TAMURA, E. e. a. (1998). China. Undestanding its past. Honolulu, University of Hawai Press. Pp. 121.

THE COMPRADORS

Throughout the treaty-port period in China, foreign firms relied on the services of Chinese middlemen known as compradors. These men performed a wide variety of jobs that would have been difficult or impossible for foreigners to do. They bought and sold goods for foreign firms, contracted other Chinese to work for foreigners, and acted as bankers for foreign companies.
The compradors first came into being as agents for the lucrative tea trade in Guangzhou. Other foreign companies soon found their ser-vices useful, even essential. The number of com-pradors grew slowly at first; there were about 250 in 1854; by 1870 there were 700. From the 1870s to the early twentieth century their numbers grew rapidly, reaching 20,000 by 1910. This upsurge reflects both the vastly expanding trade between Chinese and foreigners and the increasing willingness of Chinese merchants to work for foreign companies.
Compradors were usually salaried employees of foreign firms, but they also made money from commissions on goods they sold, services they brokered, and financial transactions that passed through them. Many of them became very rich from these transactions; their lavish lifestyle was probably one reason that many Chinese resented them. Nor did it help their image that they often invested in foreign businesses to shield their money from Chinese officials. Because of their constant contact with foreigners, compradors developed some foreign habits of thinking and acquired a taste for foreign things. Some filled their luxurious homes with Western furniture and art. They all had to develop some proficiency in the language of the foreign bosses, and many went well beyond "pidgin English" (the mixture of English, Portuguese, and Chinese used in doing business with foreigners) to become fluent in foreign languages.
Some Chinese disdained the compradors because they were agents of foreign businesses; Chinese who resented foreigners thought of them as traitors. Nevertheless, they were not all that foreign. In the best Chinese fashion, they passed their positions on to sons and nephews, creating comprador families. Few compradors converted to Christianity; some were strong Chinese nationalists, participating in the reform movements that aimed to strengthen the Chinese government. The compradors straddled two worlds, Chinese and Western, learning from both but a part of neither.
In the early days of the comprador system, one duty of the comprador was to hire Chinese staff to work for foreigners as cooks, servants, and the like. In practice this meant that the comprador was personally responsible for the behavior of his staff. If one of them committed a crime, the comprador was punished. But once the compradors understood the Western idea that only the guilty person should be punished, they were no longer willing to guarantee the behavior of their countrymen. Once they became aware of Western ideas such as contracts and limited liability, the compradors helped the Chinese understand the foreigners and even helped the Chinese defend themselves against foreign incursions on their life and land.