comprador
/ˌkɒmprəˈdɔː
/(also compradore)
noun
A person who acts as an agent for foreign organizations engaged in investment, trade, or economic or political exploitation: the communist movement identified the new ruling class as bourgeois compradors allied with imperialists...
- Capitalist globalization has created new groups of what can be termed indigenous globalizers, aspiring members of the transnational capitalist class who have replaced the old compradors.
- Many foreign merchants traded with the Chinese through compradores, who acted either as salaried employees or independent agents.
- Their aim is to establish themselves as compradors for international capital in the north and east of the island and elsewhere in the region.
Origin
Early 17th century (denoting a local person employed in a European household in SE Asia or India to make small purchases and keep the household accounts): from Portuguese, 'buyer', from late Latin comparator, from Latin comparare 'to purchase', from com- 'with' + parare 'provide'.