The term
comprador, a
Portuguese word that means
buyer, derives from the
Latin comparare, which means
to procure. The original usage of the word in East Asia referred to a native servant in European households in
Guangzhou in southern
China or in the neighboring
Portuguese colony at
Macao - such persons went to market to
barter their employers' wares. The term then evolved to mean the native contract-suppliers who worked for foreign companies in East Asia or the native managers of firms in East Asia. The Hong Kong firm of
Li & Fung, founded in 1906, partly functioned as a
Canton comprador in its early stages.
Marxist theoreticians in the 20th century applied the term
comprador bourgeoisie to similar trading-classes in regions outside East Asia. With the emergence or the re-emergence of
globalization, the term "comprador" has reentered the lexicon to denote trading groups and classes in the
developing world in subordinate but mutually-advantageous relationships with metropolitan
capital. The Egyptian Marxist
Samir Amin (1931–2018) discussed the role of compradors in the contemporary global economy in his work. In addition, the Indian economist
Ashok Mitra (1928–2018) labelled the owners and managers of firms attached to the
Indian software industry as compradors. Growing identification of the software industry in India with comprador "qualities" has led to the labeling of certain persons associated with the industry as "dot.compradors". Marxist terminology counterposes a
comprador bourgeoisie, perceived as the serving the interests of foreign imperial powers, to a
national bourgeoisie, which is considered as opposing foreign
imperialism and promoting the independence of its own country and, as such, could be, under some circumstances, a short-term ally of socialist revolutionaries.
Mikhail Delyagin has characterised the 21st-century
Russian state as in itself a comprador in a system of comprador capitalism. Irish historian Dr. Conor McCabe, building on analyses present in the writings of early 20th Century Irish socialists like
James Connolly,
Peadar O'Donnell and
Brian O'Neill, has used the concept of "comprador capitalism" to help explain the development of the Irish financial sector and the Irish economy more broadly. ==Notable compradors==