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Immigration, Exclusion, and Taxation: Anti-Chinese Legislation in Gold Rush California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2005

MARK KANAZAWA
MARK KANAZAWA
Affiliation:
Mark Kanazawa is Professor, Department of Economics, Carleton College, 1 North College Street, Northfield, MN 55057. E-mail: mkanazaw@carleton.edu.
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Abstract

Historical scholarship on the politics of nineteenth-century Chinese immigration emphasizes the interests of labor and management in the genesis of congressional legislation in 1882 that limited Chinese immigration into the United States. This article examines early state attempts at the exclusion of Chinese workers after the first major wave of Chinese immigration during the California Gold Rush. Opposition to exclusion occurred in California in the early 1850s because Chinese immigrants were important taxpayers when both the state and localities were experiencing major fiscal difficulties. State attempts to legislate exclusion were successful only after financial conditions improved in the late 1850s.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 65 , Issue 3 , September 2005 , pp. 779 - 805
Copyright
© 2005 The Economic History Association

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