[1]

In 1878, the Post Master General’s Postal Guide contained a notification: “Box holders may mark stamps. Box holders (but box holders only) are at liberty to mark their postage stamps on the back or face, or by perforation, so as to prevent their being stolen. If a mark be on the face it must be such as not to interfere with the clean appearance of the stamp. Stamps so marked will not be purchased.”

[2]

It is assumed that large corporations operating in HK and in the Treaty Ports were obliged to have additional chops of the same marking in order to mark their mail at different places at the same time.

We have never been able to demonstrate it, but it is very likely, mostly when the chop ties the adhesive on a cover.

Therefore we have recorded the apparent same markings under different sub-types numbers when used at different places.

However, there was no reason to record markings as sub-type on adhesives with arriving marking, because those markings had been struck at the point of origin, already recorded.

We have also tried to record the different major markings colors such a black, red, blue, green, violet without trying to list all the hues, Violet may describe all the nuance or purple and reciprocally.

Philippe Orsetti

[3]

Markings on printed stationery has been a recurring subject of discussion. I have always maintained that firm's markings on such support were usually security marks, (and may have been also used for return address which is not a contradiction). The reason being that printed postal stationery (PS) or printed postcard (PC) had intrinsic value, they were like postage stamps, just larger, and they had to be protected.
This has been proven right, time and time again, in finding identical markings on postage adhesives long after they had been recorded on PS or PC support only.

Philippe Orsetti

[4]

Distinguishing between revenue markings and security markings is not always easy. Therefore we have chosen to proceed as follow:

1- A marking is recorded in the “Security Markings” list as long as it is struck on a postal or postal-fiscal adhesive.

There are exceptions:

- A perfin is always recorded in the “Security Markings” list regardless of the adhesive support.

- A marking, struck on a revenue adhesive, which is beyond any doubt a security marking, is recorded in the “Security Markings” list. (This may happen with names obviously printed on an adhesive before it was affixed to a revenue document or firms initials associated with a revenue marking.)

2- When a marking is struck on a revenue adhesive, it is recorded in the “Revenue Markings” list. When this marking is also used as a security marking on postal adhesives, it results in duplication between the lists, but it is always noted in the “Revenue Markings” list.

Philippe Orsetti

[5]

No details but posssibly a Liverpool firm1900-1905 Listed in Chronicle & Directory for 1905

Peter

[6]

See Group II – 1 Adamson Bell & Co.

[7]

The Apcars were a prominent Armenian family in India. For more than a century, the name of Apcar was prominent in commerce and industry. Arathoon Apcar came to India in 1795 from Iran. He was a brilliant businessman and founded schools, donated financial assistance to Armenian Churches in India. His firm, Apcar & Co, was prominent in commerce and handle enormous business until the World War I. At that time Apcar & Co. owned several steamships known as the Apcar Line. They were later sold to the British India Steamship Navigation Company and renamed the B.I. Line.

Frank

Arratoon V. Apcar & Co. [1897-1925]
By Michel Houde

[All the examples of the security markings pictured in this article are by the kind permission of Rod Sell. There may be more types than shown. See these and others security marking of Hong Kong on http://rodsell.com. If you have examples of this firm’s security markings or those of other firms, please send scans and details to Rod Sell.]

Security Markings: The firm seems to have used only the one type of security marking pictured above.
Firms bearing the Apcar name established themselves in business in Singapore, China, Japan and elsewhere in Asia. Thus, we philatelists must be cautious in attributing a firm chop to its proper owner.
Arratoon Vertannes Apcar came to Hong Kong at age 16 in 1887. Initially, he was engaged in the opium business. Then, in 1891, he set himself up in business as A.V. Apcar. On 3 July 1897, the Hong Kong Daily Press reported that the business would from then onwards be carried on as Arratoon V. Apcar and Co. as merchants and commission agents located on Wyndham Street.

By 1907, they were known locally as “Mon-kee” and were located to 14 Des Voeux Road Central. A.V. Apcar was the owner and T.M. Gregory signed for the business. The firm was the agency for the Macao Banco Nacional Ultramarino. This bank, founded in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1864, started its operations in Macao in 1902. It merged with a government-owned savings bank in 2001. As the bank’s agent, Arratoon V. Apcar & Co. converted Macao bank notes to Hong Kong currency before shipping the collected notes back to Macao.
Mr. Apcar moved to London, in 1925, after residing in Hong Kong for 38 years.

By 1930, the firm had transferred to the Prince’s Building on Des Voeux Road Central. A.V. Apcar was managing director in London and M.J. Patell, N. Nemazee and D.H. Cooper were directors. The firm was the agent for the Yorkshire Insurance Co., Ltd.
After the death of Mr. Apcar, in 1931, Mr. D. H. Cooper took over the business and changed the name to Cooper & Co.

Mr. Arratoon Vertannes Apcar was born in Persia in 1871. He married Asken Basil in 1913. They had one child, a son, George Armen Arratoon Apcar, born on 4 June 1915, at Ava House, 1 May Road. A.V. Apcar died in London on 6 April 1931, leaving an estate valued at $773,100. Besides his business ventures, he was a large property owner in the colony including Ava House, Ava Mansions, Armend Buildings and Observatory Villas, Kowloon. Interestingly, he was a keen philatelist.

Mr. Dossabhoy Hormusjee Cooper was a Parsee born in Bombay in 1871. He arrived in Hong Kong as a young man and worked for the firm of S. N. Talati & Co. He worked for a time in Shanghai but later returned to Hong Kong as the manager of the firm. Afterwards, he was an exchange and bullion broker with the firm of Chinoy Brothers. Lastly, he worked for Arratoon V. Apcar & Co. as their Hong Kong agent. He was one of the oldest Parsee residents of the colony when he died on January 16, 1938. He never married.

Other Apcars in business in Hong Kong contemporaneous to Arratoon V. Apcar & Co.:

Apcar Brothers were share brokers and commission agents. In 1889, they were in business at 68 Queen's Road Central. The next year they opened an auction room at the same address.
Apcar Gabriel Apcar was a share broker. In 1887, he was in the firm of A. Apcar & Co. In 1890, he was a broker for Apcar Bros. Born at Isfahan, Persia on 30 December 1863. In 1890, he was in financial difficulties and committed suicide on September 16th.

Apcar Michael Apcar was born in 1855 and died 4 Dec. 1906. He established himself at Hong Kong about 1886. In 1891, he moved to Yokohama and opened A.M. Apcar & Co. as general merchants and commission agents. In 1896, he transferred his business to Kobe.

Apcar & Co. was founded in Bombay in 1809 as commission agents and insurance brokers. The founder, Arratoon Apcar, arrived in Bombay in 1795 moving to Calcutta in 1830. His four sons were involved in the family business in India. The firm owned the Apcar Line of Opium Steamers. They ran a fleet of five vessels from Calcutta carrying Chinese labourers and cargo, largely to and from Rangoon, Singapore, Hong Kong and Amoy, with connections to Japan. In 1873, their Hong Kong agents were David Sassoon Sons & Co. The line had the same Hong Kong agents in the 1910 Directory where they are referred to as Apcar & Co. Calcutta – Hongkong Line. On 27 February 1912, their ships, workshops and mines, were sold to the British India Steam Navigation Company. Sailings from Calcutta to Japan were still advertised as being conducted by the Apcar Line into the 1950s. In the 1930 Directory Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co. were shown as agents for this line as well as for the P.&O., B.I. and Eastern & Australian Lines.

References:
Apcar Family. 25 January 2009 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apcar_Family >
Bard, Solomon: Traders of Hong Kong : Some Foreign Merchant Houses, 1841-1899. Hong Kong : Urban Council, 1993.
Chater, Liz. Email message with Apcar genealogical information, 24 February 2009.
Editor, China Mail. “Estate of Mr. A.V. Apcar.” China Mail [Hong Kong] 21 August 1931
Editor, Daily Press. Various. Daily Press [Hong Kong] 18 Jan. 1888, 29 Oct. 1889, 7 April 1890, 4 June 1890 and 19 Sept 1890
Editor, Hong Kong Telegraph. “Mr. A.V. Apcar Dies in London.” Hong Kong Telegraph 8 April 1931
Editor, Hong Kong Telegraph. “Mr. D.H. Cooper Passes Here.” Hong Kong Telegraph 17 January 1938
Ellis Island/Port of New York Records. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. <http://www.ellisislandrecords.org>
Government Records Service, Hong Kong. Email message with data cards from the Carl T. Smith Collection.
Hong Kong Study Markings Group. 24 January 2009 < http://rodsell.com/hksmsic/hksmsic.html > [Contributed by Adam Williamson and Frank Drake with thanks.]
Hongkong Daily Press: The Directory and Chronicle For China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, The Philippines, etc. For the Year 1910. Hong Kong: The Hongkong Daily Press Office, 1910 & 1930
Seth, Mesrovb J. History of the Armenians in India. Piscataway. NJ: Gorgias Press, 2004
Wright, Arnold, Editor-In-Chief and H. A. Cartwright, Assistant Editor: Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[8]

Arndt & Co. was a short livered business that was functioning by the 27^thof January 1909 when the illustrated cover was mailed. The firm likely began operations in 1908. In 1910, the Hong Kong Directory listed them as Machinery Importers, General Merchants & Commission Agentscarrying on business in Hong Kong and Canton. Their head office was at 38 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong. They were known locally as On-kee.

Before establishing his business, Ernst Arndt worked for Arnhold, Karberg & Co. In 1899, he was a clerk with the firm, an assistant by 1905, could sign for them in 1906 and he was made manager of the machinery department before leaving to setup his own business about 1908. W. Goetz was also part of & Co. and could sign for the firm. He too had worked for Arnhold, Karberg & Co. prior to joining Arndt & Co. Wong Mung Wai is mentioned as being an assistant with the firm in 1910.

At some point in 1912, the business ran into a problem. On December 21, 1912, Mr. J.M.S. Xavier brought action against Messrs. Arndt & Co. for $300 which was the balance of money he had loaned the firm and which they still owed him.

Arndt & Co. closed its doors early in 1913. On February 28, 1913, Mr. E.A.M. Williams, of the professional accounting firm of Lowe, Bingham & Matthews was appointed trustee for the creditors of Messrs. Arndt & Company. The community was advised that particulars of debts or claims had to be sent in before March 17^th.
On March 3, 1913 Mr. J.A. Straube of No. 6 Sau Wa Fong, Wanchai sued to recover $130. He had work as their overseer at Canton from November 7 to December 2, 1912 and now he wanted to be paid. On the 8^thof April 1913, the case went before the Supreme Court however, Messrs Arndt & Co. did not appear nor were they represented. The Summary Court gave judgement for the plaintiff. Earlier, on March 28, 1913, Mr. A.M. dos Santos had sued Messrs. Arndt and Co. to recover $1,000.

Michel Houde (October 2011)
From large bibliography available on request.

[9]

This maybe:

L. M. ALVARES & CO. who were established in 1896. They exported preserved ginger from the Hing Loong ginger factory in Canton. Another important part of their business was the export of feathers from China after being cleaned in their factory in Kowloon.

Michel

[10]

Arie Boers Azn (1867-1947), architect, amateur painter, buried in the Cemetery Essenhof in Dordrech, Holland

Philippe

[11]

Arnemann and Co.
They were established by the year 1865 when a notice of the cancellation of their permit to ship munitions of war appeared in the Government Gazette. They had not made the proper return to the Harbour Master's Office (GG 7 Jan. 1865). The firm closed in October of the next year (DP 4 Oct. 1866). G.W Hartmann paid the debts of the company and then conducted business under his own name, but for a very brief period.

Source: THE GERMAN SPEAKING COMMUNITY IN HONG KONG 1846 -1918. CARL T. SMITH
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch
Vol. 34 (1994 ).

[12]

The firm, Arnhold, Karberg & Co., started in Canton in 1866, opening a branch in Hong Kong in 1867, in Shanghai in 1881, and followed later with offices at Tientsin, Hankow, Chungking, Mukden, and other Chinese cities.The principles were Jacob Arnhold, a German national, and Peter Karberg, who was Danish. Their business started with general trading involving every import and export commodity current at the time. They were also involved with shipping, fire and life insurance, and were the agent for nine insurance companies. An advertisement in 1913 described them as “ merchants, manufacturers’ representatives, engineers and contractors” holding large stocks of machinery, electrical goods and building materials. Initially the firm was half German, and by the 20th century had developed into a cosmopolitan concern, with large British and American connections. With the approach of the 1914-1918 First World War, the company made plans to trade as a British firm in order to avoid the total suspension of trade in Hong Kong and the Far East. It changed its name to Arnold & Co., and became British. The firm is still trading today under the name of Arnold & Co. Ltd.

Frank

[13]

Arthur Lisfranc
French merchants. Limited information is known on this company whose address is given as “ Rue du Consulat 29, Shanghai”

Frank Drake (September 2011)

[14]

Asiatic Petroleum Company was a joint venture between the Shell and Royal Dutch oil companies founded in 1903. It operated in Asia in the early twentieth century.[1] The corporate headquarters were on The Bund in Shanghai, China. The division tested the limits of corporate liability in the Lennard's Carrying Co Ltd v Asiatic Petroleum Co Ltd case.

Wikipedia

Asiatic Petroleum Company
In 1890, the “Royal Dutch Company for the Exploitation of Petroleum Wells in the Netherlands East Indies” (Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatschappij tot Explotatie van Petroleum-bronnen in Nederlandsch-Indië) was registered in The Hague. In 1897, Shell was first registered in London by the brothers Marcus and Sam Samuel as “The Shell Transport and Trading Company, Ltd.” In 1903 the Asiatic Petroleum Company was established as a joint venture between Royal Dutch and Shell. Asiatic Petroleum Company became Shell Oil after WWII.

Frank Drake

Asiatic Petroleum Co., Ltd. [1908-1955]

On July 2 1903, the Asiatic Petroleum Company Limited (APCL) was formed as a marketing company to compete against John D. Rockefeller’s, Standard Oil company in the Far East. The joint venture consisted of the Shell Transport & Trading Company, the Royal Dutch Company and the Paris Rothschild family that controlled large oil interests in Russia. Each party owned one third of the new company. The Rothschilds dropped out of the APCL in 1917. Despite merging their interests the founding companies remain separate, an unusual arrangement indeed. The principal product these firms exported was kerosene or lamp-oil which was used for lighting. Kerosene was cheaper, burned steadier and produced less smoke and a brighter light than the vegetable oils used at the time in China.

A branch office of the APCL was opened in Hong Kong in 1906 and at Shanghai in 1908. Originally, the Hong Kong office handled the China Coast, Swatow, Amoy and Foochow and later the Philippines and Formosa. The Shanghai office handled the Yangtze Valley, Northern China up to Tientsin and Manchuria. Harbin was the northernmost sales office.

On 1 January 1907, Royal Dutch and Shell Transport combined to form the Royal Dutch/Shell Group however they continued doing business in China as the APCL.

In 1910, the APCL’s Hong Kong headquarters were in the King's Buildings on Connaught Road. They also had installations at North Point and in Kowloon.

The demand for oil products had grown to the point that on August 11, 1913 the APCL formed northern and southern branches. South China and the Philippines were then managed through the Hong Kong office as Asiatic Petroleum Company (South China) Ltd. The rest of China was managed from Shanghai as the Asiatic Petroleum Company (North China), Ltd.

In 1916, the APCL acquired the McBain Building, the tallest building on The Bund in Shanghai for it offices. It soon became known as the Asiatic Petroleum Building. In Hong Kong in 1924, the APCL moved into the Asiatic Building on Queen's Road Central. The name was changed to Shell House on May 1, 1935.

When WWII broke out, the company had in excess of 50 subsidiaries and employed more than 7,000 people throughout China. All of APCL’s facilities were taken over by the Japanese. In the post war years the firm quickly reconstructed.

Asiatic Petroleum Company (North China), Ltd. changed its name to Shell Company of China Ltd. on November 29, 1944. APC Asiatic Petroleum Company (South China), Ltd. became Shell Co. of Hong Kong Ltd. on January 10, 1955.

Michel Houde 8/2013

[15]

Asiatic Banking Corporation
Augustine Heard & Co. acted as the China Agents for the Asiatic Banking Corporation, which originally promoted in Bombay in 1863 and got a Royal Charter in 1864 with its head office in London. The Asiatic Banking Corporation had previously operated in Ceylon and Singapore before opening a branch in Shanghai. This bank heavily backed an effort by Great Britain to grow cotton in India and Ceylon to replace much needed cotton from the Confederate States of America, which was under blockade by Union forces. . At the time British textile mills were entirely dependent upon cotton shipped from the Confederate States. The Confederates refused to supply the British with cotton unless Britain granted them recognition as a nation. This Britain refused to do, turning instead to India for the desperately needed cotton. There they tried to create a cotton raising culture overnight. Prices shot through the roof and supply could not keep up with demand. Speculation in cotton futures ran rife, the Asiatic Bank being the principal provider of capital. When the American Civil War ended England went back to buying cheap southern cotton ending the Indian experiment. Shareholders and the Asiatic Banking Corporation were left holding the bag. The bank collapsed in 1866.

Frank Drake (September 2011)

[16]

Augustine Heard & Co. (1840-1875)

The American, Augustine Heard became a partner in the Canton based firm of Russell & Co. in 1831. His friend, Joseph Coolidge became a partner in 1834. After friction had developed within the firm, they left and on the 1^st of January 1840, they formed a new firm under the style of Augustine Heard and Company.

Tea was one of the main products they traded however; it did not provide as much profit as opium. They opened offices in Yokohama in 1859 and purchased the first steamer to arrive in Asia, in 1861, for coastal and river shipping.

Besides shipping and opium, Augustine Heard & Co. conducted business in other areas. They were the main trading agent for several large firms, including, in 1861, the Liverpool firm of John Swire & Sons Ltd. Before the commercial banks began operating in China, starting in 1847, a large part of their business was as exchange brokers.

Augustine Heard & Co. became an extensive empire with numerous agencies and branches. After, the treaty of Nanking (1842) had opened new treaty ports; the firm began to branch out in China. At one time or other they were in Canton (Shameen Island), Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai. In Shanghai, they had a fine house on the Bund. In 1856, they moved their headquarters from Canton to Hong Kong.

Following the Harris Treaties with Japan (July 1858), Augustine Heard & Co. opened branch offices in the treaty ports of Yokohama, Nagasaki and Kobe. By 1861, the firm added branches or agencies in: Kiukeang [Kiukiang], Hankow, Tientsin, Newchang, Chefoo, Wuhu and Nanking.

Augustine Heard & Co. succumbed to the changes that were occurring in the old China trade such that on April 19, 1875, the firm collapsed.

Michel Houde
Feb 3, 2011

[17]

MR. ABEL WILLIAM BAHR is a man who has achieved success by steady application to business, for he started upon his career without those advantages which many others enjoy. Born at Shanghai on December 11, 1877, he was educated here, and, at the early age of fourteen years, entered a coal merchant's business. Three years later he started in business for himself ! Four years afterwards he amalgamated with Messrs. Hopkins, Dunn & Co., and has since been in charge of their coal department. His carefully acquired knowledge of all the details of the trade here stood him in good stead, for his operations have been entirely successful, and, as the result, he is now the head of a large and flourishing enterprise and the owner of a considerable amount of real estate. He is married to a daughter of Mr. Thomas Southey, of the Imperial Maritime Customs, and has two sons and one daughter. Mr. Bahr is an enthusiastic horticulturist, and a collector of pictures and Oriental china. He has devoted much time and money to these hobbies, and his fine residence, which is surrounded in summer time by beautiful flowers of numerous varieties, contains many choice pieces of porcelain and numerous artistic treasures.

