What Are Merchants?

The Chinese Exclusion Act technically barred all Chinese laborers and only let in teachers, students, diplomats, and merchants. The question became what are merchants? And this was a complicated question. There were something like a dozen cases in the US Supreme Court that dealt with the question of who is a merchant exactly. But ultimately around 1915, there came a consensus that yes, if you are the owner or importantly a part owner of a Chinese restaurant and you do know manual labor, that was one of the keys,. then you're considered a merchant.