Poll tax in Vietnam in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: A tool to regulate human resources for plantation exploitation of French capitalists in Cochinchina

Abstract

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, poll taxes were not only a tool of exploitation but also used by the French government to attract and regulate human resources for economic exploitation in Vietnam. The colonial government implemented a policy of exempting and reducing poll taxes for laborers working in French capitalist plantations in Cochinchina, forcing landowners to bear a portion of poll taxes for the labor they used. This policy, along with other factors, has created the driving force to attract a large force of native workers, contributing to solving the labor shortage and creating the success of the French capitalism in plantation exploitation in Cochinchina.