Source: p 524 Wright, Arnold, Editor-In-Chief and H. A. Cartwright, Assistant Editor: Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[18]

The Bank of China & Japan. This took some time to find and the only reference I have found is by Frank H.H. King in his book Eastern Banking
(Essays in the history of the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation).
Apparently it was one of Jardine's ventures - he writes:-Jardine's parallel experiment (to Russell's) began as the Bank of China, Japan & the Straits, Limited, then the Trust & Loan Company ...... and then the Bank of China and Japan, Limited; this last mentioned was established in 1894 in conjunction with Sassoon, Siemsen and Melchers interests and was wound up in 1902.

Peter

"One of the Rothschild marriages was Aline, daughter of Baron Gustave Rothschild, to opium dealer and banker, Sir Albert Sassoon in 1887. The British Crown knighted him in 1872; the family was known as "the Rothschilds of the Far East." The Sassoons were originally from Mesopotamia but migrated to India where they became leaders of the opium trade and among the founders of Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank - and Silver Users Association members! The Sassoons were also powers in the Bank of China; Bank of China & Japan; Sassoon Banking Company of China & London; Imperial Bank of Persia; and British Burma Petroleum."

Frank

The Bank of China and Japan Limited (1895-1902)

The Bank of China, Japan and the Straits Limited was founded in 1890. The headquarters were in London.
It was voluntarily wound up in 1895 and reconstituted as The Bank of China and Japan Limited the same year.
Among its branches were ones in Kobe, Bombay, Calcutta, Penang, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The bank was wound-up in 1902.

Michel Houde (December 2011)

[19]

THE BANK OF TAIWAN, LTD.

Any account of the financial institutions of the Colony would be incomplete without some reference to the Bank of Taiwan, Ltd., a large and
infiuential house with its headquarters at Taipeh, Formosa, and branches and agencies at Amoy, Swatow, Newchwang, Darien, P'oochow, Keelung, Kobe, Osaka, Tokio, Yokohama, Moji, Nagasaki, London, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Taichu, Tainan, Takow, Tamsui, &c., established some eight years ago, it is the Government bank in Formosa, and is incorporated by special imperial charter. Two years after its foundation it extended its operations to Hongkong, and the business carried on under its auspices has increased steadily month by month, until now it holds a prominent place in the commercial life of the Colony. The capital amounts to Y5,000,000, of wliich Y3,750,000 is paid up, and there are reserve funds amounting to Y830,000. The statement of accounts published in June, 1907, showed a net profit for the half-year of Y299,450. Mr. Kazuyoslii Yagiu is the president, Mr. Totaro Shimosaka, is the vice-president, and Messrs. Muneyoshi Tatsuno and Isolatsu Kajivvara, are the directors of the Company. The Hongkong offices are in Princes Buildings, and the branch is managed by Mr. D. Tohdow, who has been in the service of the bank since its formation. He has the assistance of an excellent general
staff and a Chinese compradore.

Source: p. 120 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources.
London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[20]

BANQUE DE L'INDO CHINE.

The Banque de I'lndo Chine, which represents French interests in the Colony of Hongkong and throughout the Far East generally, was established in the Far East in 1875, by special charter from the French Government, with a capital of Fr36,ooo,ooo and a reserve fund of Fr24,ooo,ooo. The Hongkong agency was opened in 1896, and took over the financial interests of the Comptoir Nationale d'Escompte de Paris. In 1900 an agency was also started in the neighbouring Chinese city of Canton. The Hongkong branch is managed by Mr. L. Berindoague, and the Canton agency by Mr. G. Garnier. There are other branches and agencies of the bank at Saigon, Haiphong, Hanoi, Tourane, Pnom-Penh, Noumea, Shanghai, Hankeau, Bangkok, Pondicherry, Batlanbang, Peking, Tientsin, Papeete, and Singapore.

Canton Branch

This important French bank, which, for a number of years, has had a branch at Hongkong, opened a new agency in Canton in 1902. It was the first bank established on the Concession, and is still the only one there owning the ground on which it stands. It transacts ordinary banking business, and represents the financial interests of the French community and the French Government generally. Mr. G. Garnier is the manager, and Mr. H. Mazot the assistant manager.

Hankow Branch

This branch of the French bank was opened in 1902. and has come to represent French financial interests in Hankow. The usual banking operations are conducted, and ail facilities are offered to merchants not only in the East, where the concern has numerous other branches, but in Europe as well. Credit is granted on approved security
and on goods. The bank's premises, situated on the French Bund, are amongst the finest in the Settlement. The manager of the branch, Mr. A. J. Pernotte, was formerly connected with the bank at Shanghai.

Source: p 116, 702, 790, 792 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Banque de L’Indo-Chine
The Bank of Indo-China was established in 1875 in Saigon to help with the economic development and the enrichment of Indo-China. With the years, the number of the agencies grew and were established, either in the French possessions of the Far East, or in the countries bordering, where it was necessary that the Bank makes penetrate the French economic influence and finds a counterpart with the operations made in the colonies.

Frank Drake

[21]

According to THE DIRECTORY & CHRONICLE FOR CHINA, JAPAN, COREA, INDO-CHINA, STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, MALAY STATES, SIAM, NETHERLANDS INDIA, BORNEO, THE PHILIPPINES, & C. FOR THE YEAR 1894.
The Hongkong Daily Press Office

There was a J.F.E. De Barros in the “Confrarias of Bom Jesus dos Passos” in Macao, however it is probably a family member. F.de P. Barros is associated with Lauts Wegener & Co. (see Group I- 87Ba)

Philippe Orsetti

[22]

The Basel Mission is a Christian missionary society active from 1815 to 2001, when it was merged into Mission 21, the successor organization of Kooperation Evangelischer Kirchen und Missione (KEM) founded in 2001. Members of the society came from many different Protestant denominations.
The mission was founded as the German Missionary Society in 1815. The mission later changed its name to the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society, and finally the Basel Mission. The society built a school to train Dutch and British missionaries in 1816. Since this time, the mission has worked in Russia and the Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1828, India in 1834, China in 1847, Cameroon in 1886, Borneo in 1921, Nigeria in 1951, and Latin America and the Sudan in 1972 and 1973. On 18 December 1828, the Basel Mission Society sent its first missionaries, Johannes Phillip Henke, Gottlieb Holzwarth, Carl Friedrich Salbach and Johannes Gottlieb Schmid, to take up work in the Danish protectorate at Christianborg, Gold Coast. On 21 March 1832, a second group of missionaries including Andreas Riis, Peter Peterson Jäger, and Christian Heinze, the first mission doctor, arrived on the Gold Coast only to discover that Henke had died four months earlier.

Wikipedia

[23]

Berblinger and Co. was founded by A. Berblinger and W. Otto in 1908 and was liquidated in 1914

Source: THE GERMAN SPEAKING COMMUNITY IN HONG KONG 1846 -1918. CARL T. SMITH
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch
Vol. 34 (1994 ).

[24]

British and Foreign Bible Society

The BFBS is a non-denominational Christian charity founded on 7 March 1804 in London. Their name has several short forms - The Bible Society, B. & F. Bible Society or BFBS.

In short, order they became a publisher and distributor of Bibles in many languages and in many countries. Their way of operating was to employ other Societies to disseminate their Scriptures. They employed agents who were salaried individual commissioned to travel and promote the interests of the Society. They developed a territorial agency system with an agent resident in a particular area controlling translation, publishing and distribution in their territory. In 1837, they commence using door-to-door sales clerks called colporteurs.

By their 100th anniversary in 1904, they maintained 30 foreign agents who employed sub-agents, depot-keepers and colporteurs totalling about 1000 staff.

In 1816, twelve years after being formed, they consolidated their operations into their first official premises called Bible House at 10 East Street, Blackfriars, London. In 1868, the Society moved into new premises at 146 Queen Victoria Street. In 1985, they sold the building on Queen Victoria Street and moved away from London to Swindon in Wiltshire.

The BFBS were involved in China as early as 1812 and in January 1814, they printed 2000 copies of a translated scripture at Canton.

From 1863 until he left China in 1877, Alexander Wylie (1815 - 1887), was the first agent for the B. & F. Bible Society in China located at Shanghai. He operated out of major centres such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Amoy, Canton, Fuh-Chow and Pekin and into the towns and villages in the country side. Samuel Dyer, Junior succeeded Alexander Wylie as the agent in China.

From the 1860s the BFBS, the American Bible Society (ABS) and the National Bible Society of Scotland (NBSS) all had large operations in China which often overlapped. In 1937, the BFBS and the ABS came together to for the China Bible House and in 1946, the NBSS joined. In 1948, the Bible Society transferred the printing of its Bibles from Shanghai to Hong Kong. When western missionaries were forced out of China in 1950, the leadership of the China Bible House was placed in Chinese hands.

In the 1910, the BFBS is listed as being located at 5 Shantung Road, Shanghai. They had offices in Shanghai, Hankow, Chefoo, Tientsin, Mukden, Canton, Hong Kong, Kalgan and Yunnanfu.

Michel Houde
May 1, 2010

[25]

F. BLACKHEAD & CO.

In the early days, before the establishment of
Hongkong as a British Colony, Whampoa was the farthest point to which the Chinese permitted foreign ships to proceed up the West River. Many difficulties were experienced at this port by vessels in obtaining stores, and it was this fact which led to the establishment of the firm of F. Blackhead & Co. by Mr. B. Schwarzkopf. Purchasing a dismantled Chinese junk of suitable proportions,
Mr. Schwarzkopf commenced business on the waters of the harbour in 1855. There was a good opening for the new venture, but many restrictions were placed upon foreign traders by Chinese officials, and there was little guarantee of protection against the pirates who infested the Chinese waters. In spite of all obstacles, however, Mr, Schwarzkopf built up a thriving trade. But when the troubles at Canton culminated in war between England and China the business was removed to Hongkong, and here it has remained, progressing with the Colony year after year. At about the time when the headquarters were removed from Whampoa to Hongkong a branch was established in the Portuguese city of Macao, where there was great activity in shipping circles on account of the coolie trade. This branch, however, was not destined to meet with overmuch success, for in 1874 the many abuses of the coolie traffic had become so glaring that the traffic was abolished, and the firm, by withdrawing, anticipated the steady decline in Macao's importance as a shipping port.
During Mr. B. Schwarzkopf's life Messrs. Smith, Schoenemann, Hoeinike, and F. Schwarzkopf were admitted as partners, and the business was conducted by them until 1903, when Mr. Smith and, later on, Mr. Schoenemann left for Europe. They did not, however, live long after their return to the homeland. The firm's offices are now in that magnificent pile on the water front known as St. George's Buildings. Here they stock everything that comes under the heading of ship's stores, for they are contractors to the German, Austrian, and Russian Navies. They are also interested in the coal trade of the Colony. Some years ago they acquired a large parcel of land, known as Blackhead's Point, at Kowloon, having an extensive deep water frontage, and here they built godowns and a pier constructed on Differdingen piles capable of accommodating quite large vessels. For many years a conspicuous feature of the shipping in the harbour has been Messrs. Blackhead's large hulk, bearing an advertisement of the famous Red Hand Brand of composition for the bottoms of iron ships, for which the firm has the sole agency in the Colony. The only European sail-making business in Hongkong, also, is conducted by Messrs. Blackhead & Co. Even this does not exhaust the list of their industries, for at Shaukiwan they have established a large soap and soda factory, details of which are given in the section of this work devoted to industries.
The present partners in the firm are Messrs. F. Schwarzkopf, son of the founder, and F. Hoehnke. They have branches at Neishiem, Tsingtau, and Tsinanfu, where the business is carried on under the style of F. Schwarzkopf & Co.

Source: p 218, Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[26]

The Borneo Company Limited (1856-1890)

In 1851, the Singapore firm of MacEwen & Co. became agents for Rajah Brooke. As the range of products exported from Sarawak increased, a London-based joint stock company was formed to exploit the business opportunities in Sarawak. Thus, The Borneo Company Limited was incorporated on 8 May 1856, with its head office at 25 Mincing Lane in London. The BCL dealt in a wide range of goods including sago, oil, pepper, tea, hides, coconut, rubber, timber and rice. It also mined antimony, cinnabar, coal and gold. The BCL were the only bankers in Sarawak until WWII.

In 1967, The Borneo Company Limited merged with the Inchcape Group of London.

Hong Kong Branch – The Hong Kong branch opened in 1856. The offices on Queen’s Road managed the export of silk and the import of rice from Bangkok. In the 1870s, the Hong Kong branch became the centre for the distribution in the Far East of cinnabar and mercury from Sarawak. As the mercury mines in Sarawak declined so did the business in Hong Kong, and finally the branch closed in 1890.

Shanghai Branch: In an 1870 Directory, it is mentioned that the BCL had offices at 19 Szechuen Road, Shanghai, with Mr. J. Fraser as manager supported by several clerks. I could not find when this branch closed.

Michel Houde

[27]

Sir Thomas Hanbury

News was received here on Sunday by cable of the death of Sir Thomas Hanbury, K.C.V.O., at Ventimiglia, Italy, at 6 a.m. On Saturday.
Sir Thomas Hanbury was the third son of the late Mr. Daniel Bell Hanbury of Clapham, where he was born on June 21, 1832. He came out to Shanghai in 1853 to join the hong of Sykes, Schwabe and Co. When he became a partner the name of the firm was changes to Bower Hanbury and Co., and residents who were here in the sixties remember him as taipan of this hong. When the rebels were in possession of Soochow, and the price of land in the Settlement had reached its lowest point, Mr. Hanbury, as he then was, saw the opportunity that land offered as an investment, and purchased an enormous amount of property. At the time of his death he probably owned more property in the settlement than any other individual owner, most of which is given up to native shops and dwellings. When he withdrew from active connexion with business in 1871 the name of the hong was changed to Iveson and Co, to whom Ward, Probat and Co. are successors at the present day.....

The A.C. Herald and S.C. & C. Gazette, 15 March 1907

Bower, Hanbury & Co. (1859-1874)

On 1 January 1859, Frederick Bower and Thomas Hanbury became partners as merchants and commission agents under the name Bower, Hanbury and Company. They continued the business previously conducted by Messrs G. C. Schwabe and Company in Shanghai. The firm had its offices on Nanking Road.

They were agents for the Rothschilds, for whom they made investments, negotiated loans, and traded currency, gold and silver. In 1859, they became agent for the Royal Insurance Company of Liverpool, and in 1865 for the China Fire Insurance Company. By 1864, Frederick Bower had moved to London.

Bower, Hanbury & Company made a substantial profit by shipping cotton from China to England during the American Civil War (1861-1865), when the regular shipments of cotton from the Southern States were interrupted.

Frederick Bower left Shanghai for England in 1866 and in January 1872 he retired from the firm.

Thomas Hanbury left Shanghai on 16 September 1871 for his estate in Italy.

In 1874, the firm of Bower, Hanbury & Company of Shanghai was liquidated owing to the retirement of Mr. Hanbury

Michel Houde (October 2013)

[28]

Several foreign firms opened here {in Amoy} in the early forties ; of these, Messrs. Tait & Co., opened by Mr. James Tait in 1845, and Messrs. Boyd & Co. and Messrs. Pasedag & Co., opened at about the same time, still survive in the port, though the headquarters of the two former houses are now transferred to Formosa.

MR. JAMES JOHNSTON, who has lived in retirement in Shanghai for some years past, was at one time a partner in the well-known firm of Messrs. Boyd & Co., engineers and shipbuilders, and is still a director of the Shanghai Dock and Engineering Company, Ltd., and of the Mutual Telephone Company, Ltd. He occupies a charming residence, known as '' The Elms." in the Bubbling Well Road. Mr. Johnston is a native of Glasgow, and was born in the year 1841. After serving an apprenticeship with the firm of A. J. Inglis, engineers and shipbuilders, he went to Australia as an engineer in 1864,
and was there for about three years. He
came to Shanghai in 1867, and was for some
years with the engineering firm of Messrs.
Boyd & Nicholas ; and later, after a term at sea, he rejoined the firm, which in the
meantime had become known as Boyd & Co.

Source: p 819 & 520 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

For a complete history of Boyd & Co, see:
http://www.takaoclub.com/personalities/BoydCo/index.htm

Philippe

[29]

BRADLEY & CO.
The firm of Bradley & Co. was first established in Swatow, and now has branches in various parts of China. The trade carried on by the Company covers a very wide area, and consists chiefly of coal, shipping, and general imports. There is a branch of the business in Shanghai, and in 1893 offices were opened in Hongkong. This policy of extension has been amply justified by results. The partners in the firm are Messrs. T. W. Richardson (Swatow), R. H. Hill (London), A. Macgowan (Swatow), A. Forbes (Hongkong), and G. A. Richardson (Shanghai). Mr.
A. Forbes is the partner in charge of the Hongkong branch.

Source: p 216 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

See also Group III – 5

Bradley & Co., Ltd.

In 1860, Thomas William Richardson, a Scott, and Charles William Bradley, an American founded the firm of Bradley and Company in Swatow.

Over their nearly 100 year history, they were, at one time or another, merchants, commission agents, importers of and dealers in general merchandise, dealers in coal, ship owners, agents for numerous firms, and the managers and proprietors of the Swatow Ice Factory and a soda water factory.

In 1893, an office was opened in Hong Kong. They had an office in Shanghai.

On the 1 January 1913, the firm became a limited company.

They were the managing owners of the Shan Steamship Company.

On 1 July 1936, Reiss, Massey & Co., Ltd. and the trading interests of Bradley & Co., Ltd. merged to create the new firm of Reiss, Bradley & Co., Ltd. Bradley & Co., Ltd. was left on the Register of Companies to administer their properties in Hong Kong, Swatow and Shanghai until new Chinese deeds could be obtained to allow the orderly disposal of these assets. On 21 June 1957 the firm of Bradley & Co., Ltd. was dissolved.

Michel Houde
July, 2012

[30]

Within a few years, Dent & Co had passed the 'perpetual lease' of the land {ShaoChuanTou in Taiwan} over to Brown & Co of Amoy.

     The Amoy company, trading under the Chinese name of Shui-lu ( 水陸洋行 ), proceeded to reclaim land from the lagoon. First they built the breakwater, parts of which still stand today, then they progressively filled in the foreshore until the modern day area was achieved around 1872.

     In 1887, Brown & Co divested themselves of their holdings in Shao-chuan-tou, effectively dividing it into four pieces. Their erstwhile agent, Julius Mannich, set up his own company of Julius Mannich & Co and retained ownership of the easternmost part of Brown & Co's land (marked as 465 and 406 on the map).

     The remaining land was sold in three lots, from West to East, to Elles & Co (447), the British government (457) and the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs (ICMC) (458). The portion belonging to Elles & Co (怡記洋行) does not seem to have been developed during the late 1870s, and, following that company's financial difficulties, was taken over by creditors such as AW Bain & Co in 1883.

     The British government site was developed as the British consular offices, which included a residence for the constable and a gaol for those foreign subjects incarcerated under the extra-territoriality clauses of the 1842 and 1858 treaties. The building exists today (2004) in surprisingly good condition, but less the gaol cells.

