Chinese Sojourn Labor Summary

Carson,Scott Alan. “Chinese Sojourn Labor and the American Transcontinental Railroad.” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics JITE J Inst Theor Econ 161.1 (2005): 80-102. Web In this paper by Scott Alan Carson, Carson writes about Chinese Sojourn Labor. Carson writes how institutional arrangements and labor market forces that interacted in the construction of America’s railroad led to the demand for Chinese Laborers. Carson writes more about these relationships and the work given to the Chinese than writing about the more personal details of the workers. For instance, Carson writes that because of land grants given by the government Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads earned more capital by completing more railway tracks. Carson also writes how the Chinese did the jobs no one else wanted to do, and they did them for lesser wages. Therefore, Carson writes specifically about the work of the Chinese and the factors that caused the hiring of Chinese more so than the personal aspects of the workers. This paper by Scott Carson is extremely useful in that shows all the different forces that came together to cause the Central Pacific railroad to begin hiring the Chinese railroad workers such as labor queuing, demand side

For instance, Steiner writes how in the photograph at the completion of the railroad the Chinese workers were missing from the photograph. Steiner also writes about how many of the white workers thought the Chinese were effeminate and did not have the ability to do their hard work. Steiner also writes a more detailed description of what happened at Cape horn, and he also writes how the Chinese were forced to work from dawn to dark 7 days a week. Thus, Steiner writes a more detailed a personal history of the