Coolies (Hind. kūli, 'labourer'), Indian and Chinese labourers who emigrate to foreign lands, whether at their own charge or at the expense of the foreigner whom they bind themselves by contract to serve for a fixed term of years. Labourers who migrate from one part of India to another, as for instance from Bengal to Assam, are also called coolies. The European and American residents in the treaty ports of China give the same name to the lower class of Chinese labourers in their service.
The natives of India having a strong repugnance to crossing the ocean, free coolie emigration is almost entirely Chinese. Although until recent years emigration from China was illegal, and the strong ties of family affection, the love of country, and ancestral worship, made it unpopular, the pressure of population produced a continual outflow during the 18th and 19th centuries, chiefly from the southern provinces of Fu-hien and Kwang-tung. The emigrants swarmed over the archi- pelago, settled by thousands and tens of thousands in Java and in the Straits Settlements, and threaten eventually to displace the natives in Siam and the Malay Peninsula. The discovery of gold attracted large numbers of Chinese to California and Australia. The first railway across the Rocky Mountains was partly made by Chinese labour, and M. Lesseps invited their help for the excavation of the Panama Canal. In spite of his utility, the coolie has become an intolerable offence to the working-classes of America and Australia. He is accused of gambling, opium-smoking, and immorality; but the head and front of his offending is his working for low wages, and lowering the market value of labour. In 1881 the United States negotiated a treaty with China, by which restriction of Chinese immigration was secured to the States in return for American prohibition of the opium trade on the coast of China. Another treaty between the two powers in 1888, prohibiting the entry of Chinese labourers into the United States for a period of twenty years, has been refused ratification by the Peking government. In British colonies the attempt has been made to exclude the obnoxious coolie by the imposition of a poll-tax. The legislature of British Columbia passed an act in 1884, by which every Chinaman was obliged to take out a license, and pay a fee of $10. A Chinese, named Wing Chong, refused to pay the fee on the ground that the act was unconstitutional, and an infraction of the existing treaties between Great Britain and China. A judge of the Supreme Court of the colony decided in Wing Chong's favour, and though the colonial government initiated an appeal to the Privy-council, they failed to prosecute it; so the act became a dead letter. In Australia, similar acts, though quietly submitted to, failed to secure the desired end, Chinese immigrants continuing to arrive, in spite of the heavy poll-tax of £10 a head. In 1888 the New South Wales legislature passed an act to prohibit the landing of Chinese immigrants; but this case also the law-courts decided against the legislature. At a conference of delegates from the governments of all the Australian colonies, it was unanimously agreed to endeavour to secure the exclusion of the Chinese, through the negotiation of a new treaty between the British and Chinese governments. The existing treaties which promise protection to the Chinese immigrant are the Treaty of Nanking (1842), the Treaty of Tientsin (1858), and the Convention of Peking (1860).
The coolie in the United States and in some British colonies is an uninvited and unwelcome visitant. At the same time his services have been eagerly sought in other colonies, the governments and planters of which have borne all the expenses of his passage, paid him a small advance, and in addition paid head-money to the agent who obtained him. To recoup this expenditure, the planter required the coolie to bind himself to serve for a term of years at a fixed rate of wages. Coolies thus indentured occupy a similar position to apprentices, soldiers, and sailors. Theoretically the system is quite justifiable, but practically it has shown itself liable to the grossest abuse. The dark story of coolie emigration to Peru and Cuba, carried on from Macao (q.v.), rivals in atrocity the horrors of the slave-trade and slavery. This branch of the coolie traffic was brought to an end in 1873 by an enactment of the Chinese government, requiring that in the contract a clause should be inserted securing to the coolie a free passage home at the expiration of his term. The planters were not willing to incur this obligation; and coolie emigration from Chinese ports ceased. During the years between 1847 and 1873, there was a fearful loss of life, some perishing on shipboard in vain attempts to recover their liberty, others dying of ill-treatment or disease, or by suicide. The only redeeming feature in this sad business was that some time or other it came to an end. The slave was a slave until death: the coolie could look forward to the end of his contract. In 1878 Consul-general Cowper reported to Lord Salisbury that out of 116,267 coolies actually landed in Havana, about 50,000 were then in Cuba.
