Kongsi republics

The majority of kongsis began on a modest scale as partnership systems called huis (Chinese: 會; pinyin: huì; lit.

[7] These partnership systems were important economic institutions that existed in China since the emergence of a Song dynasty managerial class in the 12th century.

W. A. Palm, a Dutch East India Company representative, reports that gold mines had been established in 1779 around Landak, but the ethnicity of its workers is unknown.

An alternative founding narrative possibly from Malay sources claims that Lanfang originated from a group of smaller kongsis unified by Luo in 1788.

[12] The kongsi republics controlled port and inland towns that allowed them to trade goods without the interference of their Dutch or Malay neighbors.

[13] These kongsi towns were home to businesses that served the needs of miners and included services such as pharmacies, bakeries, restaurants, opium dens, barber shops, and schools.

[15] Kongsi mining operations on Bangka Island were also seen by contemporary European visitors as "a kind of republic", although their early organisational framework remain a matter of speculation.

The Chinese residents of the former Lanfang Republic were made subjects of Dutch colonial government, but were also expected to pay taxes to local leaders.

[1] The Dutch sinologist Jan Jakob Maria de Groot was in favor of this interpretation, calling the kongsis "village republics" that partook in the "spirit of a democracy.

[23] In response to comparisons with Western republicanism, historian Wang Tai Pang has cautioned that "such an approach to the history of kongsi is evidently Eurocentric."

[5] Mary Somers Heidhues stresses that the 19th century understanding of the word "republic" is not identical to the modern interpretation of republicanism.