T h e T a k a o C l u b

[31]

Bristol-Myers was formed in 1887 when William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers bought a small pharmaceutical firm in upstate New York.

[32]

The firm of Butterfield & Swire commenced business at Shanghai in 1867, and opened an office at Hongkong in 1870. To-day it has branches at Canton, Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, Chinkiang, Nanking, Wuhu, Kiukiang, Hankow, Ichang, Chefoo, Tientsin, and Newchwang, and at Kobe and Yokohama in Japan. Messrs. Buttertield & Swire are managers in the East for the China Navigation Company, Ltd., for the Taikoo Sugar Refining Company, Ltd., and for the Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company of Hongkong, Ltd. The China Navigation
Company's fleet of over sixty steamers, with
its headquarters at Shanghai, is chiefly employed trading on the coast and rivers of
China. Regular services are also maintained
between Shanghai and Japan, Hongkong and
Australia, and Hongkong and the Philippines.
The Taikoo Sugar Refining Company's refinery, situated at Hongkong, has capacity for producing a large quantity of refined sugar. The Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company's works, situated on the island of Hongkong, within half-an-hour's journey of the city of Victoria, are extensive and modern, fully equipped for every description of building and repair work. The dry dock measures 750 feet on the blocks, and there are also three patent slips, each capable of accommodating vessels up to 3,000 tons register. Messrs. Butterfield & Swire are agents in China and Japan for the Ocean Steamship Company, Ltd., and for the China Mutual Steam Navigation Company, Ltd.

Source: p 211 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[33]

Campo y Ca

I have no data on the firm Campo y Ca, but it would have been a Spanish shipping or trading company. Spanish traders had joined with American and British traders in the early decades of the 1800s and Manila in the Philippines harboured several trading houses. From about 1880 to 1884 there was a Spanish shipping line owned by the Marques de Campo. It operated steamships operating between Manila and Spain and Liverpool, with stops at Singapore. It is quite likely that this company did have feeder services to other nearby ports in the region, such as Amoy. In 1884 the shipping line went into liquidation, and assets were sold. Its ships and shipping contacts were purchased by Compania Trasatlantica Espanola.

Frank Drake (October 2011)

[34]

The connection between the port of Hong Kong and the Canadian Pacic Railway is with shipping. This is the notes that I have on this firm:

"Canadian Pacific Railway began as a private tender to build a railroad line connecting eastern Canada to the Pacific. Formed by a group of businessmen, the company was formally established in May 1881 as the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, and four years later it completed construction of the first transcontinental railway in Canada. Over the succeeding decades, the company expanded into a number of other industries, including hotels, steamships, oil and gas, mining, airlines, telecommunications, and shipping services. The completion of the line had many effects on both the company and the Canadian economy. The rail connection from the more industrialized eastern regions to the Pacific Coast enabled the company to expand into the export shipping business and opened up many opportunities in the Far East. Trans-pacific shipping began as early as 1886 when the company chartered seven ships to carry tea and silk from Asia to the West Coast of Canada, thereby providing eastbound freight for the railway. This marked the beginning of CPR's steamship services, later known as CP Ships. CP Ships became renowned in the early decades of the 20th century for its luxury passenger liners--the famous Canadian Pacific Empress class ships. The speed and reliability of the CP Ships fleet led to lucrative mail contracts on both trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic routes. In 1922 CP Ships entered the cruise market business."

Frank Drake

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), formerly also known as CP Rail (reporting mark CP) between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.

Wikipedia

[35]

Carl Mittell was assistant in Schaar and Wortmann in Shanghai in 1894 according to THE DIRECTORY & CHRONICLE FOR CHINA, JAPAN, COREA, INDO-CHINA, STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, MALAY STATES, SIAM, NETHERLANDS INDIA, BORNEO, THE PHILIPPINES, &C. FOR THE YEAR 1894
The Hongkong Daily Press Office

[36]

CARLOWITZ & Co., Ltd
On 1 January 1846, Richard von Carlowitz and Bernhard Harkort founded in Canton the firm of Carlowitz, Harkort & Co. to handle trade between Germany & China. They opened an office at number 2 Minqua's New Hong in the Canton foreign factory compound. Theirs was the first German firm to be permanently established in China. The partnership had been established for ten years and on 1 July 1855 it was desolved and the name of the firm became Carlowitz & Co.

On July 1, 1866 the firm opened a branch in Hong Kong at 2 D’Aguilar Street. In March 1868, the Hong Kong office was moved to 15 Praya Central opposite the wharf of Douglas Lapraik & Co. In 1874, they are listed as being at 2 Connaught Road, opposite Murray Pier, on the New Praya. By 1893, the firm had 5 partners and 26 assistants working in the offices located at Ice House Lane (now Ice House Street) in Hong Kong.

After 1869, the firm became heavily involved in chartering of ships and the sale of coal besides being general merchants. Over time they opened other branches at Foochow (1869), Shanghai (1877), Tientsin (1886), Hamburg (1887), Hankow (1891) and Newchwang (1895) and Kiaochow (Kiautschou in German) (1898). In 1907, the firm had branch houses at Canton, Hong Kong, Shanghais, Tientsin, Hamburg (1886), Hankow, Wuchang, Tsingtau, Tsinanfu, Kobe, New York (1904) and Yokohama and had agencies in many of the large cities in Europe and America. The Shanghai office was their most important branches in China.

At one time or another, the firm imported a wide range German heavy machinery such as steel factories, mining plants, coke-furnaces, brick mills, paper factories, flour mills, steel plants, ore processing plants, electric power houses etc. The firm also helped to finance the development and to equip local railways and coalmines such as the Shantung Railway and Shantung Mining Company. In 1906, Carlowitz & Co. became the exclusive agents in China for the Krupp works and as such, they imported even more arms and ammunitions. They were agents for numerous shipping lines.

As a German firm, Carlowitz & Co. was placed under liquidation in 1914 during WWI in the areas controlled by the British. Once the War ended, Carlowitz & Co. was re-established in China.

Michel Houde October 2011

CARLOWITZ & CO.

Richard von Carlowitz {...}, born at Dresden in 1817, was the son of a landed proprietor and former captain in the Army, Maximilian Carl von Carlowitz, and had devoted himself early in life to a commercial career.
{...}
On November 2, 1843, {Bernhard Harkort and Carlowitz} the two young Saxon merchants embarked on their long and eventful voyage to the East round the Cape of Good Hope. {...} Carlowitz at last arrived at Hongkong on September 6th, and at Canton on September 17^th {1844}.
{...}
The two Leipzig firms were well satisfied with the success of the mission, and on October 31. 1845, the announcement was made that Mr. Richard von Carlowitz and Mr. Bernhard Harkort were about to take into their own hands the business resulting from the experimental expedition sent out under their charge to the markets of Indo-China, and were establishing an independent house of business at Canton under tlie style of Carlowitz, Harkort & Co. It was added that a branch would shortly be opened at Shanghai.

The partnership was established for a period of ten years, and on July 1, 1855, it was dissolved, the name of the firm being changed to Carlowitz & Co. On July I, 1 866, a branch house was founded at Hongkong. The shipping business likewise experienced an unexpected development, and the firm took part largely in the chartering and sale of steamers and of sailing vessels along the coast. The fine fleet of small French St. Malo sailing ships, which carried on the trade between the northern and southern ports of China, were also consigned to the address of Carlowitz & Co.
{...}
In consequence of the opening of the Yangtsze and northern ports, under the Treaty of Tientsin in 1862, a branch house was opened at Tientsin in 1886.
{...}
In 1898 a new branch was established at Kiaochau.
{...}
In 1891 a branch of the firm was opened at Hankow, {...}.
Here, also, business transactions with the Government are negotiated, and supplies are furnished for gunpowder mills, and steel factories, as well as plant for mines, coke-furnaces, etc., for the neighbouring coal mines of Pinghsiang.
{...}
At the present date {1908} the firm is represented
by branch houses of its own at the following
places (enumerated chronologically): Canton,
Hongkong, Shanghai, Tientsin, Hamburg,
Hankow, Wuchang, Tsingtau, Tsinanfu, Kobe,
New York, and Yokohama ; whilst it maintains
agencies in all the larger cities of Europe
and America.
{...}
{In 1908} The firm employs in its various branch
houses about 250 Europeans and 1,000 Chinese
and Japanese.

Source: p 612, 613, 722, 744, 812 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[37]

THE CHARTERED BANK.

The distinction of being the oldest established banking institution in the Colony belongs to the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China, its Hongkong branch having been founded nearly half a century ago. Its business is that of an exchange bank. The head office is in London, and there are branches in New York, Hamburg, and numerous places in the East. The paid-up capital is £ 1,200,000, and the reserve liability of the proprietors is £800,000. No less a sum than £'1,475,000
has been set aside as a reserve fund, so that the financial soundness of the concern is assured. The manager of the bank is Mr. John Armstrong, who has been in the service of the bank in the East for about twenty four years. The bank's premises form part of the handsome row of similar institutions in Queen's Street Central, and the site on which the building stands is the property of the Corporation.

Source: p 118 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[38]

CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA, AND CHINA.
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China, which has its head offices in London, and branches and agencies all over the world, was incorporated, under Royal Charter, in 1853. It has a paid-up capital of £1,200,000. and a reserve fund of £1,475,000, while the reserve liability of the shareholders amounts to £1,200,000. Every description of exchange and banking business is transacted, and drafts are granted upon any commercial centre of reasonable importance. The Shanghai branch of the bank was opened in 1857. the premises being situated, in the first instance, in Mackley Terrace near Szechuen Road, immediately behind the Shanghai Club. The present offices on the Bund were purchased from the New Oriental Bank in 1892. The first manager in Shanghai was Mr. Kellar ; to-day the business is conducted under the supervision of Mr. Skottowe. who was born in the Isle of Man. and obtained general banking experience with the City of Glasgow Bank in Douglas. He came to the East in 1882, and obtained his present position in 1891. Mr. Skottowe is a member of the Imperial Institute, and of all the local clubs. In his absence. Mr. George Miller assumes control of the bank's interests. The staff in Shanghai, which is the headquarters for China, numbers about forty. Agencies have been established in Hankow, Cheffoo, Newchwang, and Tsingtau.

Source: p 444 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

"Hong Kong’s oldest surviving bank. The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, which is the forerunner of the present-day Standard Chartered Bank, was incorporated in London and granted a royal charter in 1853 and began operation in 1857. Its Hong Kong Branch was set up in 1859 and issued its own notes on 1862. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the extension of the telegraph to China in 1871, Chartered was well placed to expand and develop its business. During the second half of the 19th century, branches were opened in many centres in India and the Far East. It merged with the Standard Bank of South Africa in 1969, and became the Standard Chartered Bank Limited."

Frank Drake

Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China (1858-1956)

The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China (Cha ta ngan hong) was incorporated in England on 29 December 1853 to carry out general banking, and to finance local and international trade in India, China and Australia. It received its Royal Charter on 20 July 1861. [The bank’s name was often shortened to The Chartered Bank.] In time, it became the second largest British bank in China, only being surpassed by the HSBC. It made large profits from the opium trade. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the extension of the telegraphic service to China in 1871, business grew significantly.

The head office was located at 88 Bishopsgate, London E.C. Over time, the bank developed a vast network of branches and agencies in Europe, India, Japan, the Straits Settlements, the Philippines, New York City (1902), and elsewhere. In China, it had establishments in Peking, Canton, Hankow (opened 1863, closed 1875), Shanghai, Chefoo, Newchwang, Tientsin, Tsingtao, (1895), Foochow, Hong Kong and elsewhere. Its Shanghai branch (Maijiali yinhang) opened in August 1858. In 1892, the bank purchased the premises of the failed New Oriental Bank at 18 The Bund. The bank opened a branch in Hong Kong in 1859. At one point, this branch was located at 3 Queen’s Road Central.

In 1927, the bank acquired the P&O Bank. The bank was greatly affected by WWII, but recovered after the armistice. The CBIAC was one of five foreign banks permitted to continue operations in Shanghai after the 1950 takeover in China. The bank’s name was changed to The Chartered Bank in 1956. In 1970, the bank merged with the Standard Bank to become the Standard Chartered Bank. The Standard Chartered Bank plc is still in operation in Shanghai.

Michel Houde Jun 2012

[39]

The subject of banking from that date {1845} onwards, for a period of nearly twenty years, is practically ignored by the records, though there are frequent references to the currency question. The issue of the prospectus of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in July, 1864, is the next mention, and, incidentally, Dr. Eitel alludes to the existence at that time of six banking institutions the Oriental Bank already referred to, the Agra and United Service Bank ; the Central Bank of Western India ; the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China ; the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China; and the Commercial Bank of India. This list does not appear to be a complete one, however, for some of the older inhabitants of the Colony well remember that there were also in operation the Comptoir National d'EscompTe de Paris ; the Bank of Hindustan, China, and Japan ; the Asiatic Bank ; and the Bank of India.

Source: p 116 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[40]

THE CHINA AND JAPAN TELEPHONE COMPANY LTD.

This Company is affiliated with the Oriental Telephone and Electric Company of London, India and the Straits Settlements, with which the Telephone Company of Egypt is also connected. Some two years ago the Company secured from the Government a teeny-five years' lease, and modern appliances were introduced immediately, such as underground wires, new switch-boards, instruments etc. The Company now operates in Kowloon, as well as in Hongkong, and has altogether 1,000 stations, 900 exchange lines, and 1,700 miles of underground and 594 miles of overhead wires. The agent for China is Mr. W. L. Carter, A.M.Ị.E.E. The eldest son of Mr. W. H. Carter, merchant, he was born in Shanghai in 1877. For some time he held a commission in the East Lancashire regiment, and obtained the South African war medal.

Source: p 134 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[41]

Die China Export-Import und Bank Compagnie (ca1890-1939)

Die China Export-Import und Bank Compagnie (Him-shun) was a German trading firm founded about 1890 in Shanghai. It had its origins in the firm of Hesse, Elder and Co., which had roots in China going back to 1856.

Eventually, the firm had branches in Hamburg, Canton, Shanghai, Tientsin, Hong Kong, Kobe, Yokohama, Osaka and Tokyo. The Hong Kong branch had several locations over the course of time: In 1897, they were at 10 Praya Central, in 1910, they were at 2 Connaught Road, and in 1930, their offices were in the Asiatic Building, Queen’s Road Central.

This German firm was liquidated during both World Wars. After WWI, the company was re-established in Hong Kong with its head office in Shanghai, and branches ins Canton, Tientsin, Osaka and Tokyo. It was not re-established after WWII.

Michel Houde June 2012

[42]

The diocese of Western China extends throughout the province of Szechwan and comprises the field occupied by the Church Missionary Society, and the China Inland Mission. The China Inland Mission has work in different parts of this province of Szechwan, but in 1895, the eastern portion, i.e., east and north of the Kialing River, was assigned to the Church of England members of the China Inland Mission, and the superintendent, the Rev. W. W. Cassels, was consecrated first bishop of this diocese.
The China Inland Mission began work in 1877, when Messrs. Judd and McCarthy, occupied Chungking. The Church Missionary Society began work in 1888, when the Rev. J. H. Horsburgh made extensive itinerations with the object of founding a mission. A party of 15 missionaries was sent out with Mr. Horsburgh in i8gi, and, after many difficulties, the work was established in various centres. There are now 10 stations with resident European missionaries, the most distant station being on the borders of Thibet. There are now on the staff of the diocese, 18 foreign clergy, and one native,
17 lay workers, and 63 women workers.

Source: p 329 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[43]

The China Mail.
Rising amid the bones of several futile enterprises that bleached on the journalistic wayside in the early days of Hongkong, the China Mail was of vigorous birth and was thus able to withstand the withering influences that laid waste all predecessors. To-day it thrives with the distinction of being the oldest paper in the Colony, if not in the Far East. Started on P'ebruary 20, 1845, as a British journal, it has, through the years that have been lean, or fat, remained true to its colours, and the high policy it established at the outset of being fair to all men in general and stoutly loyal to British traditions in particular has been maintained through varying changes to the present day. It now stands, without prejudice, for the best that is British and the best that is cosmopolitan in the Colony. Its criticisms when necessary unsparing, but at all times studiously free from rancour bear the impress of genuine effort to uphold the right. A watchful eye is first kept upon the Colony's interests, and, withal, a broad imperialism is the political gospel preached, with a fair commercial field and no favour to all men. Its columns are never sullied by personalities, and, in general, the conduct of the journal is in line with the very best traditions of English journalism. The first appearance of the China Mail, in 1845, was as a weekly paper, published each Thursday. Then the Colony knew not the cable, and news came only by the occasional steamer, or by the sailing ship which was such a feature of the Eastern trade of sixty three years ago. With the growth of the Colony the China Mail kept pace. It soon developed into a daily paper first of four pages, then of eight, and a further increase is now contemplated, and will probably be effected before these lines are in print. The China Mail, too, has been the parent of several "little ones." First, there came the now long-defunct China Punch, a highly popular illustrated humorous paper in its day ; later, the China Review, a scholarly journal dealing with Far Eastern affairs, which still lingers, though under different ownership ; then Notes and Qneries, confined to Eastern subjects ; and, in the present day, the Hongkong Weekly, an illustrated Saturday paper, dealing with sport and the lighter side of the Colony's life. All along, there has been published in connection with the China Mail, the Overland China Mail, which devotes itself to giving the week's Far Eastern news and comments.
The China Mail also originated and published the Hongkong Directory, afterwards disposing of it to its present owners. For many years the proprietors of the China Mail have published a vernacular paper, the Wa Tsz Yat Po {Chinese Mail].
From its first issue and for several years until the Government Gazette was established the China Mail bore the following notification on its title page: " Government Notification. It is hereby notified that from and after the 20th instant (February, 1845), and until further orders, the China Mail is to be considered the official organ of all Government notifications." Then, as now, however, the paper was a free critic of Government policy, and through its career has been distinguished for having the courage of its own convictions in regard to questions vitally affecting the public.

Source: p 349 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[44]

For many years the proprietors of the China Mail have published a vernacular paper, the Wa Tsz Yat Po {Chinese Mail].

Source: p 349 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[45]

The Imperial Bank of China was the first modern style Chinese commercial bank and was set up in 1897 in Shanghai to help finance China’s railway development. Li Hongzhang, one of Qing China’s highest officials, set up the bank which was state-supported and merchant-managed. The burden of the indemnities imposed on China after the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, however, meant that the bank, later renamed the Commercial Bank of China, was never fully capitalized and played only a minor role in the development of the few miles of Chinese railway not controlled by foreigners.

Frank Drake (October 2011)

[46]

See Group I - 33 “Curtis Bros”

[47]

The COMPTOIR D'ESCOMPTE de PARIS, that I could very freely translate as "Counter where to trade financial notes" is in fact the COMPTOIR NATIONAL D'ESCOMPTE de PARIS (CNEP). It is indeed a bank that was created in 1848. It opened an agency in Shanghai in 1860.
It became the BNP (Banque Nationale de Paris) by merger with other banks in 1966.
Philippe

"To make credit more readily accessible in a lagging economy, the French governement created the Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris in 1848. It soon became the leading French commercial deposit bank, setting up branches to challenge the English colonial reach in Calcutta, Bombay, Shanghai and London. A branch was opened in Shanghai in 1848. This was three years after the Indian-based Oriental Banking Corporation had become the first British bank in the field. Reorganized in 1862, the Comptoir was the only bank, foreign or Chinese, seriously to challenge the British monopoly of exchange banking in China until 1889."

