Kangchu system
The Kangchu system traces its origins from the 18th century when Chinese coolies settled in Penang and Riau and set up gambier and pepper plantations there.
The term "Kangchu" became widely used during the 19th century, as Chinese immigrants began to settle in and around Johor state and set up gambier and pepper[fn 3] plantations.
[4] In 1917, the British colonial government in Johor implemented an act which abolished the Kangchu system in the state, and the value for gambier declined during the early 20th century.
[5] Variants of the Kangchu system thrived in other parts of Maritime Southeast Asia, where gambier and pepper were cultivated and where there were significant Chinese populations.
In the late 1820s, Chinese settlers from Singapore also began to look towards Johor for gambier and pepper cultivation at the encouragement of Temenggong Abdul Rahman and his successor, Daeng Ibrahim.
[9] As more Chinese settlers established gambier and pepper plantations in Johor during the 1840s, Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim formed a bureaucracy made up of Malay officials to oversee administrative affairs upon the Kangchu.
In turn, the Kangchu were required to pay taxes from the profits generated by the gambier and pepper farms and the Surat Sungai, which had to be renewed after a specified period of time.
[12] By the time Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim's son, Abu Bakar took office from his father in 1862, at least 37 Surat Sungai have been issued to various Kangchu, all of whom were collectively responsible for the operations of the 1,200 gambier and pepper farms in the state.
[13] Most of these Chinese leaders were also members of secret societies, and communal warfare often broke out in Singapore between different dialect groups as a result of conflicting economic interests.
From the late 1850s onwards, the Kangchu began to exert political influence in the state affairs by establishing close ties with Temenggong Abu Bakar.
[14] Abu Bakar nevertheless called for the Ngee Heng Kongsi to accept Chinese settlers of other dialect groups to prevent possible communal warfare as a result of conflicting economic interests.
From the 1860s onwards, many of these Kangchu chalked up debts and began to sell their property rights to these merchants or to larger business magnates (Kongsi in Teochew) based in Singapore,[1] who were known to the locals as Tuan Sungai (literally Masters of the River).
[15] As the gambier and pepper plantations expanded in the 1870s, the more established Kangchu were entrusted with larger blocks of farms and made contracts with Chinese merchants from Singapore.
Of particular note, Abu Bakar appointed two Chinese leaders to the Johor State Council: a Kangchu from Chaozhou, Tan Hiok Nee, and a contractor from Taishan, Wong Ah Fook, who also owned gambier and pepper farms in Mersing in the 1880s.
As early as 1890, the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Cecil Clementi Smith had lobbied Abu Bakar to adopt the Societies Ordinance and ban the Ngee Heng Kongsi, but was promptly turned down.
Some of these merchants purchased the property rights of gambier and pepper farms from the Kangchu in Johor, who would then assume managerial tasks to ensure the smooth operation of the plantation and the settlement.
[37] Factionalism appeared within the Ngee Heng Kongsi in Singapore by the 1850s, as business leaders from various dialect groups were unable to agree upon key issues.
The British appointed a Chinese official among the Kangchu to oversee the social and economic affairs of the gambier and pepper plantations in Singapore and to act as the intermediary.
[44] The first Chinese immigrants settled along the coastal regions of Sarawak in significant numbers from the 18th century onwards and were engaged in the metal mining industry, mainly for gold and bauxite.
[fn 7] Several towns and other places in Johor and Singapore, built upon sites of former gambier and pepper plantations, are named after former features of the Kangchu system, and are largely populated by ethnic Chinese.
