The wealth Lawson obtained from the pastoral industry was built upon the utilisation of cheap convict labour. Convicts were assigned to Lawson as virtual slave labour, those that absconded were sometimes punished with 100 lashes before being returned to his properties. With the end of transportation of convicts to New South Wales in the 1840s, Lawson strongly advocated for the importation of cheap foreign coolie labour. In 1841 he obtained labourers from Chile but was prohibited from bringing "hill coolies" from India.
