This article delineates a hitherto eclipsed labor history of the Northwest Borneo oilfields. In 2018, Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) in an unprecedented move, released to Brunei's national archive two labor registers of the British Malayan Petroleum Company (BMPC-renamed BSP in 1958), with entries dating between the 1940s and 1950s. These registers provided a rare glimpse of the workers who were recruited to the Brunei oilfields as labor, a category distinct from staff. As BMPC labor they worked to rehabilitate the company town and the oilfields that were destroyed during the Second World War by the Japanese army and allied bombing in the British protectorate of Brunei. Like colonial records that amassed information for the control and rule of colonized subjects, each entry in BMPC's ledger meticulously noted the date of engagement, place of employment, wages, work history, as well as some biographical information about its workers. Inadvertently, these entries also revealed modes of worker resistance and assertions of agency, thus providing a glimpse of the hidden transcripts of a labor history shaped by the policies of BMPC in this colonial outpost. My article draws on these two BMPC labor registers to trace a micro-spatial history of “Dayak” labor in the emergent Borneo oilfields. Often obscured in historical records, the registers made visible the ways in which Indigenous workers negotiated and resisted the company's control of its labor force. I explore Dayak labor recruitment within the context of the 1880s-1941 when state borders irrevocably shifted and regional economies were increasingly drawn into a global market. In doing so, I chart migrant labor routes across varied regional economies in Northwest Borneo, BMPC's management of a multiethnic labor force, and company workers' agency.

本文描述了西北婆罗洲油田迄今为止黯然失色的劳动历史。2018年，文莱壳牌石油公司（BSP）采取了史无前例的举措，向文莱国家档案馆公布了英国马来亚石油公司（BMPC，1958年更名为BSP）的两份劳工登记册，其条目可追溯至1940年代至1950年代。这些登记册让人们得以难得一睹文莱油田作为劳工（与职员不同的类别）招募的工人的情况。作为 BMPC 的劳工，他们致力于恢复公司城镇和油田，这些油田在第二次世界大战期间被日本军队和盟军轰炸的英国保护国文莱摧毁。就像殖民记录收集了控制和统治殖民主体的信息一样，BMPC 账本中的每一项都细致地记录了参与日期、就业地点、工资、工作经历以及有关其工人的一些传记信息。无意间，这些条目还揭示了工人抵抗的模式和代理主张，从而让人们一睹这个殖民地前哨基地由 BMPC 政策塑造的劳工历史的隐藏记录。我的文章利用这两个 BMPC 劳工登记册来追踪新兴婆罗洲油田中“达雅克”劳工的微观空间历史。这些登记册常常在历史记录中被掩盖，但它们却让原住民工人谈判和抵制公司对其劳动力控制的方式变得清晰可见。我在 1880 年代至 1941 年的背景下探讨了达雅克劳动力的招募情况，当时国家边界发生了不可逆转的变化，区域经济日益融入全球市场。在此过程中，我绘制了婆罗洲西北部不同区域经济体的移民劳工路线、BMPC 对多民族劳动力的管理以及公司工人机构。