Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1908 — THE COMPRADOR IN CHINA. [ARTICLE]

THE COMPRADOR IN CHINA.

Tbroagh These Agents the Chinese American firms dealing in the Far East must acquaint themeselves with a number of 'unusual business methods, among them the comprador system, wL.eh has its highest development In China. Business houses deal with the Chinese through a Chinese agent known as the comprador. For years the system has developed, however, until now practically all the business of .foreigners with Chinese Is done through agents of this sort, whether it be in buying or selling, in loaning or in borrowing money. In many firms the comprador is a partner; In many instances he is in reality the owner of the business, furnishes the capital, manages it and uses the name of a foreigner to secure foreign protection from the many abuses which obtain in commercial circles. The real comprador is a cashier, handles all money received by a firm and makes all payments. In many foreign business bouses bills are paid by the representative of the business office in an order on the comprador of the firm, and this order is banked as a bank or check draft. Under the Chinese method a comprador who brought a dealer patronage would receive a percentage of the profits of all sales made to the comprador’s firm. Following out the same principle the comprador receives i. percentage of the wages paid all Chinese employes. Formerly this system of commission was carried on without the knowledge or at least without the connivance of the business firm, and in many cases it is in vogue at present. Gradually, however, things have so developed that this percentage system is recognized as a means of paying the comprador a portion of his salary. The comprador of a tea firm, for instance, will receive a certain commission, as wages, on each box of tea the firm buys. One firm pays 50 cents Mexican (about 23 cents gold) to its comprador for every chest of tea he buys for the firm in the tea season. Silk firms pay on the basis of a certain sum for each unit of silk bought. A higher price is therefore paid for the goods bought than the situation warrants, and all the subsequent transactions in that commodity are based upon a fictitious value for which the consumer in due time must pay. The comprador of a foreign bank, for example, has charge of loans to Chinese. Generally he Is responsible to the bank for such loans and, at all events, his approval is necessary for a Chinese to negotiate a loan, no matter what security may be offered. The result is that advantage is often taken of the distress of a Chinese borrower, and by reason of his being forced to secure money within a certain time upon a loan he is compelled by the comprador to pay so large a commission or so great a rate of Interest over and above that paid to the bank that the transaction is little better than ordinary highway robbery. No one but the comprador secures benefit from the system under such circumstances.