Frank

Comptoir d’Escompte de Paris (1860-1889)

The Comptoir d’Escompte de Paris (Paris Exchange Bank) was established by decree of the Provisional Government of the Second Republic on 8 March 1848. The signing of the Anglo-French free trade agreement of 1860 lessened the protectionism in effect at the time and promoted the bank’s move into the global market. It quickly expanded operations in Asia and elsewhere. It was the first non-British funded bank to open a branch in Shanghai in 1860. By September 1860, the Shanghai office was receiving, on behalf of the French government, the Boxer War indemnity from the Chinese government as well as facilitating trade with the home country.

In subsequent years the bank expanded into Calcutta (1860), la Réunion (1861), Hong Kong (1862), Bombay and Saigon (1862), London and Yokohama (1867), Alexandria (1869), Melbourne (1880), Sydney (1881), and Tientsin, Foochow and Hankow (1887).

The Comptoir d’Escompte de Paris was liquidated in 1889. It was quickly reorganized and relaunched on 11 June 1889 under the name of Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris.

Michel Houde (December 2011)

[48]

Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris (1889-ca1896)

The Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris was launched on 11 June 1889 as the successor to the defunct Comptoir d’Escompte de Paris. At this point, the bank began withdrawing from China, preferring to concentrate on India, Australia and the United States. In 1889, it closed its agencies in Tientsin and Foochow, which had opened in 1886. It yielded its Shanghai and Hankow business to the Russo-Chinese Bank in January 1896. The Banque de l’Indo-Chine, which had been operating in Indochina since 1875, then moved into the Far East to represent French interests, taking over many of the locations of the Comptoir. In 1966, the Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris merged with another French bank to form the Banque Nationale de Paris.

Michel Houde (December 2011)

[49]

During this same year {1863}, the Messageries Maritimes Company's steamers began to call at Hongkong, carrying mails, and a regular steam service was also started with British North Borneo. The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company had been calling fortnightly with mails since 1845.

Source: p 189 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[50]

See Group V – 6
Cornabe

[51]

CRUZ, BASTO & CO.
This firm was founded some four years ago by Mr. A. M. da Crat. and Mr. J. M. K. Basto, who were joined later by Mr. A. D. Barretto. All three partners were men of experience in the Colony, and they were not long in working A branch of the business is situated at Canton, where Chinese silks are bought direct from the weavers, together with malting and other products of South China. Messrs. Cruz, Basto & Co., are one of the leading dealers in the camphor trade of the Colony, bringing the produce from the Kokien Province, and disposing of large quantities locally, besides shipping it in bulk to India. Tlic head offices are in Prince's Buildings, Hongkong.

Source: p. 222 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources.
London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[52]

CURTIS BBOS.
Mr. F. J. Curtis is the proprietor of this firm of manufacturers' agents and general and commission merchants, established in 1901. The firm are local agents for Lloyds, the China Mutual Insurance Company, the Commercial Union Assurance Company, and the British Dominions Insurance Company,
and, in addition to a general import and export business, they conduct salvage operations.

Source: p 769 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[53]

Mr. W.A.C. Cruickshank, was a partner in Jardine's from its commencement.

There was a Dakin Bros dispensary in Amoy.

Source: p 211 & 828 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[54]

Dalmann & Co.

C. Berghofer Dalmann, a German, arrived in Singapore in 1877 as an assistant of Reme Bros. He founded his own firm in 1881. About 1900 he retired to Germany. The firm closed in 1914 just before the commencement of WWI. The company was seized by the Custodian of Enemy Property and then the business was taken over by the Swiss firms of Diethelm & Co. Ltd. and Hooglandt & Co.

The source : Schweizer-Iten, Hans (1971): One Hundred Years of the Swiss Club and the Swiss Community of Singapore 1871-1971. Singapore National Printers (Pte) Ltd.

Frank Drake (October 2011)

[55]

Hong Kong Daily Press
The Hong Kong Daily Press was one of the major English newspapers in early Hong Kong, commencing from 1 October 1857. It was the first paper that published daily in the morning while others at that time, like the China Mail, were published on a weekly basis. It published for around 80 years and recorded commercial activities and conflicts among newspapers and government officials in early Hong Kong from the 19th to the 20th centuries.

Frank Drake

In 1857 came {in Hongkong} the Daily Press,started by Mr. G. M. Rider, first as a daily shipping list with limited news, but later as a full-fledged newspaper, with Mr. Yorick Jones Murrow as editor. Though small, it pioneered the way, at all events, for the daily newspaper in the Colony, the China Mail being transformed from a weekly to a daily shortly afterwards.
...
The Hongkong Daily Press.
Having published its jubilee number on October 1. 1907. the Hong Kong Daily Press obviously must have shared the major part of the history of Hongkong as a British Colony. Sixteen years after the cession of the island during the administration of Sir John Bowring, the last Governor to be at
the same time Minister Plenipotentiary and Superintendent of British trade in China, the Daily Press made its appearance as a four-page shipping paper, with only a couple of short columns of editorial comments on such news as arrived by mails then few and far between. Mr. George M. Rider figures in the imprint as editor and proprietor, and certainly deserves what glory may attach to the bold enterprise of publishing the very first daily newspaper to appear in the Far East. " Having roamed somewhat extensively on the surface of this Planet," he confides in his first editorial. " we have naturally acquired a trifle above the average knowledge of matters connected with Shipping."
As a shipping paper the Hong Kong Daily Press began and as a shipping and commercial paper it still chiefly claims preeminence among its contemporaries.

Source: p 344 & 350 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[56]

S. J. DAVID & CO.
Mr. a. J. David, senior partner of the Far Eastern branches of that influential firm of Bombay merchants known as Messrs. S. J. David & Co., is a brother of Sir Sassoon J. David, the founder, one of India's best known merchant princes. Sir Sassoon was a pioneer of the mill industry in Bombay, where he now holds the office of chairman of the Mill Owners' Association, and where his vast experience has led to his election to the Municipal Corporation, the Standing Committee, the Port Trust, the Improvement Trust, and other public bodies, and lastly to his elevation to the Shrievalty. Mr. A. J. David was born on March 31, 1854, and was educated at Elphinstone College, Bombay. He was the first member of the Jewish faith to pass the Matriculation Examination in India and to obtain the David Sassoon Hebrew Scholarship. He has traveled extensively over a great part of Europe, and also in America and Japan. He came to China in 1878, and has been largely responsible for the remarkable success achieved by the firm in this part of the world. He married Katie, daughter of Mr. S. E. Shellim, and niece of Sir Albert Sassoon, Bart. He lives at No. 2, Mount Gough, the Peak, and is a member of the Hongkong Club. The firm, which has offices in Prince's Buildings, carries on business in Indian yarns and opium, and is probably the largest importer of yarn in the Colony, the product coming from its own and other mills in Bombay. The Hongkong blanch holds the local agency for the South British Insurance Company. Other branches are established at Shanghai and Kobe.

Source: p 223 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[57]

DAVID SASSOON & CO., LTD.
The firm of David Sassoon & Co. ranks amongst the three or four oldest houses in the Colony, for it has been closely and prominently connected with the business of the island for upwards of half a century. Its special lines are Indian cotton yarn and Indian opium, the latter having attracted the founders of the firm from Bombay to Canton before Hongkong was in the hands of the British. Mr. David Sassoon, the founder of the house, was born in Bagdad in 1792, and settled in Bombay about 1832. His father enjoyed the proud title of Nassi, Prince of the Captivity, and, in virtue of that was head of the Jewish community in Mesopotamia. After having been engaged for many years in the opium trade
with Canton and South China, Mr. David Sassoon sent his sons to open branches and extend the interests of the firm. They obtained a very strong hold on the opium trade, and as soon as the trade of South China began to come through Hongkong they established their headquarters for China in the Colony. They were thus first in the market, and have retained a leading position since. The head office now is in London, and there are branches at Manchester, Calcutta, Bombay, and Karachi, as well as in Hongkong and Shanghai. In the early days the Company owned their own opium clippers, but these have, of course, long since disappeared. For many years David Sassoon & Co. have represented the well-known Apcar Line of steamers, which maintains a regular service between Calcutta and Hongkong, and has recently extended its trips to Japan and Shanghai, sending a steamer about once every ten days. The firm is agent, too, for the Norwich Fire Insurance Company.
Messrs. David Sassoon & Co. hold shares in many of the most important companies in Hongkong. Mr. Edward Shellim, the local manager, has a seat on the board of directors of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company, the Hongkong Land Investment Company, the Hongkong Land Reclamation Company, the Canton Marine Insurance Company, the China Fire Insurance Company, the Hongkong Iron Mining Company, &c. The firm is also a large property owner in the island. It will thus be seen to what an extent the enterprise has grown.
David Sassoon, the founder of the house, was succeeded by his son. Sir Albert Sassoon, Bart., who was born in 1818 and died in 1890. The present head of the firm is Sir Edward Sassoon, Bart., M.P.

Source: p 224 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[58]

DEACON & CO.
One of the historic hongs at Canton is that of Messrs. Deacon & Co., which for over half a century has taken an important part in the trade of the city. The business was founded by Mr. James B. Deacon in the great tea days, and for many years, with headquarters in Canton and a branch at Macao, traded very largely and almost exclusively in that product. At the present time, the tea business having dwindled into comparative insignificance, the firm acts as merchants, commission, shipping, and insurance agents, representing, among others, the Peninsular and Oriental Company, the Union Assurance Society, Ltd., the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and the Hongkong, Canton, and Macao Steamboat Company, Ltd., who operate a regular service of fast river boats carrying His Majesty's mails to and from Hongkong. Messrs. Deacon & Co. deal largely, also, in waste and raw silk, matting, and other Chinese products for export, and in paper, glass. ribbons, &c., which they import. The firm occupy a fine new building, their own property, on the British Concession, Shameen, and Mr. E. A. Stanton, one of the partners, personally conducts the business with a staff of European and Chinese assistants.

Source: p 795 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[59]

MR. OSWALD DYKES THOMSON, Solicitor and Notary Public, Hongkong, was born on July 25, 1870, and was educated at University College School, London. He matriculated in 1887, and was admitted a Solicitor in England in April, 1892. Five years later he came to Hongkong as an assistant to Messrs. Deacon & Hastings, and, in 1903, started practice on his own account. He resides at the Peak, and is a member of the Peak Club, of which for a short time he acted as honorary secretary.

Source: p 173 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[60]

Deutsches Kohlen-Depot (German Coal Depot), had been established shortly after 1900 by a group of leading German shipowners, including Hamburg-Amerika Linie (Hamburg-American-Line), Norddeutscher Lloyd (North German Lloyd) and Rob. M. Sloman & Co., to transport coal to overseas depots for the bunker requirements of steamships.

Extract from Internet
Philippe

[61]

DEUTSCH-ASIATISCHE BANK.
This Bank was established in February, 1889, by some of the leading bankers and financiers of Germany, such as the Disconto - Gesellschaft ; the Deutsche Bank Bleichroder ; Rothschilds, &c. It has a capital of Tls. 7,500.000. in 7.500 shares of Tls. 1,000 each, and was founded primarily for the purpose of advancing the general interests of commerce between Germany and Asia, and also for the transaction of ordinary
banking business. It buys and sells bills, stocks, and shares of all descriptions, keeps current accounts in taels and dollars, accepts fixed deposits, and does every description of exchange business. For the year ending December 31, 1906, the net profit made by the bank was Tls. 839,473, and dividends amounting to 11 per cent, were paid. The headquarters are at Shanghai, and there are branches at Berlin, Hamburg, Calcutta, Hongkong. Peking. Hankow. Singapore, Tsingtau. Tsinanfu. Yokohama, and Kobe. The premises of the Bank at Shanghai, Hankow, Tsingtau, Tsinanfu, Tientsin, Peking, and Yokohama are the bank's own property. The manager at Shanghai is Mr. H. Figge, and the offices form an imposing building in the very centre of the Bund.

Source: p 444 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[62]

As a successful business man, Dodwell was invited to be serve on the board of directors of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation from 1895 to 1898. He left the Far East for London in 1899. In January 1899, the firm became a limited company and changed its name to Dodwell & Co., Ltd. The head office was in London with branches in Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, Foochow, Hankow, Kobe, Yokohama, Colombo, San Francisco, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria (Canada) and New York. The principal share holders were: G.B. Dodwell, A.J.H. Carlill, Frederick D’Iffanger, Fred Dodwell, G.H. Melhuish, E.A. Whealler, G.S. Thomson, Lim Pong Poo (comprador at Hong Kong) and Ton Chung Lane (comprador at Shanghai). In 1910, A.J.H. Carlill was the directory in Shanghai and G. H. Medhurst in Hong Kong.

The company was extremely successful mainly due to the business acumen of G.B. Dodwell and his ability to seek out and take advantage of new business opportunities. The firm handled a large traffic in Japanese contract workers to Hawaii. In the Sino-Japanese War (1890), they were the purchasing agent for 43 steamers for the Nippon Yusen Kaisha Line. During the Alaska gold rush, which began in 1897, they handled shipping of both prospectors and their stores to the goldfields. In 1898, the Spanish-American War erupted and Dodwell supplied troop steamers to the US Navy. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), they were the exclusive agents for chartering ships by the Japanese government. They opened their Seattle office after the 1923 Yokohama earthquake created a great demand for timber. They had interests in several steamers. In Foochow, they were the agents for the Blue Funnel Line.
In 1912, the firm had branches in China; Japan; Ceylon (for tea and coconuts); Vancouver (salmon canneries); Tacoma and Seattle (flour-milling) and New York. By 1919, Dodwell & Co. Ltd. were the largest shipping company on the Pacific Coast.
George Benjamin Dodwell died unexpectedly of angina in 1925 in his 73 year. He left an estate valued at £77,860. Despite his passing, his company continued to prosper. At his passing, Dodwell & Co., Ltd. were general importers but specialized in machinery and flour. They exported general produce from their Far Eastern locations. The firm had an extensive agency business. They ran their own line of steamers, the Dodwell Line. The company also were agents for many steamship companies including: the Nanyo Yusen Kaisha, the Barber’s Line, the Mogul Line, the Warrack Line, the American and Oriental Line and the Natal Line, the Boston Steamship Company and the North China Line.
In 1972, most of Dodwell & Co. Ltd. was acquired by Inchcape plc, a leading international automotive retailer. The company name Dodwell can still be found in the Far East today.

Michel Houde

[63]

DougIas Lapraik & Co.
A. colourful and versatile personality, Douglas Lapraik was an example of the enterprise and resourcefulness needed for success in a Colony whose future was still uncertain. A young Scot, he had sailed for Hong Kong in 1843 to seek his fortune in the Far East. His first job was for L. Just, watch and chronometer makers on D' Aguilar Street. The Hongkong Almanach for 1846 lists L. Just. Senior and L. Just, Junior, both watch and chronometer makers. Lapraik ed with Just Junior. A few years later, he had established his own watch-making business and in 1859 is listed as "Lapraik, Douglas, watch-maker".Among his employees was George Falconer, later the founder of the well-known of jewelers, still existing, Falconer Jewelers Ltd.

Lapraik realized early that Hong Kong was in a unique position to benefit the China coast trade, and in the late 1860s began planning for a shipping company by buying a number of small steamboats. About 1870, he sold his watchmaking interests to George Falconer, and formed Douglas Lapraik & Co. eight coastal steamers, one of which he named Douglas, the start of the Douglas Steamship Company, officially opened in 1883, after he was dead. His hew. John Steward Lapraik, donated a fine stained-glass window to St. John's Cathedral in memory of his uncle, and succeeded him in the business. Douglas Lapraik & Co. acted as general managers of the shipping company, which was popular with Chinese passengers traveling between Hong Kong, Swatow, Foocbow, and Amoy. When J.S. Lapraik, who for ten years had taken an active interest in the Douglas Steamship Company, died in 1893, the Company passed to his partners and continued to operate into the twentieth century.

Source: Traders of Hong Kong: Some Foreign Merchants Houses, 1841 – 1899, Solomon Bard 1993.

[64]

According to “Traders of Hong Kong: Some Foreign Merchants Houses, 1841 – 1899, Solomon Bard 1993.”:
Dunn Melbye & Co, was a British or an American firm which address was Stanley Street and which operated in Hong Kong between 1884 and 1892.

[65]

SCHULDT & CO.
For twelve years the firm now known as Messrs. Schuldt & Co. have carried on business at Tientsin as general import and export agents. The original name of the firm was Harling. Buschman, and Menzell. This was changed to the East Asiatic Trading Company in 1899, and the present style was adopted in 1907. The partners are Messrs. A. E. Schuldt. E. Harling, and E. Moral. They import principally piece goods, sugar, and indigo, and export skins, bristles, and other Chinese products. The firm are also the local agents for the Yorkshire Insurance Company, Ltd., and the General Marine Insurance Company, Ltd., of Dresden. The Tientsin offices are situated in the Taku Road. The staff includes Messrs. T. H. P. Steinhorst, M. Brandt, and K. Brutung, and several Chinese. The head offices of the firm are in Hamburg, and branches have been established also in Shanghai, Hongkong, and Canton.

Source: p 748 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[66]

The oldest firm in Chefoo is that of Messrs. H. Sietas & Co., which was established in 1861. The Company are general importers and exporters ; owners of the Chefoo Printing Press ; and joint owners with Messrs. Cornabe, Eckford & Co. of the Chefoo Water-boat Company. They have branches also at Tsingtau and Vladivostock.

CORNABE, ECKFOED & CO.

The founders of this firm were Messrs. James Wilson and W. A. Cornabe, both of whom were in business in Amoy. Early in 1864 they established themselves as general merchants in Chefoo under the style of Messrs. Wilson, Cornabe & Co. At first the business consisted of buying produce and shipping it to southern ports, but later on
the firm became shipowners and shipping agents. Later still, after Mr. Eckford had been admitted to partnership, the exportation of straw-braid was undertaken very successfully. In 1887 Mr. Cornabe returned to England, and in 1902 Mr. Eckford was obliged to leave China on account of ill-health. The business now consists of the
export of straw-braid, silk, silk piece goods, and other local products, and the import of coal, flour, indigo, yarn, &c. The firm hold numerous first-class shipping and insurance agencies ; they are proprietors of the Hokee Lighter Company, and are interested in the Chefoo Water-boat Company. They also own one of the largest steam Tussah silk filatures in the neighbourhood. For years there has been a branch of the business at Weihaiwei, and in 1906 two new branches were opened at Tsingtau and Dalny, so that the firm is now entrenched at all the
commercial strategic points in North China.

Source: p 769 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[67]

Hermann Melchers, the second son of L. H. C. Melchers, arrived at Hongkong in 1864, and became the youngest clerk of Eduard Schellhass & Co.

Mr.J.Faust was born in 1870. at Hanover. He came to Shanghai in 1894, and for three years was in the employment of Messrs. Schellhass & Co., the firm now known as Schuldt & Co.

Source: p 618 & 746 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[68]

Messrs. Shewan, Tomes & Co., are general managers of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, of the U.S.A.

MELCHEES & CO. are also general managers for the Equitable Life Assurance Company of the United States.

KIERULFF & CO. is an Agent.

Source: Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[69]

Errington & Martin is a stamp company that was established in England in 1880 and which used the back of stamps to advertise its company.

