Six Companies

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about race that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) an orga rters in San Fran- Chinamen with headquarters in cisco, Cal., partly benevolent and partly commercial, their functions being to loan money, give advice, act as bankers, care for the sick, and protect their countrymen in all ways. Originally, they guaranteed to send back, dead or alive, the body of every Chinaman who sailed from home to this country, but they now ship back to China the bones only of those whose families desire those relics buried in the sacred earth of the Flowery Kingdom. They began in 1850 and 1851 hiring men in China to meet the demand for labor in California. The business grew and other Chinese firms went into it. Then the agents of all these firms found it necessary to unite for self-protection. There were six of these agencies, and they called themselves the Six Companies. A contractor in need of newly imported labor goes to one of these companies and gives his order for so many men. He pays the fees for that number to the company he deals with. If he hires laborers already here they will be members of the company, and the charge will be only the rate exacted for the service. The names of the Six Companies are: the Ning Yeung, the Hop Wo, the Kong Chow, the Yung Yo, the Sam Yup, the Yang Wo. The Six Companies have added arbitration bureaus and banking operations to their original scheme.