The abolition of slavery could only have a negative effect on the sugar economy of Reunion Island, which could not assume the elevated costs of a work force. This is why, as early as 1817 (the year of another attempt at the abolition of slavery), the important landowners on the island compensated for the lack of slaves by importing hired help and voluntary immigrant workers. They were all paid and originally came from different parts of India and then from China. It must not be forgotten that France controlled the Indian commercial trading posts in the towns of Pondichéry, Chandernagor, Yanaon, Karikal and Mahé; these posts supplied thousands of hired workers to the French colonies of the Indian Ocean: Mauritius, Rodrigues, Reunion Island, the Seychelles and the Comores.
In 1848, at the time of the abolition of slavery, there were already more than 6500 hired Indians and Chinese in Reunion Island. Following the example of landowners from the Island of France (Mauritius), those from Reunion Island first called on free workers from India.
They had the reputation of being docile. However, the experience turned out to be disappointing. The Indians preferred to be vagrant than to work in the plantations.
Towards 1843, the arrival of these Indian workers was at its lowest level yet, as the Reunionnese landowners no longer wanted their hired Indians, who, according to them, fought, stole and worked badly. It must be made clear that these ‘hired workers’ were officially free, but that for a long time they had been treated as slaves.
Hence one can understand why the Indians refused to perpetuate the practice of slavery. The island’s government therefore decided to call on the Chinese, who arrived in the colony just after the promulgation of the decree of 1843.
The hiring contract forecast to pay for the cost of their return to China at the end of their five-year contract. Here is what was written concerning the matter:
“The hiring contract will be received by the Consul-General of France and must be written in French and in a language known to the hired workers in order that they might understand all the clauses.”

These workers could also be employed “in the government department”, if it be for the building of roads, the construction of bridges or public edifices, in hospital departments, in arsenal departments or other public establishments.
According to the planters, the Chinese had the reputation of being more robust, more intelligent and “much more civilised” than the Indians.
However, once the Chinese had familiarised themselves with French and Creole, they also rapidly abandoned the hard manual work of the sugar cane plantations and refused to work. They followed the example of the Chinese in Mauritius: they launched themselves into commerce and some of them opened small shops.
As a result of all these problems, the decree of 2nd July 1846 forbid the introduction of new Chinese workers. Today the Chinese Reunionnese run the majority of alimentary businesses and have, as a matter of course, opened a number of restaurants.
As the whites were heavily disappointed by the Indians and Chinese workers, there only option was to call on African workers.
The political authorities thought in the same way as the white landowners: the Africans were the “only ones” who could adapt themselves to the sugar industry. The white planters asked for authorisation to be able to recruit new hired workers from Africa.
For the Reunionnese, it seemed that no race “could usefully replace the black race” in agricultural farming. The total number of hired workers, including all the different races, was never more than 6500. Subsequently, the economic prosperity remained relative. Whilst the important white landowners ran 120 sugar factories and employed 25000 workers, the “coloured workers” lived in miserable conditions and were pushed towards alcoholism. In 1870, the creation of the Suez Canal in Egypt pushed Reunion Island (and Mauritius) further away from the Indian route, which worsened the socio-economic situation. During this decade, the French government called on new workers: Indian Muslims. They came essentially from Bombay and the State of Goujarat.
They were to be called Zarabes, although they were not Arab; the Reunionnese probably confused them with Arabs who are usually of Muslim religion, which is relatively rare for an Indian. Following this, Reunion Island was slowly forgotten, as, as from 1880, the French government became interested in Madagascar.
The Reunionnese population had reached 182637 inhabitants in 1926. The colony managed to get along until the Second World War. In 1945, Reunion Island was nearly ruined.