(Ref. American Philatelist March 2006 page 220)

Philippe

[70]

Ewe, Siew, Boon & Co. were Merchants and Commission Agents in Amoy

Philippe

[71]

The firm of Messrs. Shewan, Tomes & Co., of Hongkong, Canton. Shanghai, Tientsin, Kobe, London, and New York, with its agencies, in Amoy, Foochow, Formosa, Hankow, Manila, and the Straits Settlements is an example of the widespread character of the business in which a modern house may find itself engaged. Messrs. Shewan, Tomes & Co., are general managers of {...} the Federal Insurance Companies {...}

Source: p 213 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[72]

FUHRMEISTER & CO.
Messrs. Fuhrmeister & Co.. who have their head office in Shanghai and a branch office in Hamburg, opened a branch at Hankow about four years ago. and have developed a large business connection as exporters of Chinese produce. The principal articles of export are hides and sesamum seeds. In passing it may be mentioned that of sesamum seeds about a hundred thousand tons are sent away from the port every year, chiefly to Europe and Africa. The firm are the local agents for the China Import and Export Lumber Company, and for several of the leading insurance offices. At present they occupy premises on the British Concession, but plans for new offices and godowns on the German Concession have been prepared, and the premises, when completed in about a year's time, will afford ample scope for the further development of the business. The local manager is Mr. R. Herbertz.

Source: p 719 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Fuhrmeister, Klose & Co.

On 5 April 1902, Friedrich Fuhrmeister and Albert Hartmann founded Fuhrmeister & Co in Shanghai.

The firm’s exports to Europe included raw silk, hides, leather, furs, sesamum seeds and other raw materials. They were also prepared to handle the unusual. They established agencies in the provinces around Shanghai for the purchase of Chinese raw materials. Over the next half century, they became one of the most important German firms in China.

In 1903, the name was changed to Fuhrmeister, Klose & Co. [Fuh-lai-tah], the office being located at 11 Szechuen Road. The partners were Friedrich Fuhrmeister, Albert Hartmann and Wilhelm Klose. Mr. Klose was located in Hamburg.

By 1904 the firm had opened an office in Hankow managed by Karl Lindemann, and had a warehouse in Shanghai, and buyers in Canton and elsewhere in China. This office became responsible for their agents in Changsha, Chinkiang and Wuhu. The 1905 directory shows that the firm had relocated to 10 Hankow Road, Shanghai.

The firm’s global headquarters was opened in 1908 in Hamburg, Germany headed by Fuhrmeister senior with Hartmann running the Shanghai office.

Being a German firm, it was forced to close during the First World War.

After the war, the firm was re-launched in 1921 and the Hankow office was particularly successful over the next quarter century.

In 1930, an office was set up in Tianjin, which was managed by Friedrich Fuhrmeister Junior starting in 1939.

At the start of the Second World War, the firm could only trade with Germany via Siberia and with neutral countries including the U.S.A. When the war expanded to the Pacific, business nearly came to a stop.

After the war, the company started on the road to recovery, however, in 1946, the Hankow office closed and in 1951, the Shanghai office was forced to close due to the political environment at the time. The last member of the firm left China in 1952 for Hamburg.

Michel Houde
January 2016

[73]

Gibb, Livingston and Company was an old British firm in China that had earlier kept branches in Canton, Foochow, Tientsin and at various Yangtze ports. In the second decade of the 20th century, however, it had offices only in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Foochow. Gibb devoted itself to the export of tea, silk, general commission business for which it had many agencies, Shanghai property, and shipping and insurance agencies.

Gibb Livingston is the second oldest (after Jardine’s) trading firm in Hong Kong. Two Scotsmen, Thomas Augustus Gibb and William Potter Livingston, in Canton, founded it in 1836. The firm imported English cotton and woolens and exported tea and silk. Silver bullion was used as payment. They also acted as agents for a large number of sailing ships. Branches were opened in Hong Kong (1841), Amoy and Shanghai. In addition to the import-export trade, Gibb Livingston acted as agents for Ben Line steamships. In 1899 it purchased a fleet of steamers, which sailed as the Gibb Line. By 1908 it was one of the most important business houses in Hong Kong. Here, as in Shanghai, it specialized in shipping and later in insurance. It also branched out into engineering and manufacturing. In 1921, Gibb, Livingston was acquired by Gray, David and Company.

Frank Drake
August 2011

[74]

The name of G. Girault appears as follow in
THE DIRECTORY & CHRONICLE FOR CHINA, JAPAN, COREA, INDO-CHINA, STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, MALAY STATES, SIAM, NETHERLANDS INDIA, BORNEO, THE PHILIPPINES, &C. FOR THE YEAR 1894
The Hongkong Daily Press Office:

“Girault E., manager G. Girault, Hong Kong
Girault G., storekeeper, Shanghai and Hong Kong”

Moreover in the 1894 Jurors List displayed in “Gwulo: Old Hong Kong” we read:

“Carneiro, Antonio Marcal, Assistant, G. Girault & Co.”

[75]

Stamp dealer who was located in the Hong Kong Hotel Building on Pedder Street.

Philippe

[76]

All foreign business relations with the city of Canton are conducted from this settlement {Shameen}. The local Government of the British area, comprising four-fifths of the island, is vested in the Shameen Municipal Council. The members of this body are elected annually by the ratepayers, but as the total population of the Shameen, exclusive of the Chinese, does not exceed from 180 to 200, there are comparatively few residents entitled to exercise the franchise. The Chinese, except those in the service of the various " hongs," are not allowed to live on the island, nor are they permitted to become house or property owners there.
The members of the Municipal Council never exceed five in number, and, at the present, there are only four: Mr. H. Bent, of Messrs. T. E. Griffith & Co., who is the president, Mr. T. E. Griffith also of Messrs. T. E. Griffith & Co. etc...

Source: p 787 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[77]

According to “Traders of Hong Kong: Some Foreign Merchants Houses, 1841 – 1899, Solomon Bard 1993.”:
C.F. Grossmann was a merchant of uncertain nationality that was located 4, Queen's road between 1877 and 1906.

[78]

Guaranty Trust Co of New York

Bank History, Guaranty Trust Company of New York
1864 Established as New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company
12/01/1895 Name Change To Guaranty Trust Company of New York
01/26/1910 Acquire By Merger Morton Trust Company
10/16/1912 Acquire By Merger Standard Trust Company
05/04/1929 Acquire By Merger Bank of Commerce in New York
04/24/1959 Acquire By Merger J.P. Morgan & Co., Incorporated
04/24/1959 Name Change To Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York
06/26/1959 Acquire By Merger Morgan & CIE, Incorporated
12/27/1968 Acquire By Merger Morgan Guaranty Safe Deposit Company
06/01/1996 Acquire By Merger J.P. Morgan Delaware

JPMorgan Chase is one of the oldest financial services firms in the world. The company, headquartered in NYC, is a leader in investment banking, financial services, asset and wealth management and private equity. With assets of $1.3 trillion, JPMorgan Chase is currently the 3rd largest banking institution in the United States, behind Citigroup and Bank of America.
.
JPMorgan Chase operates as the brand for the holding company. Chase is used as the brand for the bank's retail banking activities in the United States and JPMorgan is used as the brand for the investment bank.

In 1891, the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company was reorganized under the auspices of the Mutual Life Insurance Company. (The New Trust Company. New York Times, Oct. 21, 1891, p. 10.) Its name was later changed to the Guaranty Trust Company of New York.

Frank Drake (October 2011)

[79]

[80]

HAMBURG-AMERIKA LINIE.
Seventy years have elapsed since the first steamship crossed from Europe to America, and from that time down to the present the history of North Atlantic steamship enterprise has been one of great and continuous improvement. In the improvements which have taken place the share of the Hamburg-American Line has been a large one. It was in the spring of 1847 that a number of the most respected merchants of Hamburg assembled to discuss a proposal for establishing a regular line of ships between Europe and America. The views of these merchants were very modest; they agreed to start a company with a capital of £22,500, divided into 60 shares of £375 each. The shares were taken up by about 41 shareholders, the greatest number of shares subscribed for by any individual being four. The Company commenced operations with four small sailing ships, three of which were built in Germany, while one was built in England. The names of the first three, which cost on an average about £4,000 each, were Deutschland, Rhein, and Amerika. The Deutschland, which was the largest of the four, was capable of accommodating about two hundred emigrants and twenty cabin passengers, and had a carrying capacity of 717 tons.
Like most new enterprises, the Hamburg- American Line had to meet many difficulties and disappointments, but the Company succeeded, nevertheless, in extending both their fleet and their commercial operations. By careful navigation, strict discipline, prudent management, efficient organisation, and constant efforts to promote the comfort and convenience of their patrons, the Company grew and prospered year by year, until to-day they are one of the greatest steamship companies in the world. They maintain fifty services, and their flag is to be seen on all the ocean trade routes of the globe Above the doorway of their magnificent head offices in Hamburg, overlooking the Alster, there is carved in stone the appropriate legend, "The world is my field." On both sides of the Atlantic they have earned a reputation second to none for the care they take of those who travel by their ships, and for the interest which they exhibit in all matters affecting the well-being of their passengers. Including ships in course of construction, the colossal fleet which to-day flies the flag of the Hamburg-Amerika Linie comprises 178 ocean steamers, with a total aggregate tonnage of 923,439 tons, and 192 tugs, lighters, river boats, &c., equal to 39,163 tons, giving a grand total of 370 vessels and 962,602 tons. In the year ended December 31, 1906, the ships of the fleet completed 2,532 round trips, and carried an aggregate of 431,955 passengers and 6,182,868 chm. of freight.

Source: p 466 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[81]

Location: The firm of Hanyang Iron and Steel Works was situated in the former provincial capital of Hanyang. The ancient town of Hanyang has now been incorporated into the inland river port commercial metropolis, now called Wuhan. (formerly known as Hankow). Its commanding geographic position, situated at the confluence of the Yangtze and Han Rivers, and 586 miles above Shanghai, constituted a center of communications for almost three-fourths of the territory of China proper, relaying goods, persons and information from the regions to the empire’s administrative headquarters in the northeast and its key commercial area in the Yangtze delta. Ocean-going vessels could navigate the river to the then Hankow from the sea and for about 200 miles inland from its mouth, the river is virtually at sea level. The port is sometimes called a 'triple city', being made up of three ancient towns (Wuchang, Hanyang, and Hankow) that confronted each other at the confluence of the Yangtze and Han Rivers. Of the three, Wuchang was the provincial capital and the oldest settlement; it occupied the east (right-hand) bank of the Yangtze. Facing it on the west bank stood Hanyang, the prefecture capital. The smallest settlement then, was Hankow, a fishing village on the north bank of the Han. Hankow was opened as a Treaty Port in 1860, when the Western Powers established concessions in Hankow, opened consulates there, and began to develop trade across the interior of China.

Relationship with Iron and Steel works and Joseph Adamson – I cannot find a direct connection in the literature search. I suspect that Joseph Adamson was the name of a person, perhaps a prominent foreign manager or plant administrator, employed at the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works. Hanyang was not prominent until after the Opium War, when China took up the Westernatization or the Self-Strengthening Movement in the Chinese history, to learn foreign technologies in an attempt to catch up with the Western world. The Chinese Government was amazed by the advanced technologies of foreign gunboats and cannons. China’s leaders at the time perceived that it was important to buy and learn to build arsenals from foreign countries. The underlying principal was to adopt the superior technologies of the westerners to curb the Westerners. There industries adopted foreign technological skills but employed local workers. Governor-general Chang Chih-tung established China’s second modern ordinance plant at the Hanyang Arsenal where guns were first produced in the summer of 1895. To deal with one of the arsenal’s major financial problems, dependence on imported materials, China’s first steel refinery was established to eliminate the need for costly imported steel for ordinance and ammunition products. Hanyang Iron and Steel Works, established in 1890, was the largest enterprise of this kind at that time. Its manufacturing skills relied almost entirely on foreign source. All 24 chief technicians were recruited from overseas, these foreigners were highly paid so that foreign technological skills could be learned and the quality of goods could be improved to compete with foreign imports. I suspect that Joseph Adamson may have been a plant manager or one of its senior technicians or someone who branched out to run his own business.

Frank Drake

[82]

W&Co
Firm’s name: W. A. Hannibal and Company
The firm is associated with the firm Wendt & Co. who had established a long commercial connection with Canton and the Kwangtung Province. Goods are imported from Europe, America and Australia and an export trade was done in Chinese commodities. The firm were agents for the Austrian Lloyd Steamship Company, several local steamship Lines, and the Netherlands Lloyd Insurance Company.

Frank Drake

[83]

According to Wright, Arnold, : page 219 of Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908:

Mr. Harry Wicking was a PROMINENT MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN BUSINESS COMMUNITY, HONGKONG

[84]

R.G.W. Herbert was the Director of the Hong Kong Botanical Gardens

[85]

According to the Directory & Chronicle of Cina, Japan and Straits Settlements, Heron & Co. was a merchant firm representing the China Navigation Company, Ltd and the Ocean Steamship Company

[86]

In the same year 1866 the failure of Overend, Gurney & Co., a big London firm, created widespread panic, and in consequence, there was a run on the various banks in the Colony. There was something of a scandal at the time, for in those days, before the advent of the cable, news filtered in slowly, and, in the excitement of the moment, some of the earliest recipients took matters into their own hands, grabbing notes from the bank counters, and in some cases landing themselves by their unseemly behaviour, in the police court. These causes, with the failure of Dent & Co., Lyall, Still & Co.. and other firms, added to the general depression in the trade of the Colony which characterised the years 1866 69, led ultimately to the failure or closing of the Commercial, the Central, the Hindustan, the Asiatic, the Agra, and probably other of the banks.

Source: p 116 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[87]

In the study article " The German Speaking Community in Hong Kong, 1846 - 1914" by Carl Smith, "Heuermann, Herbst & Co." was mentioned as a German firm, and their business was in ship chandlery and sailmaking.

Frank

[88]

HOLLIDAY, WISE & CO.
Of the firms in Shanghai whose records go back to the days when the port was first opened to foreigners, Messrs. Holliday, Wise & Co. is the only one which can rightfully claim to have been engaged in the China trade for a period of over seventy years without having once changed their name in the least particular. The business was established by Robert Wise, a ship-master, and John Holliday, the son of a small Cumberland landowner, in 1832. Their headquarters were in England, and they had branches at Cape Town and Manila. In 1835, however, after the monopoly of the East India Company had expired, they established themselves in Canton as general merchants. Driven from Canton in company with the other foreign merchants, they went to Macao and, subsequently, to Hongkong. When Shanghai became a Treaty port they at once opened offices here, on a site now forming part of the New " Jinkee " Estate. Shortly afterwards they purchased land and established their "hong" at the corner of the Foochow and Kiangse Roads, where they remained without change until 1905. The land was then sold and developed, but the present offices and godowns of the Company at No. i8n, Kiangse Road stand on a portion of it.
The head office is in Manchester, but there is also a branch in London, for, while the firm's trade has been from the beginning mainly in piece goods, it has not been confined exclusively to them. At one time Messrs. Holliday, Wise & Co. had branches in Hankow and Foochow, chiefly for the tea trade, but these were given up in 1882. They deal in general sundries, and have a well-equipped machinery department, besides holding a number of important agencies, including those for the State, Central, and Atlas Insurance Companies.

Source: p 608 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[89]

Previously to 1889 electric light was unknown to the Colony, but in that year the Hongkong Electric Company, Ltd., was formed, and. although the progress made at the commencement of their undertaking was slow, there have been rapid developments of recent years.

The history of the inception of the Company is an interesting one. Mr, W. H. Wickham, who had completed his articles and served several years with Messrs. Johnson & Phillips, telegraph engineers and electricians, of Charlton, accepted a traveling commission to superintend, on behalf of his firm, the completion of certain contracts. While in Hongkong he obtained the order for supplying the machinery to the Electric Company, which was then in process of formation. He returned to England to see the order executed, and everything was carried out in so satisfactory a manner that the directors offered him the position of manager of the Company.

Source: p 168 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Hong Kong and Electric Company
The Hong Kong Electric Company was founded in 1889 and supplies electricity to Hong Kong Island and Lama Island of Hong Kong. In October 1889, the first power station in Shanghai began functioning. In December of the same year, the Hong Kong Electric Company commenced the supply of electricity for illumination in Hong Kong. The first plant was built in 1889 and its location was on the original site of the first Protestant cemetery. Because Hong Kong is a relatively small electricity market and there is a huge investment required to build, operate and maintain power stations and provide the necessary transmission and distribution systems, the company enjoys de facto monopoly to run this utility service.

Frank Drake

[90]

In 1865 the Hongkong, Canton, and Macao Steamboat Company was formed, and steamers started running. In 1866 the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company commenced business. These two companies, among the first large local enterprises, are still among the most important in the Colony.

Source: p 189 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

The Hongkong, Canton, and Macao Steamboat Company runs a daily steamer (Sunday excepted)between Macao and Hong Kong, leaving the former port at 8 o'clock a.m. And Hongkong at 2 p.m., and a night steamer every alternate day.

Source: THE DIRECTORY & CHRONICLE FOR CHINA, JAPAN, COREA, INDO-CHINA, STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, MALAY STATES, SIAM, NETHERLANDS INDIA, BORNEO, THE PHILIPPINES, & C. FOR THE YEAR 1894.
The Hongkong Daily Press Office

[91]

"On 3 March, 1886, The Hongkong Hotel Company was incorporated with limited liability. The board consisted of Douglas Lapraik, a Scotsman whose former home is now University Hall; Englishman C H M Bosman, a director of the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company; and German national Baron Gustav van Overbeck, Consul for Prussia and Austria in Hong Kong, who became the first chairman. The company was financed by the Hong Kong branch of the Bank of Paris. The hotel had a modest beginning, in 1868, as a three-storey building on the site previously owned by Dent & Co and stood prominently on the waterfront (the Praya) on the corner of Pedder Street. In 1890-92 it was totally renovated and had three storeys added. The six-storey Hongkong Hotel boasted of numerous bedrooms and was known then as the finest hotel in Hong Kong at the time. The Hongkong Hotel Company acquired the Oriental Hotel and adjoining building, Keying and Marine House in Pedder Street."

Frank

With a few other gentlemen he {THE HON. MR. EDWARD OSBORNE, J.P.,} was instrumental in bringing about the erection of the new Hongkong Club building; whilst, at the request of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and of the mortgagees of the Hongkong Hotel property, he was, some twelve years ago, largely responsible for rescuing the Hotel Company from imminent bankruptcy.

Source: p 110 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[92]

Hong Kong Land & Investment Agency Company

The Hong Kong Land Investment and Agency Company was incorporated in 1889. The two prime movers were Paul Chater (later Sir Paul) and James Johnstone Keswick (as taipan of Jardine’s following in the footsteps of his great-uncle William Jardine). In 1890, Sir Paul Chater and James Johnstone Keswick collaborated to undertake the private land reclamation Praya Reclamation Scheme. The first phase expanded out to Praya Central, and fulfilled the growing needs of Victoria City's businesses. The Company was formed as a result of this partnership.

The company soon began buying sites and erecting office buildings. Hong Kong Land acquired Humphrey’s Estate and Finance Company, which owned residential property in the Mid-levels.

In 1972, and for 14 years ‘Land’ had a controlling interest in Dairy Farm, Ice and Cold Storage Company. In its centenary year Hong Kong Land owned some six-million square feet of commercial space of which five-million is in the so-called ‘Core central’ area. The firm has been described as ‘….perhaps the most valuable property company in te world and certainly in the region..” Once the biggest property company in the world, with a heavy exposure to the Hong Kong real estate, it has been in the control of Jardine Matheson. It had been known as a conservative landlord which relied mainly on property-rental income.

