Comprador

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Concept.png Comprador Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png

See also globalism.

A comprador class is a term for the natives of a colonized land that are "bought" by the colonizers. The comprador class are the members of a national business class of senior corporate managers, a relatively privileged, wealthy and educated elite, who derive their position and status from connection to foreign corporations of stronger nations, and who may therefore be less inclined to struggle for local cultural and political independence.[1]

A comprador is a "person who acts as an agent for foreign organizations engaged in investment, trade, or economic or political exploitation".[2]

History

The original usage of the word in East Asia meant a native servant in European households in Guangzhou in southern China or the neighboring Portuguese colony at Macao that went to market to barter their employers' wares. The term then evolved to mean the native contract suppliers who worked for foreign companies in East Asia or the native managers of firms in East Asia.

Robert Hotung, a late-nineteenth-century comprador of the trading conglomerate Jardine, Matheson & Co. was believed to be the richest man in Hong Kong by the age of 35.[3]


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