Mencius Moldbugman

BAP’s theorising on a mixed-race middle-management caste strike me as accurate. Observing the former Portuguese colonies that I am more familiar with - Malacca and Macau - I can observe how that strategy has resulted after a timeline of centuries.

Both colonies operated differently but they have something in common: the complete and utter irrelevance of the mulatto caste today in either of those societies. I am far less familiar with Indian Goa which was also a Portuguese colony, but I imagine it is similar.

BAP’s theory that colonial miscegenation was an official policy seems accurate when we see that Portuguese women were barred from travelling abroad and men were encouraged to marry local women. Freeman status and tax exemption was granted to those who married local women and bred

Despite their once sizeable number, the Kristang are mostly irrelevant in modern Malaysia and Malacca. After the Dutch takeover most became mere shrimp fishermen. Political power today is dominated by Malays, economic power by Chinese and Indians.

There are also mixed Portuguese descendants in nearby Singapore where they are part of the general Eurasian community which includes mixed descendants of other European races. Again in Singapore we see they are the smallest and least powerful ethnic group with zero clout.

Macanese were the middle men between Portuguese merchants/officials and the 90% Chinese majority. Today Macau’s economy is dominated either by Macau Chinese (like Stanley Ho) or Mainland Chinese.

In both Malacca and Macau (and Goa) we can see that in recent years the “Portuguese” caste have dwindled in fortune. In all three areas, many have migrated to the west in recent decades and those that remain are normally found at the lower economic tiers.

What I find interesting is how this middle-manager caste has declined in each area following the departure of the colonial government. The cause is obvious: without the influence of the colonial power, there is little to no need for an intermediary caste.

Once the benefits of speaking a ruling power’s language have been removed (and the cultural closeness) the middle-managers have little to offer and are quickly dominated by the ethnic majority. They are either submerged into the majority or hold on as dying relics of a former age

(This is equally true in business. Any intermediary agent such as an estate agent, headhunter or exporter is in a highly precarious position should the buyer and the vendor decide to just contact each other directly)

I believe it is true that in life as in business, nature abhors a middle-man. As soon as the need for a middle-man is no longer there, then there is little goodwill extended. This is true of the mulatto populations: Useless to the ex-colonial power, mistrusted by the new majority