CHINESE IMMIGRATION - A COMMENT

In a recent article (1987, Explorations in Economic History 24, 22-42) on Chinese immigration Patricia Cloud and David Galenson seek to document the mechanisms that made the 19th-century Chinese immigration into the United States possible. They claim that most Chinese immigrants came, in effect, as indentured servants, bound to and under the control of the Chinese district or place associations-the so-called six Chinese companies. This paper takes issue with those conclusions. © 1990.