The Role of the Cantonese in the Mining Business during the Republican Era and Their Inland Orientation

Abstract

Contrary to popular belief, the Cantonese were not always oriented on working overseas as has been presumed in recent studies of overseas Chinese. In fact, the Cantonese were active investors in the mining business in southern China, especially in tungsten mining in Jiangxi province, the southern border of which is adjacent to the northeast of Guangdong. Although archives from the Qing period contain much about the involvement of the Cantonese in tin mining in the east of Guangdong, little has been investigated of their activities afterwards. However, during 1930s in the Republican era, the Guangdong Ministry of Construction started supervising the development of the newly exploited tungsten mining in Jiangxi by controlling tungsten exports. Traditionally, the southern part of Jiangxi came within the economic sphere of Guangdong, and thus the control of tin mining in Jiangxi by the Guangdong authorities was not considered as economic invasion across the provincial border.
The Cantonese spread their mining business as far as Yunnan province. In 1910, the completion of Dian-Yue (Yunnang-Viet Nam) railroad promoted the rapid transportation of tin from Yunnan to Hong Kong through Viet Nam. By the time of the Sino–Franco agreement of 1933, the Chinese had won almost total freedom of residency and business in Viet Nam, which stimulated their local business. From the statistical point of view, based on the number of residences of outsiders in Yunnan during the Republican era, there were relatively few Cantonese in Yunnan but the archives show that the Cantonese were economically the most active group in the mining and export of tin, while the Fujianese left almost no trace in the province.