Que se me suministre de alimento cada dia ocho onzas de carne salada; y dos y media libras de boniatos ó de otras viandas sanas y alimenicias.

III.           Que durante mis enfermedades se me proporcione en la enfermeria la asistencia que mis males reclamen, asi como los ansilios y medicinas y facultative que mis dolencias y conservacion ecsijan por cualquier tiempo que duren.

1. Que se me den dos muda de ropa, una camisa de lana y una frazada anuales.
2. Será de cuenta del mismo Agente y por la de quien corresponda mi passage hasta la Habana y mi manutencion abordo.
3. El mismo Agente me adelantará la cantidad de __ocho__ pesos fuertes en oro ó plata para mi habilitacion en el viage que voi á emprender

VII.         Tambien me dará __11__ mudas de ropa cuyo importe de __$ 6__ on el de los pesos __ocho__de la clausula anterior hacen la suma de pesos __$4__ la misma que satisfaré en la Habana á la orden de __cualquier de los tres expresado__ con un peso al mes que se descontará de mi salario por la persona á quien fuse traspasado este Contrato, entendiendose que por ningun oro concepto podrá hacerseme descuento alguno.

DECLARO haber recibido en efectivo y en ropa segun sé espresa en la ultima clausula la suma de pesos __Catorce__ mencionado que reintegraré en la Habana en la forma establecida en dicha clausula.

DECLARO tambien que me conform en el salario

estipulado, aunque sé y me consta es mucho mayor el que ganan los jornaleros libres y los esclabos en la Isla de Cuba; porque esta diferencia la juzgo compensada con las otras ventajas que ha de proporcionarme mi patrono, y las que aparecen en este Contrato.

Y en cumliminto de todo los esuesto arriva, declarmaos ademos

ambos Contratantes que antes de poner nuerta firma, hemos leido por la última vez detenidamente todos y cada uno de los articulos anteriores; y que sabemos perfectamente los compromisos que hemos conraido mutnamente, á fin de que en ningun timepo, nip or ningun motive puede arguirse ignorancia, ni haber lugar á reclamos, except en el caso de faltar á cualquiera de las condiciones estipuladas en esta Contrata.

Y en fé lo cual firmamos ante testigos el presente document ambos contratantes en Swatow á __25__ de ___Agosto__de 185__8__.

 

Sello: Consular General de Espana en China

 

No 13o

Por el Sr Convent G de S. M. [General de Su Magestad]

 

1. de Aguilar

 

[1v]

 

CEDO Y TRASPASO ESTA CONTRATA A D

VALOR REVEBIDO

 

Traspasamos esta a D. Francisco Ramos y Almeida

Habana Julio 22, 1858

 

Joaquín Pedroso Echeverría

J.M. Morales

Luis Pedroso

 

Traspasamos esta contracta a fabor de D. Antonio Betancourt.

Habana y Agosto 9, 1858. Por Francisco Fuenmayor (?)

 

Traspaso esta Contrata a fabor de Dn Eduardo

Betancourt

Habana Agosto 11, 1858

Antonio Betancourt

 

Traspaso esta contrata a fabor de D. Raymundo Miró___ Habana 15, Agosto 1858

Eduardo Betancourt

 

[English Translation]

 

Chinese Immigration

For

The Island of Cuba

No. 39                                                                        ___________

C O N T R A C T.                 Cedula de Embargo

Number—7931—

 

[handwritten after “Contract” and above “Shantow”: Casimira (?)]

 

I, Chantau, from the village of Shantow in China,[1] at the age of 15, consent to this document; I have convened with the agents: Señor Don Joaquin Pedroso Y Echevería, Señor Don Luis Pedroso,[2] and Don Jose Maria Morales of Havana, to board in this port the ship that is assigned to me under the following conditions:

 

1. I promise to work on the Island of Cuba under the authority of said patrons or whomever else partakes in this Contract, of which I give my consent.
2. This Contract will last for ten years, which will begin to be counted the day I commence this service, and should I become sick or should it become impossible to do my work, then my service will not take effect until eight days after my reestablishment.
3. I will work during all hours, including overtime, in any site that customarily receives workers;–Those private houses already accustomed for domestic services, or in any commercial or industrial establishment:–whether in mills, tobacco fields,[3] coffee plantations, work sites, ranches, haciendas, &c. In sum, I will devote myself fully to whatever type of work, whether urban or rural, that is allotted to me by my patron.
4. The patron directing me will fix my work hours,–and they will depend on the type of work I engage in. Whatever the case, every 24 hours, my patrons should permit me a certain amount of time to rest; and furthermore, the exact amount of food that I will be given will be determined in accordance with the average amount of food that is given to other salaried employees in Cuba.
5. I remain henceforth subjected to the discipline and orders during whatever capacity I am employed in, including the system of corrections that has been established to punish any shortcomings or lack of dedication in my work, or the neglecting of my work; and the acts of disobeying the orders of masters, their representatives, or administrators, as well as any and all matters whose severity would not require legal intervention.
6. In the ten years of my service, under no circumstances will I terminate my services with the person whom I entered in Contract with, nor evade his authority, nor even attempt to do so, whatever the reason behind it.

