At the time, each ethnic community had a tendency to specialise in specific trades and economic sectors. While the Europeans predominated in the various professional fields, as well as occupying managerial positions in mercantile and shipping firms, the Peranakans and the Eurasians tended to enter the nascent civil service as lawyers, engineers, architects and clerks. Some of the newer Chinese arrivals, labelled condescendingly by the Peranakans as Sinkheh (Chinese: 新客; meaning new guests), were coolies and agricultural farmers, although many eventually entered into commercial, trading and real estate enterprises within the city; certain dialect communities, such as the Cantonese and the Hakka, predominated as artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters and cooks. The Indians, who were first brought in as convict workers for public works, also began competing with the Chinese in commercial, trading and shipping stevedore activities. Ethnic Malays, meanwhile, were primarily engaged in agricultural occupations, including rice farming and fishing. Other ethnic communities, such as the Jews and the Armenians, were mainly engaged in mercantile and commercial ventures; the latter community was notable for the establishment of the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, for instance.