Frank Drake (October 2011)

[93]

The Hongkong Observatory, a large but unpretentious building, the equipment of which was adversely criticized after the 1906 typhoon, is situated on Mount Elgin, in the centre of the peninsula. Skirting the peninsula to the east, and passing the military barracks, Hunghom, a small village in which the dock hands live, is reached. Sampans and small junks lie crowded together at the head of the bay, the shores of which are lined with engineering works, the most important being those of the Hongkong and VVhampoa Dock Company. There is also an electric light and power station here.

Source: p 156 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[94]

History: The HongKong & Kowloon Wharf & Godown Co. was founded in November 1886. It was a new enterprise at the time, which completely revolutionized the shipping business of the port. The firm was mainly engaged in loading and unlioading freight ships and the storage of goods.The main offices of the company was on the seashore of Tsim Sha Tsui.

Frank

[95]

HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION

Largely owing to able management and to the foresight of successive directors, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is to-day the premier bank of the East. Its history is one of extraordinary prosperity, and though at one time heavy losses were encountered, the tide soon became once more favourable, and upon it the Corporation has been carried to its present strong position in the financial world. The bank was started in 1864 with a paid up capital of $2,500,000, in 20,000 shares of $125 each, and amongst its founders were men whose names are associated with some of the largest undertakings of the last half century.
Business was commenced in 1865, shortly before the opening of the Suez Canal revolutionized the trade of the Far East, and incorporation was granted in 1866. The prosperity anticipated by the shareholders was fully realized for some years; then came losses, and for 1874 and the first half of 1875 no dividend was paid. In 1876, Mr. Jackson (now Sir Thomas Jackson, Bart.), was appointed chief manager, and from that time onward the progress of the bank has been most marked.
In 1874 the Imperial Chinese Government contracted a loan with the bank of £600,000. Since then the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has been the means of placing many Chinese Government loans on the markets, and has also assisted in the flotation of Government loans for Japan and Siam.

Source: p 118 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company, Limited (1865-present)

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Company, Limited was founded on 3 March 1865 to finance the mounting trade between Europe, India and China. In 1866, the bank was incorporated and rebranded as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). The headquarters have always been located at 1 Queen's Road Central. The bank’s nickname is “Wayfung.”

By the turn of the twentieth century, the HSBC was the largest and most influential of all the foreign banks in China. It still issues its own banknotes.

WWI caused interruption in its business, however, the decade after that war brought a return to prosperity. In WWII, most of the bank's staff in the east was interned. Fearing a Japanese invasion, the headquarters were moved to London. After the war, they returned to Hong Kong in 1946 and the bank played a large part in the rebuilding of the local economy.

Over time, the HSBC developed an extensive network of branches and agencies. By 1890, the bank had 22 branches, by 1913, there were 32, and in 1938, it had 40. Branches and agencies were established in Amoy (1873), Bangkok (1888), Batavia (1884), Bombay (1869), Calcutta (1867), Canton (1909), Chefoo (1926), Foochow (1867), Colombo (1892), Hamburg (1889), Hankow (1868), Kobe (1869), London (1865), Lyons (1881), Macau (1887), Manila (1875), Nagasaki (1891), New York (1880), Osaka (1872), Peking (1885), Penang (1884), Rangoon (1891), Saigon (1870), San Francisco (1875), Shanghai (1865), Singapore (1877), Swatow (1937), Tientsin (1881), Yokohama (1866), and elsewhere.

It opened a London office in July 1865. The Shanghai office opened on 3 April 1865, and in 1873, the bank acquired premises at 12 The Bund, Shanghai. All but one of its mainland Chinese branches were closed between 1949 and 1955, only the Shanghai office being able to continue operations. The HSBC has been represented in Shanghai without interruption since 1865.

In 1959, the HSBC acquired the Mercantile Bank. Subsequent to numerous acquisitions of regional and local banks, HSBC Holdings plc, based in London, was launched in 1991 and it became the parent company of the HSBC.

Today (2011), HSBC Holdings plc operates in 87 countries and territories, and has nearly 8,000 offices. It is the largest banking group in the world, the largest bank in Hong Kong, and the largest international bank in mainland China.

Michel Houde June 2012

[96]

The Hongkong Telegraph.
The Hongkong Telegraph was established by Mr. Robert Frazer-Smith, and its first issue appeared on June 15, 1881. After a somewhat chequered career, the paper became the property of the late Mr. John Joseph Francis, Q.C, who at that time was undoubtedly the cleverest lawyer practising in Hongkong. Mr. Francis in due course converted the business into a limited liability company, the registration taking place on February 22, 1900. While owning to a special desire to promote Chinese interests, the Telegraph has followed an entirely independent policy, directing its attention largely to the advancement of the commercial interests of the Colony, without disregarding the various other facets of work on an evening journal. Its connection with Canton, the capital of Southern China, has been singularly successful, owing to the excellence of its news service from that centre of Chinese activity, while it has also established a close connection with the Treaty ports along the coast.

Source: p 351 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[97]

In 1866 the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company commenced business {in Hong Kong}.

Practically all the wharves in the Colony are on the peninsula a fact which accounts for the clean appearance of the water front at Victoria. At Sam Shui Po the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company have constructed the Cosmopolitan Docks.

The Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company have three extensive establishments one at Hunghom, Kowloon, another at Tai Kok Tsui, and the third at Aberdeen, on the island of Hongkong itself.

Source: p 156, 189, 235 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[98]

“The name of W. G. HUMPHREYS & Co. first appears in the Hongkong Directory & List in the 1880s, with W.G. Humphreys as the principal of the Company. Essentially an import and export firm, it traded as merchants and general commission agents from Queen's Road with its head office in London.”

Source: Traders of Hong Kong: Some Foreign Merchants Houses, 1841 – 1899, Solomon Bard 1993.

[99]

Hop Hing Group Holdings Limited, a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands, is the ultimate holding company of Hop Hing Group which was listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited in 1988.

Hop Hing and its predecessors in business have over 70 years' experience in the importing, bottling and distribution of edible oils in Hong Kong. The business was founded in around 1932 by the late Mr. Hung Hok Yau, the present chairman's grandfather, and certain partners in Shantou in the PRC.

Mr. Hung Cheung Pui, the present chairman's father, entered the business in 1936 and retired from the position of the Chairman of the Group in 1990. His son, Mr. Hung Hak Hip, Peter, entered the business in 1975 and is the current chairman of the Group.

HOP HING HONG PETROLEUM CO LTD in Sham Shui Po is probably one of the offsprings of the original firm.

Philippe

[100]

On May 27, 1897 the first modern Chinese Bank, the Imperial Bank of China (IBC), opened for business in Shanghai. The bank was set up to help finance China’s railway development. The bank was state-supported and merchant-managed.

Frank (Feb 9, 2011)

See also Group I -29 Commercial Bank of China

[101]

The IMPERIAL CHINESE BANK is most probably the same bank as the IMPERIAL BANK OF CHINA, see Group I - 71

Philippe

[102]

The International Banking Corporation was an Anglo-American bank that initially dealt with foreign securities in the United States. The International Banking Corporation established an office in Shanghai in May 1902 as well as branches in Manila, Yokohama, Singapore, Hong Kong and Calcutta. In 1918, the bank was bought by the National City Bank of New York, and continues today as the Citibank.

Frank Drake

MR. lU KU UN has occupied the position of compradore to the International Banking Corporation ever since the bank opened a branch in the Colonv in 1903.

Source: p 182 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

International Banking Corporation (1902-1927)

The International Banking Corporation was an Anglo-American bank founded in New York on 1 December 1901. It was chartered to conduct banking outside the United States, which was an activity forbidden for other American banks. It opened its first branch in China in Shanghai in 1902.

It was the first American bank to open in China. Previously, most American transfer of funds had occurred through British banks. After participating in the Boxer Rebellion, the U.S.A. felt it had a right to some of the Boxer indemnities. The purpose of the bank was to promote American trade in the Far East and to provide full banking services.

The head office was on Wall Street in New York City. The bank had a vast network of branches in Europe, India, the Straits Settlements, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and elsewhere. Eventually, it established 32 branches in 12 countries. In China, it had branches in Canton (17 August 1904), Dairen (1923), Hankow (1909), Hong Kong (1902), Peking (1909), Shanghai (1902), Tientsin (1916), Harbin (1919), Tsingtao (1921), Mukden (1928), and elsewhere. The Hong Kong branch [Man kowk po tung yan hong] opened on 8 December 1902 at 9 Queen’s Road Central. The Shanghai branch [Hua chi yin hong = Flower flag bank] opened on 15 May 1902.

In 1918, the National City Bank acquired the International Banking Corporation. It was not until 1 January 1927 that the National City Bank rebranded all of the branches of the International Banking Corporation with its own name.

Michel Houde 2012

[103]

"Foreign merchants who established themselves in the treaty ports after 1842 were obliged, in the absence of a Chinese financial and commercial system of a modern type, to provide many of the auxiliary services which in the great trading centers they undertook various kinds of banking and foreign exchange business; they entered the shipping trade and promoted insurance companies. Modern insurance started as early as the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the first companies being managed under the affiliation of trading firms. Insurance and banking were the two most important ancillary services that large Western conglomerate had always performed for smaller business firms. It was Western merchants who first saw the commercial possibilities of insurance business and introduced them into the Chinese market.

During the late nineteenth century, a few Chinese insurance companies were established in Hong Kong. The history of Hong Kong Chinese insurance companies really begins from the establishment of five companies, whose names all contained the character ‘an’, or ‘on’ in Cantonese, meaning safety. (One such company was Ip On Marine & Fire Insurance Co., Ltd, 1899.) Chinese compradors and merchants engaged in foreign trade quickly saw the potential value of investing in insurance business."

It is likely that 'IP ON Co.' was in the insurance business. Because it is a Chinese business, we might stand a better chance to find covers with this marking on Chinese related correspondence. It might be worth our while to examine some of the red band covers for such a marking.

Frank

[104]

The shipping firm started with the mail packet service contracts in the Netherlands East Indies. In 1902 with the aid of the Dutch Government, three Dutch shipping companies started a new service from Java to China and Japan as the Java China Japan Line (JCJL). In 1907, the line was divided into two lines, one going from Java to China, and the other one going from Java to Japan. The lines mainly transported steerage passengers.

The company broadened its services in the First World War, founding the “Java Pacific Line” to America’s west coast ports in 1915. After the Great Depression, the shipping company had been incurring losses for years on end before it merged with Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij” (KPM).

In 1947 the company was granted the prefix Koninklijke (Royal) and the Koninklijke Java China Paketvaart Lijnen (KJCPL), trading under the name ‘Royal Interocean Lines’ (RIL) in the southern hemisphere. The Chinese name was ‘Java’ and the road where RIL built its head office on Hong Kong island is now named ‘Java Road’.

After Indonesia had become independent, the company lost all lines in that region in 1957. It became part of Nedloyd Lijnen in 1969. The name JCJL disappeared in 1977.

Frank Drake
7/26/2013

[105]

In 1895 Jebsen & Co. were established in Hongkong to take over the steamers of M. Jebsen Apenrade, which had been trading for many years along the China coast. Subsequently, H. Diederichsen, of Kiel, acquired a share in the business, and out of this amalgamation of interests arose the firm of Diederichsen. Jebsen & Co. They established themselves at Tsingtau and Chefoo, having the distinction of being the first firm to open a branch at the former place after it had been taken over by Germany.

Source: p 642 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[106]

Jenny & Co., Manila
A Swiss firm

P. Jenny & Co was established in 1847 in Manila. P. Blumer & Jenny joined their textile exports to the import of products of Peter Jenny. The 1850’s sales ledger for the Far East shows that the firm purchased tobacco, sago, rice, rattan (cane) and sugar. The products were sold in Amsterdam.. However, after the price falls of 1857, the textile producers probably came to the conclusion that these activities presented too many risks, and they limited themselves, from then on, to their core business.

According to Koloniale Schweiz: Ein Stück Globalgeschichte zwischen Europa und ... By Andreas Zangger

[107]

MR. J. R. MICHAEL, J.P., who was born in 1860, has been connected with the Colony for nearly thirty-four years, and during that time has taken a keen interest in local commercial enterprises. He is head of the firm of Messrs. J. R. Michael & Co., who have for many years carried on an extensive business as commission agents, stock and general brokers, and merchants. Seventeen years ago he was joined by his nephew, Mr. S. H. Michael, who is now a partner, and has sole charge of the Company's interests in Hongkong. Mr. Joseph R. Michael, who is a Justice of the Peace for the Colony, has traveled
considerably, and was one of the first passengers by the Hankow-Peking Railway before the Yellow River Bridge was completed. He is a strong advocate of a stable currency for Hongkong irrespective of China.

Source: p 173 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[108]

JARDINE, MATHESON & CO.
The founder of this, the premier British mercantile house in the Far East, was Dr. William Jardine, at one time an officer in the service of the Honourable East India Company. Associated with him from its earliest days were Messrs. James Matheson (afterwards Sir James Matheson, Bart., of the Lews) and Hollingworth Magniac. Dr. Jardine was a southern Scot, whose forbears for many generations had resided
in Annandale, Dumfriesshire. Mr. James Matheson hailed from the west coast of Rossshire, where his family had long been established, and owned property. Mr. Magniac was the descendant of a Swiss merchant who had settled at Macao towards the close of the eighteenth century, obtaining employment there from an old-established firm named Beale & Keid, in which concern he became a partner, the firm's name being then changed to Beale & Magniac, and later to Magniac & Co.
.....
In 1842, having been driven out of Macao owing to the shortsighted policy of the Portuguese authorities, the firm transferred its headquarters to the then almost barren island of Hongkong, where the isolated promontory and hill of East Point were purchased, substantial
offices, godowns and dwelling houses erected, and a slipway laid down for the hauling up and repairing of the fleet of schooners and brigs employed by the firm in the coasting trade of that day. The offices erected at that lime continued to be used as such by the firm until the year 1864, when a move was made to a more central part of the town, the buildings thereafter being used as junior mess quarters. The dwelling houses erected for the senior and junior partners at East Point, now probably the oldest houses in the Colony, are situated on a hill some 200 feet in height overlooking the harbour, and surrounded by an unusually large compound containing a very fine avenue of trees. Though erected nearly seventy years ago, these houses are still in excellent condition, their wide verandahs, spacious and lofty rooms and passages, and finely dressed stone exterior bearing evidence of the good work performed by the Chinese workmen Of 1842.
........
In 1905. Sir Robert Jardine died, and for family reasons the firm was then turned into a private Limited Liability Company.
.......

Source: p 210, 211 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[109]

Messrs. Jorge & Co., of No. 5, Zetland
Street, carry on the business of general merchants, importers, and exporters. They deal largely in China produce, and make a specialty of ginseng, in the selection of which Mr. K. J. V. Jorge, the proprietor and founder, is an acknowledged expert. As a tribute to Mr. Jorge's ability in this direction it may be mentioned that the firm is the only foreign house in the ginseng trade in the Colony. The import business is largely in piece goods, which are disposed of amongst the Chinese. The firm has extensive trading relationships with leading houses throughout Europe and America, and important connections with the Philippines and Formosa. Mr. Jorge was for many years connected with the old firm of Messrs. Russell & Co., and when
that house was discontinued he assisted in the promotion of the present large business of Messrs. Shewan, Tomes & Co. Seven years ago he established himself as head of Messrs. Jorge & Co., and has been chiefly responsible for the firm's prosperity. He is president of the Club Lusitano, the only Portuguese club in (he Colony, and was instrumental in pulling that institution through its recent difficulties and placing it once more on a sound basis.

Source: p 222 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[110]

Relationship with Hanyang Iron and Steel Works and Joseph Adamson – I cannot find a direct connection in the literature search. I suspect that Joseph Adamson was the name of a person, perhaps a prominent foreign manager or plant administrator, employed at the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works. Hanyang was not prominent until after the Opium War, when China took up the Westernatization or the Self-Strengthening Movement in the Chinese history, to learn foreign technologies in an attempt to catch up with the Western world. The Chinese Government was amazed by the advanced technologies of foreign gunboats and cannons. China’s leaders at the time perceived that it was important to buy and learn to build arsenals from foreign countries. The underlying principal was to adopt the superior technologies of the westerners to curb the Westerners. There industries adopted foreign technological skills but employed local workers. Governor-general Chang Chih-tung established China’s second modern ordinance plant at the Hanyang Arsenal where guns were first produced in the summer of 1895. To deal with one of the arsenal’s major financial problems, dependence on imported materials, China’s first steel refinery was established to eliminate the need for costly imported steel for ordinance and ammunition products. Hanyang Iron and Steel Works, established in 1890, was the largest enterprise of this kind at that time. Its manufacturing skills relied almost entirely on foreign source. All 24 chief technicians were recruited from overseas, these foreigners were highly paid so that foreign technological skills could be learned and the quality of goods could be improved to compete with foreign imports. I suspect that Joseph Adamson may have been a plant manager or one of its senior technicians or someone who branched out to run his own business.

Frank Drake

[111]

Sir Elly Kadoorie & Sons

Its founder, E. (later Sir Elly) S. Kadoorie arrived in Hong Kong by way of Bombay in 1880. At first associated with E.D. Sassoon & Co., by the 1880s he set up on his own as a broker, and entered on a spectacular advance to what is now aptly referred to as the Kadoorie Empire.
To-day, Kadoorie business interests are on an enormous and world-wide scale in hotels, banking, real estate, and public utilities. The controlling interest rests with the Kadoorie brothers, Lawrence and Horace, of whom Lawrence has become Hong Kong's first resident peer, as Baron Kadoorie of Kowloon and the City of Westminster.

Source: Traders of Hong Kong: Some Foreign Merchants Houses, 1841 – 1899, Solomon Bard 1993.

With the on-set of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), gravestones were uprooted, some smashed, and other removed entirely. The sites of the cemeteries became parking lots, parks, and a cement factory. Only four Jewish graves remained undisturbed – those of deceased luminaries Sir Elly Kadoorie, his wife Lady Laura Kadoorie, Charles Aharon, and Yosef Sasson – in the famous cemetery that also houses Soong Ching Ling, now the Soong Ching Ling Memorial Park.

The Kadoories need not only to look to the past but also to look to the future and establish a sumptuous Iraqi Community Centre in London to commemorate their name.

Source: The Scribe Issue 75 autumn 2002

[112]

KELLY & WALSH, LTD.
The firm of Kelly & Walsh, Ltd., publishers, printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and stationers, has been established for over thirty years, and has branches in Hongkong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Yokohama. The Hongkong branch was formerly situated in Queen's Koad Central, whence it was removed a few years ago to the present handsome premises in York Building. Chater Road. The local printing office is situated in Duddell Street, and is thoroughly well equipped. Messrs. Kelly & Walsh carry a very large stock of books, and make a feature of those dealing with the Far East.

Source: p 224 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[113]

King Edward Hotel was located on Ice House Street, Victoria, Hong Kong.