 

[written on the side vertically: Casimira (?)]

 

The Agent of the above Patrons requires the following:

A:

1. From the day that my ten years of promised service commences, so too will my salary of four pesos a month begin to be counted, and likewise the aforementioned Agent will guarantee and secure this salary for me every month of the ten years of my contract.
2. I will be provided with eight ounces of salted meat, and 2.5 pounds of sweet potatoes or other nutritious roots and provisions.[4]

III.           It will also be guaranteed that the infirmaries will provide me with the assistance appropriate to the severity of my symptoms, so that aid and medicines and a physician are all available during the period that my illness and recuperation demand for, whatever length of time they persist

1. They will give me two sets of clothing, one woolen shirt and a blanket annually.
2. The same said Agent and to whomever else it may concern will be accountable for providing me with my passage to Havana and paying for provisions aboard.
3. The abovementioned Agent will lend me eight pesos of gold and silver for the living expenses I will incur during the voyage to Cuba.[5]

VII.         He will also give me 4 sets of clothing, which were imported at $6 with the eight pesos from the previous clause giving a total of $14 pesos, which will be reckoned in Havana by the order of whichever of the three expressed agents. From my salary, these three persons who entered in this Contract will deduct one peso a month with the understanding that they cannot make further deductions from my salary for whatever the reason.

 

I DECLARE I have received the cash and clothing as expressed in the last clause and

the fourteen pesos mentioned above, and that I will pay back what is owed in Havana in the form that has been established in the abovementioned clause.

I DECLARE also that I will conform to the stipulated salary, even if I know it to be true that the free laborers and slaves on the island of Cuba earn more than I do; because this difference is justly compensated with benefits provided to me by my patron, and those benefits that are in this Contract.

And upon completing all that is visibly written out above, both Contract parties will declare, before signing this document, that they have meticulously read out the entire document and each one of the previous articles for the last time; and that we perfectly understand our mutual commitments so that in the end there will never be a time nor grounds to argue ignorance, nor is there a place for claims, except in the case where any one of these stipulated conditions in this Contract has been broken.

And in faith, both Contract parties sign, before these witnesses, this document in Swatow on February 25, 1858.

 

Fran-co Almero (?)

a este (?)

 

SEAL: CONSULAR GENERAL OF SPAIN IN CHINA

 

And seen by His Majesty’s Lord and Counsel

1. de Aguilar[6]

 

[1v]

FOR VALUE RECIEVED

TRANSFERRING AND ASSIGNING THIS CONTRACT TO DON

 

We transfer this contract to Francisco Ramos Almeida

Havana Julio 22, 1858

 

Joaquín Pedroso Echeverría

J.M. Morales

Luis Pedroso

 

We transfer on this contract in favor of Don Antonio Betancourt.

Havana on August 9, 1858. From Francisco Fuenmayor (?)

 

I transfer on this contract in favor of Dn Eduardo

Betancourt

Havana August 11, 1858

Antonio Betancourt

 

I transfer this contract on in favor of Don Raymundo Miró

___ Havana 15, August 1858

Eduardo Betancourt

 

 

[1] Shàntóu, Swatow or Suátao and in Chinese 汕头. It is second-largest city in Guangdong Province is a seaport and industrial center in the Han River delta on the South China Sea. It was opened to foreign trade in 1860. Sources: http://www.willysthomas.net/Swatow.htm.

 

[2] Joaquin and Luis Pedroso Echevarria were brothers and recognized heads of one of the oldest and most powerful oligarchic families in Havana. After selling some of the mills from their company, La Gran Azucarera, the Pedroso family had 2.4 million pesos in cash to build a merchant company and several other business including the trade of Chinese coolies and railroad investments (Zanetti Lecuona et al 1998: 72). By the 1900s, the Pedroso and Betancourt families were one of the few landowning aristocratic families that still existed in Cuba and continued to live in the sugar business. The majority of wealthy Cubans worked in Havana and focused mostly on commerce and business (Staten 2005: 83).

[3] In Cuba and Venezuela, such fields (vegas) were often next to riverbanks (RAE).

[4] That is, 1 kg and 133.98 g.

[5] One peso fuerte is equivalent to 1 ounce of gold, or 8 reales, or 20 copper coins. It was a common practice during this time period to have salaries paid in gold or silver (Schroeder 1982:179).

[6] We have found one a possible reference regarding the movement of J. de Aguilar. According to this source, a José de Aguilar from Spain was permitted by the Queen of England to begin his term as consul on August 9, 1858 in Hong Kong. No other references to the consular general in Sawtow are found (Foreign Consulates in British Colonies).