Материалы чтений памяти Б. Н. Мельниченко и С. Е. Трифонова

108 Sun Yat-sen a notice that he should leave Siam within a week [Skinner 1957: 157]. Sun Yat-sen was then supported by the U.S. representative in Siam, because he had a residence permit in Hawaii, as a result, his permitted length of stay in the country was extended for another week [Ibid]. Sun Yat-sen spent ten days in Siam, during that time, agree- ments were reached with the leaders of local organizations of overseas Chinese regarding financial support of revolutionary activities in China and a further strategy for developing relationships [Ibid]. After 1906, the Siamese government gradually eliminated all auc- tions for the positions of tax farmers without exception [Baker, Pasuk 2014: 89], but it did not have a big impact on the welfare of most of the major entrepreneurs of Chinese origin, who had managed to significant- ly diversify their business in Siam by then. By the early 20th century, a significant percentage of financial transactions in Siam were still car- ried out by overseas Chinese [Shustrov 2006: 27]. While in 1879 there were approximately equal number of rice mills owned by overseas Chinese and Western companies in Siam, in the fol- lowing years the number of mills controlled by overseas Chinese in- creased dramatically. In 1889, there were 17 of them, in 1895–23, and by 1912 — ​already more than 50 [Skinner 1957: 104]. In addition, it was exactly the Chinese rice mills, that were the first to be equipped with the latest hardware at that time [Kitajskie etnicheskie gruppy v Yugo- Vostochnoj Azii 1986: 40]. In 1908, overseas Chinese also owned 4 out of the 11 sawmills oper- ating in the Bangkok area [Ibid.]. At the beginning of the 20th century, about 10,000 Chinese workers were employed at various rice mills and sawmills in Bangkok [Skinner 1957: 115]. Many Chinese then worked by carrying and packing rice, in construction, at the docks, as sailors and loaders, thousands of Chinese workers were building railways in Siam [Kitajskie etnicheskie gruppy v Yugo-Vostochnoj Azii 1986: 40]. Within the most populous central region of the country, around Bang- kok, thousands of Chinese immigrants worked at various agricultural enterprises, and the owners of these enterprises were often also overseas Chinese [Ibid.]. Overseas Chinese in the early 20 th century made up a significant part of the workers (up to 40,000 people) at the tin mines, which were located on the island of Phuket [Ibid.]. Many of the active- ly developing rubber plantations in southern Siam were then owned by Chinese entrepreneurs, the workers there were also mostly their com- patriots [Ibid.]. Several crafts in Siam — ​brick construction, ship build- ing, blacksmithing, tin crafting, tailoring, leatherworking, shoemaking,