Philippe

[114]

KRUSE & CO.
It was in 1868 that Mr. Kruse, a shrewd man of business, laid the foundation of the extensive import trade in tobacco, cigars, and fancy goods now carried on under the style of Kruse & Co. by Messrs. C. W. Longuet and J. Meier. Mr. Kruse died in 1874, and many changes of partnership followed, but the business has prospered, and to-day the firm is the leading house of its kind in the Colony, with a carefully guarded reputation for supplying only the best class of goods. Messrs. Kruse & Co. are agents for Messrs. Valfiadis & Co.'s and Messrs. A. G. Cousis & Co.'s Egyptian cigarettes; they are the sole importers of the "Imperia del Mundo" Manila cigars; they import the special brand known as "El Oriente" direct from the factory; and they are the only firm shipping cigars direct from Havana in wholesale quantities to Hongkong. They deal both with the Tobacco Trust and with independent companies, and are thus able to meet the requirements of all customers. Smokers' requisites of every kind are stocked in abundance The house has taken the lead in other directions, too, for it is the only one importing continental fancy goods, including china, table and wall ornaments, fancy baskets, glass vases, and ware of special design, &c. Other lines comprise electro-plate, toys, picture postcards (which latter the firm were the first to introduce into the Colony), and the well-known Divinice brand of perfume, distilled by Messrs. Wolff & Solin. The firm also deal largely in incandescent gas fittings, and were the first local agents for the Welsbach burners now in general use. This does not by any means exhaust the list of agencies held by the firm for they represent the Columbia Cycle Company, the German newspaper, Oslasiatische Lloyd, and numerous smaller interests.

Source: p 220 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[115]

Koo Man Woo

I suspect that different spellings had been used for the English translation of the firm's name.

Ko Man Wah founded the firm of Yuen Fat Hong in 1853 as a specialist in the import and export of rice and other Chinese food products. It branched to the major ports of East Asia and the Nanyang, including Singapore, and acquired ownership of five rice mills in Bangkok. Beginning in the 1880, the firm expanded into trade services, including ship brokerage and insurance.

Frank Drake (October 2011)

[116]

KWONG HEE YING.
Mr. Quan Kai, head of the well-known firm of Kwong Hee Ying, and compradore to the Pacific Mail, Occidental and Oriental, Toyo Kisen Kaisha, and the Portland and Asiatic Steamship Companies, is one of the most enterprising and up-to-date Chinese commercial men in the Colony. He received his training in Western business methods in America, in which country he resided for many years. He was the proprietor, among other concerns, of a boot and shoe factory equipped with all the latest machinery and employing some 350 Chinese and 70 Europeans. So well did he succeed that he sent for his brother and his nephew to join him, and embarked upon a general import and export trade between China and America. Deciding to return to
China, Mr. Quan Kai secured several valuable agencies in San Francisco, and for some years supplied these houses with goods from Hongkong

Source: p 229 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[117]

In the first year of the Colony's foundation a land officer was appointed to administer Crown lands, collect the revenue derivable from them, and discharge the functions now performed by the Director of Public Works. The officer to whom these numerous responsibilities were entrusted was very frequently changed during the first year or two. On January 3, 1843, Mr. A. T. Gordon was gazetted Surveyor-General, but this was merely a change of title, for his duties were the same as those of his predecessors. The Land Office was established as an independent department in January, 1883. The title of Surveyor-General continued in use until 1892, when it was changed to that of Director of Public Works.

Source: p 129 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[118]

LANE. CRAWFORD & CO.
Hongkong has not many departmental stores where the purchaser can go from room to room and find everything that he may require with the minimum amount of trouble and loss of time. But at the establishment of Messrs. Lane, Crawford & Co. anything from a pin to an anchor can be purchased. It was in 1850 only a few years after the British took possession of Hongkong that Messrs. T. A. Lane & Ninian Crawford started the business. Until 1905 they occupied promises situated on the old Praya. and extending right through to Queen's Road Central. Although large, these premises were found to be inadequate and entirely unsuited to present-day requirements, and, consequently, the present handsome block of buildings was erected for the firm by the Hongkong Land Investment Company, from the designs of Messrs. Leigh & Orange. The main entrance is in Ice House Street, within a short distance of the Kowloon Ferry Wharf and in the centre of the European business quarter. The showrooms occupy three floors and cover an area of 20,000 square feet, the departments embracing ship-chandlery, grocery, outfitting, hardware, furnishing and upholstery, tailoring, millinery, and piano and musical instruments.

Source: p 214 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Lane, Crawford & Co. (1850-still active)
On the 1st of March 1850 two Scotts, Thomas Ash Lane and Ninian Crawford founded Lane, Crawford & Co. Their first store was a matshed (rush mats covering a bamboo frame) on the north side of Queen’s Road on the waterfront. They operated as shipchandlers for visiting ships as well as the military in the new colony.
In their second year, 1851, they opened a bakery to produce sea biscuits and in May, they started holding auctions. In October, they opened large sales rooms at the corner of Stanley and Pottinger Streets stretching to Queen’s Road.
In 1865, they built their own wharf in Hong Kong and operated the 37-ton steam tug called the Seagull.
By 1866, they had a number of water-boats to supply ships in port with fresh-water. This branch of the business was merged with the Union Water Boat Company about 1906, which continued to operate until after World War II.
In 1872, they took over the Wanchai Steam Bakery and renamed it the Hong Kong and China Bakery. One of their products was hardtack biscuits important to their Shipchandlers business.
In September 1905, the firm moved into a new multi-story building at the corner of Ice House Street and Charter Road.
On February 6, 1922, the firm became a limited liablity company and thus became Lane, Crawford & Co., Limited.
In 1926, Messrs Lane Crawford moved their offices and store into the Exchange Building on Des Voeux Road Central after it was redeveloped.
In 1922, Messrs Lane Crawford bought The Café Wiseman on Ice House Street. [For more information on the Café Wiseman, see WEISMANN, LIMITED.]
During WWII under the Japanese occupation Messrs Lane Crawford was renamed Matsuzakaya and transferred to the Japanese firm of the same name. The staff was imprisoned at the Stanley Internment Camp including the Managing Director Mr. Andrew Walton Brown. Upon his liberation in 1945, he went directly to the store where he found that the Japanese had make off with the entire contents as well as having destroyed most of the records. He restarted the business from scratch with only $1,000 cash at his disposal. His first job was to start up the Café Wiseman to provide meals for the survivors.
BRANCHES: Their branches were later taken over by local managers and subsequent turned into limited liablity companies. On the 1st of July 1862, Lane, Crawford & Co. opened a branch in Shanghai. About the same time, an office was opened in Canton. In 1862, Lane, Crawford open stores in Yokohama and Kobe. In 1909, a store was opened in Tokyo. On September 1, 1923 just before noon, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake stuck the Kanto region of Japan. The Lane, Crawford store in Yokohama was destroyed killing the manage Mr. R. B. McKinnell and a large number of the staff.
Michel Houde Dec 2016

[119]

Landstein & Co.
Presumed to be a British firm, Landstein & Co. was first registered in Hong Kong in about 1865, with William R. Landstein and Maurice de Lange as partners, and trading as merchants from Nos. 2 and 3 Stanley Street.
The firm had business connections with Indo-China transporting rice and cotton from Saigon. The firm's sketchy history is highlighted by the court case it brought in 1874- 75 against His Majesty Tu Duc, the King of Annam, heard in the Supreme Court of Hong Kong before Chief Justice Smale.

Source: Traders of Hong Kong: Some Foreign Merchants Houses, 1841 – 1899, Solomon Bard 1993.

[120]

Could be related to Foley and Lardner one of the current largest law firm that was created in 1842

Philippe

[121]

Mr. Stolterfoht in 1880 (DP 6 Mar. 1880) The following notice appeared in the Government Gazette on 1 January 1885: "We, Hermann Stolterfoht and Chailcs Hirst, the only remaining partners in the firm of Hesse and Company, Hong Kong and Canton, have decided to continue the business of the said firm under name Stolterfoht and Hirst with the same capital as heretofore. The interest and responsibility of the original partner, Mr. Theodore Hesse, ceased entirely on 30 June 1867 when his capital was withdrawn. Mr. Oscar Wegener has been authorized to sign for the new firm per procuration " The firm continued under this name for ten years. Then Mr. Hirst withdrew and was replaced by Edward Hagen and the name was changed to Stoltcrfoht and Hagan. In 1898 the business was transferred to Lauts, Wegener and Co The liquidators of the old company were Oscai Wegener and Albert Finke (DP 5 Jan. 1898).

Mr. Hagen must have died within a short time of entering the partnership as the surviving partner advertised in April 1897 that the late Mr Hagen's interest in the company ended on 1 January 1897 and Mr. Stolterfoht would continue the business on his own account (GG 19 Apr. 1897). A year later Mi Stohlterfoht transferred his business to the firm of Lauts, Wegener and Co. The firm of Lauts and Haesloop was registered at the German Consulate at Swatow in 1892 (DP 25 Apr. 1892). The next year the firm of Lautz, Wegner and Co. was formed by Johann Theodore Lautz, Oscar Wegener and Franz Heinrich Luedes Haesloop (DP 3 Jan 1893). Lauts had been at one time an assistant in Melchers and Co. Mr. Wegener had been an assistant in the firm of Hesse and Co. and Stohlterfoht and Hirst. He remained with the firm of Lauts, Wegener and Co. until his death by suicide in April 1902. He left a letter stating he took his life because of ill health (HKT 24 Apr. 1902)

Extract from Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch
© RASHKB and author ISSN 1991-7295 Vol. 34 (1994 )

[122]

Leigh & Orange Ltd, founded in Hong Kong in 1874, is an international architectural and interior design practice. The group has a total of 550 staff and operates through its headquarters in Hong Kong with branch offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Fuzhou, Bangkok, Dubai, Bahrain and Qatar.

Wikipedia 2011

[123]

Ludwig Siemund Lutkens and Gustave Adolph Roesing were in business in Hong Kong from 1862 to 1865, when the firm of Lutkens. Roesing and Co. went bankrupt (GG 3 June 1865) For several years after the bankruptcy Mr Lutkens traded in his own name, but from 1871 to 1876 he was an assistant in the firm of Pustau and Co. Mr. Roesing, before joining up with Lutkens, was an assistant in the firm of Schaeffer and Co as early as 1858 (GG I May 1858).

The firm of Scheele and Co is listed in the 1891 Hong Kong Directory. Its principal, Alfred Scheele, was then living in Hamburg. The company went into liquidation in 1897. The partners were Alfred Scheele, Richard
Abesser and Gustav Atzemoth. The business of the old firm was continued by Messis Abesser and Atzemoth under the name of Lutkens, Einstmann and Co (GG 28 Aug. 1897) They were still in business in Hong Kong in 1905.

THE GERMAN SPEAKING COMMUNITY IN HONG KONG 1846 -1918, CARL T.SMITH
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch - Vol. 34 (1994 )

[124]

The list of enemy alien properties in liquidation in 1914 gives the date of the establishment of the Medical Hall as 1853. Its proprietor was Dr. Harold von Kauffman He married a Spanish woman, Emelra Manuela. When he left Hong Kong in 1873 with his wife and four children, a relative Mr. Theophil Kolfer took over the management of the Medical Hall, which was located on a central site on Queen's Road Dr. Kauffman died at Weisbaden in May 1891. A year before Dr. Kauffmann left Hong Kong, Emil Niedhardt arrived to assume the position of chemist in the pharmacy. Upon the departure of T. Kolfer, Niedhardt became the proprietor of the business. He retired in 1913 after forty one years in Hong Kong. His friends tendered him a farewell dinner at the German Club. H. Kammel, an apothecary, was admitted a partner in 1897. In 1914 at the time of liquidation, the pharmacy was on Ice House Street opposite the King Edward Hotel. Two pharmaceutical chemists were in charge, A. Kucy and W Kornetz.

THE GERMAN SPEAKING COMMUNITY IN HONG KONG 1846 -1918, CARL T.SMITH
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch - Vol. 34 (1994 )

[125]

French shipping company with an office in Hong Kong. To help promote trade within South-East Asia and Southern China region, the French Government at the time had launched a subsidised steamboat shipping service to convey freight to the major seaports and the firm of A.R. Marty had inaugurated the service. Most of the French steamers operating in the region at the time had belonged to Mr. A. R. Marty's regular line, which was subsidised by the French Government to convey mails and stores from Tonkin to Kwang-chau-wan and to other Chinese ports. His ships also called in at Hong Kong. But the steamers belonging to A.R.Marty was subjected to the imposition of special tonnage dues, this extra charging was to enable the British shipping merchants to compete against a subsidised steamer line. For this reason, A.R. Marty was less active with their shipping related businesses in Hong Kong.

Frank Drake, May 2013

[126]

In the "Foreign Traders in Hong Kong" book, the authors mention page 89 an Indian firm named F.B. METTAH & Co. Same pronunciation, almost same spelling. I think that the authors misspelled the name that should have been F.B. MEHTA & Co.

Philippe

[127]

MELCHERS & CO.
So much depends upon the manner in which the business of a large steamship line is conducted in foreign ports that great care is exercised in the appointment of agents. The distinction of representing the North German Lloyd Steamship Company in Hongkong is enjoyed by Messrs. Melchers & Co., a large firm of exporters, importers, and shipping and insurance agents. A branch of this business was established in the Colony in 1866 by Mr. Hermann Melchers, the present head of the house in Bremen, and since then other branches have been opened in Canton, Shanghai, Chinkiang, Hankow, Ichang, and Tientsin.

Source: p 209 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[128]

[129]

MEYER & CO.
The first firm to move into the German Concession after it was obtained from the Chinese Government was Messrs. Meyer & Co.. who secured an excellent position on the Bund and there erected a fine set of offices, with extensive godowns in the rear, which they have occupied since 1901. The staple business of this well-known German house, whose headquarters are at Hongkong and who have been established in Hankow for the last ten years, lies in the export of Chinese produce of every description. The Company have a large ground for drying, and godowns with modern machinery for packing, hides and skins ; an up-to-date plant for cleaning sesamum seeds ; and a well-equipped establishment for preparing tallow for the European markets. Their import trade, also, is steadily increasing in volume. The manager of the branch, Mr. F. Muller, occupies a seat on the German Municipal Council.

Source: p 710 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[130]

Mr. H. Meyer, who has been connected with the firm {Melchers & Co.} for the past ten years,{1898-1908} acts as the general manager for China.

Source: p 586 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[131]

The name of Adolph E. Meyer first appears in the Chronicle for 1872, at 4 Stanley Street. The firm became Meyer & Co, about 1877, when it moved to Burd's Lane. Adolph Meyer was still the sole proprietor, with his staff of five until in 1881 H. Garrels and Ferdinand Lembke joined him as partners, and later H.C. Eduard Meyer. A branch was opened at Shanghai in 1886.

In 1898 Lembke took charge, eventually converting the Company to Meyer, Lembke & Co. In 1893 the Hong Kong office was located at 5 Queen's Road Central. It specialized in the import into China of textiles from England and sundries from Germany, and the export from China of feathers and tobacco, later acquiring interests in shipping. Its business activities in the Far East had ceased before the First World War began.

Source: Traders of Hong Kong: Some Foreign Merchants Houses, 1841 – 1899, Solomon Bard 1993.

[132]

Formerly Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China.

The subject of banking from that date {1845} onwards, for a period of nearly twenty years, is practically ignored by the records, though there are frequent references to the currency question. The issue of the prospectus of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in July, 1864, is the next mention, and, incidentally, Dr. Eitel alludes to the existence at that time of six banking institutions the Oriental Bank already referred to, the Agra and United Service Bank ; the Central Bank of Western India ; the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China ; the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China; and the Commercial Bank of India. This list does not appear to be a complete one, however, for some of the older inhabitants of the Colony well remember that there were also in operation the Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris ; the Bank of Hindustan, China, and Japan ; the Asiatic Bank ; and the Bank of India.

Source: p 116 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Mercantile Bank of India, Ltd.

1920 Licensed Mercantile Bank of India, Ltd..
1931 Closed

The Mercantile Bank of China may have been the local name used by the bank when it established its first branch office in Shanghai in 1854. This bank was founded out of the Mercantile Bank of Bombay in 1854. It was incorporated in Bombay and received its charter in 1 July 1858 and renamed the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China. In 1893, it relinquished its charter and became The Mercantile Bank of India, Limited. In 1958 it dropped “the India” from its name and became The Mercantile Bank Limited. It was acquired by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in 1959 and sold to Citibank in 1984. In 1987, the Mitsubishi Bank bought it.

Frank Drake (October 2011)

[133]

The daily papers have given some accounts of the disturbances in the Province of Szechuan, Western China and we are able to add but little to the information they have presented. As far as can be gathered from tho meagre reports which have come to hand, the people of Szehuan under the leadership or Viceroy Liu, have risen and destroyed the property of both Protestant and Roman Catholic Missions in Chentu, Kiating, Yachau, Pingshan, Luchau and many other places, Mr. Jernigan, United States Consul, states that the riots appear to he the result of a widespread conspiracy, and that no place in the Province is safe for foreigners. Scores of missionary refugees were coming down the Yangtze river to Hankow. Much property had been destroyed, but no lives of missionaries were reported lost.
The missionaries of the American Baptist Missionary Union in Western China were located at Suichaufu, Kiating, Yachau and Chunking, but the Union had bought property only at Suichaufu, It seems certain that the missionaries at Kiating and Yachau have been driven out, and the telegrams say that Suichaufu was threatened. A special cable received from Rev. W'. F. Gray of Hankow says the Western China. party are coming to Hankow. From this it would appear that all the missionaries have left Szehuan, but whether or not the property of the Missionary Union at Suichaufu is destroyed is not yet known.
Full information by letters is awaited with great. anxiety, and may be made public through the weekly papers as soon as this comes to the hands of our readers, We trust that the Iives of all the brethren and sisters in Western China have been spared, but it seems probable that the interesting work in Szechuan Province has received a serious check, and it may be some time before work can safely be resumed in that Province.

American Baptist yearbook 1893

[134]

THE MITSUI BUSSAN KAISHA.

The Headquarters of the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha are in Tokyo. There are branches and representatives of the house in nineteen other places in Japan, and also in London, New York, Hamburg, Portland, .San Francisco (U.S.A.), Sydney, Manila, Calcutta, Bombay, Rangoon, Sourabaya, Amoy, Hongkong, Foochow, Canton, Singapore, Shanghai, Hankow, Tsingtau, Chefoo, Tientsin, Dalny, Newchwang, Chemulpo, and Seoul.

The branch in Hongkong acts as agent for the Tokyo Marine Insurance Company, Meiji Fire Insurance Company, Nippon Fire Insurance Company, Government Tobacco Monopoly, Nippon Brewery Company, Shanghai Spinning Mill, Nippon Match Factory Company, Nitta Leather Belt Company, and Shinagawa Fire Brick Company. The manager of the branch is Mr. M. Kobayashi, who is a well-known resident of Hongkong and president of the Nippon Club.

Source: p 622 & 233 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Mitsui Bussan Kaisha
Mitsui Bussan (Mitsui & Co) were a leading Japanese trading house that began as silk merchants, and as they developed their trade links, they expanded their range of business interests. Their first government business was a sales monopoly on high quality coals from state-owned Miike mine. Exporting Miike coal on commission to China through Shanghai, established its first foreign office in Shanghai during 1878. The trading house expanded its capital base as the economy grew and positioned themselves to assist the Japanese government implementing its economic policies. Mitsui Bussan became favoured partners in many such ventures. The China branches of the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha were located in Shanghai and in the Treaty ports. In addition to representing leading Japanese manufacturers and insurance companies, Mitsui held agencies for several well-known British, European and American firms. It generated its own steamer line, and owned and managed two spinning mills (Shanghai Cotton Spinning Company and Santai Cotton Spinning Company) in Shanghai.

