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

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

manager for a

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an business house in East and South East Asia, and, by extension, social groups that play broadly similar roles in other parts of the world.

Etymology

The term ''comprador'', a Portuguese word that means ''buyer'', derives from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

''comparare'', which means ''to procure''. The original usage of the word in East Asia meant a native servant in European households in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

in southern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

or the neighboring Portuguese

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

Macao Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a po ...

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. Compradors held important positions in southern China buying and selling tea, silk, cotton and

yarn Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manu ...

for foreign corporations and working in foreign-owned

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

Robert Hotung Sir Robert Ho Tung Bosman, (22 December 1862 – 26 April 1956), also known as Sir Robert Ho Tung, was a businessman and philanthropist in British Hong Kong. Known as "the grand old man of Hong Kong" (), he was knighted in 1915 ( Knight Bache ...

, a late-nineteenth-century compradore of the trading conglomerate Jardine, Matheson & Co. was believed to be the richest man in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

by the age of 35.

Li & Fung Li & Fung Limited is a Bermuda-incorporated, Hong Kong-based supply chain manager. In 2020, it was reportedly struggling to turn its century-old business around for years. On 13 February 2017, it was removed from the blue chip index: Hang Seng ...

partly functioned as a Canton comprador in its early stages. In

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

, the term ''comprador

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. Th ...

'' was later applied to similar trading-class in regions outside East Asia. With the emergence or the re-emergence of

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

, the term "comprador" has reentered the lexicon to denote trading groups and classes in the

developing world A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreeme ...

in subordinate but mutually-advantageous relationships with metropolitan capital. The Egyptian Marxist Samir Amin has discussed the role of compradors in the contemporary global economy in his recent work. In addition, the Indian economist

Ashok Mitra Ashok Mitra (10 April 1928 – 1 May 2018) was an Indian economist and Marxist politician. He was a chief economic adviser to the Government of India and later became finance minister of West Bengal and a member of the Rajya Sabha. Early life ...

has accused the owners and managers of firms attached to the Indian software industry of being compradors. Growing identification of the software industry in India with comprador "qualities" has led to the labeling of certain persons associated with the industry as "dot.compradors." In Marxist terminology, ''comprador bourgeoisie'', perceived as the serving the interests of foreign imperial powers, is counterposed to ''national bourgeoisie'' which is considered as opposing foreign imperialism and promoting the independence of its own country and, as such, could be, under some circumstances, a short-term ally of socialist revolutionaries.

Notable compradors

China

* Chang Kia-ngau (

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

) *

Zheng Guanying Zheng Guanying or Cheng Kuan-ying (1842-1922 or 1923) was a Chinese reformist active in the late Qing Dynasty.Tong King-sing (

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

) *

Ho Tung Sir Robert Ho Tung Bosman, (22 December 1862 – 26 April 1956), also known as Sir Robert Ho Tung, was a businessman and philanthropist in British Hong Kong. Known as "the grand old man of Hong Kong" (), he was knighted in 1915 (Knight Bachel ...

(

)

Bangladesh

* Latifur Rahman

References

External links

{{Authority control Business occupations Economic history of China Management occupations Trading companies