Coolie emigration under contract to British and French colonies is mainly Indian, with a small percentage of Chinese in its ranks. Both the Indian and the colonial legislatures have taken great pains to prevent abuse of the system, and with considerable success, although there is evidence that constant watchfulness is necessary. Every step of the process, from the first solicitation of the labourer, until the ship carries him out of port, is regulated by the Indian government. The agents who collect the coolies, the depôts where they are lodged, the contracts they sign, the ships in which they embark, are inspected, licensed, supervised by government. Protectors of emigrants are appointed in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, from which ports only the emigration is lawful. In like manner the colonial governments have enacted regulations and appointed protectors, to secure to the coolie limitation of his task, sufficient food, suitable lodging, and medical care in sickness. The imperial government has intervened by conventions entered into with foreign governments, with France in 1861, with the Netherlands in 1870, to secure the fair treatment of the coolie in foreign colonies. That all this legislation is neither unnecessary nor unfruitful is proved by the case of Réunion. In 1880 M. Rongon reported to the French government that the coolies in this island 'were badly clothed, badly fed, badly paid, and badly cared for when sick.' The Indian government receiving similar reports, put in force a provision of the Emigration Act, and prohibited emigration to Réunion. The British consul at Cayenne reported that the coolies in French Guiana suffered 'barbarous and inhuman treatment;' and in 1876 emigration to that colony was stopped. According to the Indian Emigration Act of 1883, at present in force, emigration under contract is lawful to the following places: British colonies—Mauritius, Jamaica, British Guiana, Trinidad, St Lucia, Grenada, St Vincent, Natal, St Kitts, and Fiji; French colonies—Martinique, Guadeloupe; also to Dutch Guiana, and the Danish island, St Croix. In 1886 the Jamaica government suspended immigration from China and India to that colony. In Trinidad the coolies, about 55,000, are one-third of the population. They are usually well fed, not overworked, and are well treated in sickness. A large proportion elect to remain in Trinidad when they are entitled to a passage back to India; and of those who go, a large number take sums of money with them, and not a few, having gone back to India, return again to Trinidad. Some coolies, too, remain on particular estates for many years. Occasional cases of injustice or ill-treatment no doubt occur, but on the whole the coolie is well used (Governor Norman's report, 1885). On the other hand, there are unfavourable reports from Mauritius, where the Indian coolies number in round figures 150,000. There are about 35,000 in Natal, 13,000 in Jamaica, and 70,000 in the French colonies.
Coolie contract labour in India is regulated by the Inland Emigration Act of 1882, which relates to 'emigration from other parts of India to the labour districts of Bengal and Assam.' Its provisions are similar to those of the Indian Emigration Act of 1883. Every possible precaution which a government can take appears to have been taken; nevertheless complaints of unfair and even cruel treatment of the coolies are heard from time to time. The coolie traffic between the southern ports of India and Ceylon is constant and mutually advantageous; about 70,000 go from India every year, of whom three-fourths return, and the rest settle in the island.
The islands of the Pacific have been the scene of a so-called labour trade, in respect to which Sir Arthur Kennedy, governor of Queensland, wrote in 1881: 'I have never concealed my opinion of the traffic in Polynesian savages, and I feel assured that scandals exist which do not reach the public. . . . I have had many years' experience in the West African slave-trade and the Chinese coolie-trade, and I cannot divest myself of grave fears that the Polynesian labour-trade partakes of many of the evils of both.' A Royal Commission of Inquiry was appointed in 1884; the existence of kidnapping was proved; and 404 kidnapped islanders (called 'Kanakas') were restored to their homes.
The literature of this subject consists chiefly of parliamentary papers and government reports. Besides those referred to above, the following may be named: Correspondence, Papers, or Reports on the Macao Coolie Trade (1871 to 1875); on Coolie Emigration from India (1874); on the Coolies in Assam (1867), in Surinam (1877), in Trinidad (1885); on Coolie Importation from India to French Guiana (1878); and on Chinese Immigration into the Australasian Colonies (1888). The West Indies and Spanish Main, by A. Trollope (1860); The Coolie: his Rights and Wrongs, by E. Jenkins (1871); In Quest of Coolies, by J. L. A. Hope (1872); Charles Kingsley's At Last (1872), and Churchyard's Blackbirding in Southern Seas (1888), may be consulted.