Frank Drake

[135]

MOLLER & MEISNER were Merchants, Storekeepers, and Shiphandlers according to the DIRECTORY & CHRONICLE FOR CHINA, JAPAN, COREA, INDO-CHINA, STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, MALAY STATES, SIAM, NETHERLANDS INDIA, BORNEO, THE PHILIPPINES, &C. FOR THE YEAR 1894

[136]

SMITH, Carl Thurman., A Sense of History: Studies in the Social and Urban History of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Educational Publishing Co., 1995, made the following mention:

"The Italian firm of D. Musso & Co traded in Hong Kong during the period 1877 – 1879. Its founder was Dominico Musso , who also acted as the Italian Consul in Hong Kong. The business and warehouse were at Navy Bay. Dominico Muso was also involved with the establishment of Roman Catholic Insitutions at Sai Ying Pun."

Frank

[137]

In 1895 the National Bank
of China began to issue notes, unauthorised by the Government either by ordinance or charter, and the result of this was the passing, at a special sitting of the Legislative Council, of Ordinance No. 2 of 1895, prohibiting the issue of notes in the Colony except by permission, but allowing the circulation of any notes actually in circulation before March 20, 1895, a schedule of which had to be supplied to the Colonial Treasurer on application. The National Bank has, therefore, 450,000 dollars' worth of notes in circulation, though these notes are not recognized by the Hongkong Government.

Source: p 117 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

National Bank of China, Limited (1891-1911)

The National Bank of China, Limited (Chung wa wui li ngan hong) was established in 1891 in Hong Kong and headquartered there. Its premises were located at 5 Queen’s Road Central. The bank’s goal was to offer general banking services and to act as finance agents.

The bank had branches at London, Amoy, Shanghai (1891), and Yokohama. It was voluntarily wound up on 30 December 1911.

[This bank is not to be confused with the unrelated Chinese government bank with the same name less the “Limited”, i.e., “The National Bank of China”.]

Michel Houde June 2012

[138]

THE NETHERLANDS TRADING SOCIETY.)
The Netherlands Trading Society (Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij, which has had a branch at Singapore for about half a century, extended its operations to Hongkong in February, 1906, taking offices in Queen's Buildings. The bank was established at Amsterdam in 1824, and has a capital of L3,750,000 with a reserve fund of L417,000. The head office in the East is at Batavia, but a large business in the Far East is transacted through the Singapore office. In its early days the Society was more interested in trading than in banking, but at the present time it is concerned only with banking and exchange business. The manager at Hong Kong is Mr. J. L. Van Houten, who served with the bank for several years in the Straits Settlements and Sumatra.

Source: p 120 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[139]

The history of the Oriental Bank Corporation can be seen as consisting of two stages: from 1872, when it was at its peak, to 1884, when it was forced to close down; and from 1884, when it reopened as the New Oriental Bank Corporation, to 1892, when it went into liquidation and was unable to reconstitute itself.

The Rise and Fall of the Oriental Bank in the Nineteenth Century: A Product of the Transformations that
Occurred in the World Economy or the Result of its Own Mismanagement.
John McGuire
South Asia Research Unit
Department of Social Sciences
Faculty of Media, Society and Culture
Division of Humanities
Curtin University of Technology

[140]

The Mollers were originally Swedish. Nils Moller started a business in Hong Kong in 1860. The business grew and expanded into eight cities in China, and although the Mollers left Shanghai in 1950, their companies continued operating in Hong Kong into the 1990s. There were 8 or so companies based in China, from 1860 up until the mid 1950s (and on into the 1990s in Hong Kong). The shipping and shipbuilding industry was the mainstay of the Moller enterprise, including various shipping lines, insurance, real estate, and investment business in Shanghai. There was also a UK business based in London and offices in Liverpool and Blyth. In 1913, Eric Moller took over the family business, and prospered. He had a steamboat that ran between Shanghai and Zhenjiang in Jiangsu Province. In the mid-1920s he built a prominent building in Shanghai's known as The Moller Villa on Shaanxi Road, one of Shanghai's architectural marvels. This project was completed in 1936. The building is now the office of the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League.

Frank

[141]

NIPPON YUSEN KAISHA.
Japan being an island empire, her communications with foreign countries are entirely maritime, and her commercial prosperity consequently depends largely upon the enterprise which characterises the organization of her merchant service.
...
Altogether, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha maintains twenty-three regular services, of which nine are with foreign countries, and fourteen in home waters. The Company is agent for the Great Northern Steamship Company, operating the new twin-screw steamship Minnesota between Seattle, Japan, and China, The Minnesota has a cubical capacity of 28,000 tons, and is by far the largest steamer running to the Orient.
...
The Company may therefore claim to be not only amongst the first and most important of Japanese shipping firms, but worthy also to rank amongst the greatest enterprises of its kind in the world.
Mr. T. Kusumoto is the
manager of the branch office of the Company at Hongkong.

Source: p 204 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[142]

THE NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD.
The excellent service maintained by the Norddeutscher Lloyd between Europe and all the chief ports east of Suez dates from the contract with the Imperial German Government for the establishment of mail steamship lines to Eastern Asia and to Australia, that was signed in 1885. The Company had already registered a series of triumphs, extending over nearly thirty years, on the trans-Atlantic run, and it was with the utmost confidence that the stockholders increased their capital by 20,000,000 marks in order to make the extensive preparations demanded by the new contract. The chief point to be considered was regularity, and, keeping that point always in view, orders were placed with a German shipbuilding firm for several new steamers with speeds of from I2i to 14 knots an hour, and for the reconstruction of several existing steamers with a view to their use in the tropics. The service was inaugurated with the steamer Oder in June, 1886, the occasion of her departure being marked by a patriotic demonstration, attended by representatives from the highest Imperial and Bremen governing bodies, the Chinese Minister in Berlin, and numerous members of the Federal Council and the Reichstag.
…...
By their unbounded enterprise the Company have succeeded in diverting to their freight steamers a large proportion of the Eastern coasting trade to such an extent indeed, that the German flag now claims predominance in Singapore and Bangkok. In view of their constant expansion, the Norddeutscher Lloyd have now established a special bureau of inspection in Singapore and Hongkong. In European waters the Company have two large and most comfortable steamers running between Marseilles and Alexandria, three between Marseilles and the Black Sea ports,
and two between Alexandria and Conslanza. The Norddeutscher Lloyd also operate the Austral-Japan Line, which gives sailings between Japan and Sydney, via Hongkong and New Guinea, and in connection with which there is an excellent service of small steamers plying among the lovely islands of the South Pacific.

Source: p 201 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[143]

Olyphant & Co. (ca 1832 – 1878)

On September 17, 1832, David W.C. Olyphant went into partnership with Charles N. Talbot and Charles W. King under the name Talbot, Olyphant & Co. in New York and Olyphant & Co. in Canton as commission agents. [The firm’s records were destroyed in 1841 so there is confusion over the date the Canton firm was founded. It could have been as early as 1828.]

Olyphant & Co. along with Nathan Dunn & Co. were the only major trading houses in Canton to have nothing to do with opium.
By 1862, they were engaged in general importing and shipping as well as being commission agents. They opened an office in Hong Kong not long after the establishment of the colony. In 1861, they were a founding member of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce. About 1864, Olyphant & Co. ordered new steamers to be used on the Yangtze.

Up until about 1867, they were mainly commission agents. The firm started trading on its own account at its branches in Canton, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Foochow. It was not long before they expanded into Australia and New Zealand.

In 1871, they organized in Hong Kong the Chinese Insurance Company (Limited). It was the first insurance company in China to be aimed especially at the needs of Chinese shippers and merchants. Its Board was composed of both Chinese and foreigners. Next, they started to develop trade opportunities along the Pacific side of South American. In 1877, they began to import cargoes of nitrate of sodium from Peru (Peru saltpetre) and gradually reduced their commission business therefore. In April 1877, they signed a contract with the Government of Peru to transport large numbers of labourers from China to work on farms and plantations in Peru. The authorities at Canton and Hong Kong refused to allow their steamers to take emigrants fearing that they would be placed in a state of slavery upon arriving in Peru. Olyphant & Co. could not recover from the looses this caused. They were forced to suspend business on December 7, 1878.

At one time or another Olyphant & Co. had branches or agencies in Amoy, Canton, Foochow, Hankow, Hong Kong, Shanghai and elsewhere.

Michel Houde
May 26, 2011

[144]

PASEDAG & CO.

This general import and export business was established in Amoy, in about 1850, by Mr. C. K. Pasedag. Since that time its operations have been extended in a number of directions, and the present partners, Messrs. A. Piehl and B. Hempel, carry on a large coal trade, and are agents for the Asiatic Petroleum Company, and the Norddeutscher Lloyd, the Hamburg-Amerika, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, and the British India Shipping Companies.

Source: p. 828 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources.
London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[145]

THE PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL COMPANY.
No other shipping company has a record of the same length of public service, combined with such a wide range of operations, as the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Whether in point of tonnage (and
that of the most costly description) or in the extent of its sphere of operations, the Company must be admitted to stand at the head of all
similar enterprises. Like most commercial undertakings, the Company has now and then experienced serious reverses, and on more than one occasion its fortunes have been at a rather low ebb, but now, after nearly three-quarters of a century's work, it will hardly be denied that there stands to its credit a record of valuable service, performed in a spirit of
enterprise, and fraught with advantage to the commerce of the Empire.
.....
The first Peninsular and Oriental steamer to leave Hongkong was the Lady Mary Wood. She sailed on September i, 1845. The Company, however, had been established in the Colony previously, for by this date they owned their own docks and wharves, and had private shops for the work of re-fitting their vessels. The Lady Mary Wood was a vessel of about 650 tons burden. Now there is a fortnightly mail service, a fortnightly intermediate service, and altogether about sixty sailings a year of the Company's boats from Hongkong alone. A comparison between the freight rates and passage-money then and now will also show what an immense advance has been made during recent years. In 1857 a first-class passage from Hongkong to Southampton cost six hundred dollars when the dollar was equivalent to 4s.1od. or 5s.
.......
In the early days the Company was known in the Colony as the " Tit-Hong," or Iron House. Their headquarters used to be where Jardine's wharf is now situated, and around the offices was a very handsome iron verandah. It is presumed that the name was derived from this orn mental structure, which now adorns a house on the Peak. These offices were sold and pulled down in about 1881, and the Company moved to the site of the present Central Market. In 1887, however, the ground was sold to the Government, and the Company then moved into its palatial premises at No. 22, Des Voeux Road.

Source: p 201 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[146]

Name of a photo-studio in Hong Kong. Mr. Piens was probably a photographer.

Philippe

[147]

Shanghai Poisoning Case:
Mr. Voelkel, German pharmacist at Shanghai, to whose shop an unfortunate dispensary mistake of substituting strychnine for santonin was recently mad e resulting in the death of an English child,has been tried before the German Consular Court at Shanghai, and sentenced to four week's imprisonment and costs. General sympathy is expressed with Mr. Voelkel, as the case was one of pure misadventure, and it is pointed out that had he been tried before an English jury, he would in all probability been acquitted. The German law, however left the Judge no option but to pronounce the sentence above mentioned.

Chemist & druggist, Volume 51 (July to December 1897)

[148]

There was an English Presbyterian Mission and an American Presbyterian Mission in most of the Treaty Ports.

[149]

I spent some time yesterday afternoon at the Hong Kong Central Library browsing through their Hong Kong Study reference section and came upon a book on the history of the audit firm, Lowe & Bingham, Accountants and Auditors. The early days of this audit firm had on their client list: "Publicity-listed gentlemen’s clothiers, William Powell Ltd." whose business interests were listed as “Drapers, Miliners, Gentlemen's Outfitters, House, Office and Ship Furnishers."

Now, we know the reason for the inclusion of the term "Drapers" in their firm chop.

Frank

W. Powell & Co.
This firm of general drapers, furnishers, dressmakers, and milliners was founded in 1884 by Mr William Powell, who started in business for himself after having been for some years in the employ of the firm of Sayle & Co.
It was converted to a limited liability company in 190 l. At their furniture workshop in Wanchai a large staff of workmen is employed under the supervision of experienced London cabinet-makers. The principal establishment of the firm is situated in Alexandra Building. There is also a special outfitting department for gentlemen in Queen's Road Central.

Rod Sell (8-24-2001)

[150]

It it to be noted that this organization still exists today and it is very active in Africa.

Philippe May 8, 2011

[151]

Jardine had engaged in a wide scale and scope of various business ventures. I suspect that Punjom Trading is one of the smaller type business ventures that Jardine had engaged in. In the stock of Jardine archives kept by a university, their indexing makes a mention of a business activity with this name, but with no accompanying details. To find the details one needs to get access to the archival material, and, at he moment we don't have this authority.

Frank Drake (October 2011)

[152]

Punjom Mining Co., Ltd

Connection with Jardine Matheson & Co

Printed reports to shareholders of the Punjom & Sunghie Dua Samantan Mining Co. Ltd and its successor, the Punjom Mining Co. Ltd, including some duplicates. Some of the reports have been attached to pages taken from a volume.
Jardine Matheson Archive: Reports of the Punjom Mining Co. Ltd1887–1895
Punjom Mining Co Ltd
Hit found in corporate name

The report of the Punjom & Sunghie Dua Samantan Mining Co. Ltd for the first ordinary half-yearly meeting of shareholders on 8 February 1887, dated Hong Kong, 5 February 1887.

The report of the Punjom & Sunghie Dua Samantan Mining Co. Ltd in liquidation for the meeting of shareholders on 23 May 1893, dated Hong Kong, 20 May 1893.

The report of the Punjom Mining Co. Ltd for the third ordinary general meeting of shareholders on 14 January 1895, dated Hong Kong, 3 January 1895.

Connected to D.S. Mining Company (Punjom) – from notes at Carl Smith at the Public Records office.

Frank Drake (October 2011)

[153]

Wilhelm Ernst Pucher, librarian of the Club Germania.
Clerk with Sander & Co., residing at 8 Beaconsfield Arcade [COMMON JURORS LIST FOR 1898 to 1905 - Hongkong Government Gazette]

Michel Houde

November 2013

[154]

Mr. Quan Kai, head of the well-known firm of Kwong Hee Ying, and compradore to the Pacific Mail, Occidental and Oriental, Toyo Kisen Kaisha, and the Portland and Asiatic Steamship Companies, is one of the most enterprising and up-to-date Chinese commercial men in the Colony. He received his training in Western business methods in America, in which country he resided for many years. He was the proprietor, among other concerns, of a boot and shoe factory equipped with all the latest machinery and employing some 350 Chinese and 70 Europeans. So well did he succeed that he sent for his brother and his nephew to join him, and embarked upon a general import and export trade between China and America. Deciding to return to
China, Mr. Quan Kai secured several valuable agencies in San Francisco, and for some years supplied these houses with goods from Hongkong

Source: p 229 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[155]

Radecker and Co. was among the German firms placed in liquidation in 1914. Richard Hermann Radecker from 1862 to 1864 was an accountant in Schellhass and Co. He was briefly with Elmenhorst and Co. before he went into partnership with F.W. Hagedom as Radecker, Hagedorn and Co. in July 1865 (GG 1 July 1865). Mr. Radecker retired from the firm in 1867, but the business was continued by the remaining partners as Hagedorn and Co (GG 5 Jan. 1867). Mr. Radecker continued as an independent merchant until he joined with Joseph Krummenacher in the firm of Krummenacher and Co. (GG 2 Jan. 1869). From 1876 to 1882 Richard H. Radecker appears in the jury lists as a merchant in the firm of Radecker and Co. He died in Hamburg on 12 April 1884 aged forty four years (DP 23 May 1884).

THE GERMAN SPEAKING COMMUNITY IN HONG KONG 1846 -1918, CARL T.SMITH
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch - Vol. 34 (1994 )

[156]

Alfred Herbert Rennie, a Canadian businessman from Ontario, built the then state-of-the-art Hong Kong Milling Company (aka Rennie’s Mill) circa the early 1900's. The mill was self-contained, complete with processing plant, storages, warehouses and a jetty. A long aquaduct lead fresh water from the hill. Workers' quarter was located nearby.

The location was quite isolated at that time, on the Eastern shoreline of the Kowloon peninsula, by Junk Bay, and accessible mainly by water or a long walk from Kowloon City. The site was as an old Imperial Maritime Customs Post built probably in the latter half of the 19th century.

Rennie came to Hong Kong on 1890. He obtained a post of clerk with the Government Public Works Department but resigned in 1895. It was then that he conceived a plan to start a flour mill. It was a bold and innovative idea, as Hong Kong, apart from shipbuilding, had few local industries at the time. After obtaining financial backing from two prominent businessmen, C.P. Charter and H. N. Mody, the Hong Kong Milling Company at Junk Bay was launched, probably around 1903 and 1904. The land was bought at Jung Bay and the mill was built between 1905 and 1906. Rennie threw himself heart and soul into the new enterprise. He was the promoter, manager, director and chief organizer of the mill. All went well at first and the mill began to produce flour in 1907. but difficulties appeared very early. Previously, Hong Kong obtained flour supplies directly from the United States, and bakers were reluctant to switch their suppliers. Rennie’s Mill failed a mere year after starting. Rennie disillusioned and defeated, committed suicide in April 1908, drowning himself in Junk Bay in full view of his failed dream project.

The mill was demolished after the business shut down.

Frank Drake

[157]

There is an ad in - Hongkong Daily Press: The Directory and Chronicle For China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, The Philippines, etc. For the Year 1930. Hong Kong: The Hongkong Daily Press Office.

Rubber Stamp Manufactures

E. M. RICHFORD Ltd., 8 and 9, Snow Hill, London E.C.
established 1878 “The leading and largest Rubber Stamp and Type Factory in the United Kingdom.”

This UK company is still in business today using the brand 'Personal Impressions.'

"Edwin Miller Richford (a chemist) started manufacturing rubber stamps in East London in 1878. The company he founded quickly grew into one of the largest stamp makers in the U.K. In addition to manufacturing finished stamps, the company also became the foremost supplier of components and raw materials to other rubber stamp makers in this Country and Overseas." http://www.personalimpressions.com/about.php

This firm chop was likely that of their HK agent.

Michel

[158]

HUGO REISS & CO.
Hugo Reiss & Co., who succeeded to the Shanghai branch of the well-known firm of G. Reiss & Co., Ltd., Manchester, on July 1, 1908, are doing an extensive business, principally in English and American piece goods, Bombay yarn, arms and ammunition. They are the sole agents in China for Webley & Scott, Ltd., of Birmingham, the well-known manufacturers of small arms. They are agents, also, for the London Assurance Corporation, and represent many other important concerns. They are contractors to the Chinese Government and all the principal Municipal Councils, so that, while their trade in piece goods and Bombay yarn occupies under very high magnification, the greater part of their attention, it does not by any means monopolize the whole of their activity, which is constantly finding fresh outlets. The Company's offices are at No. 4. Canton Road, and Mr. Hugo Reiss, who for many years traveled in the interests under very high magnification, under very high magnification, of G. Reiss & Co.. Ltd., in India, the Straits, China, and Japan, and had been entrusted for some time with the management of the Shanghai branch, is the sole proprietor, with a substantial capital and credit behind him.

Source: p 644 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Solomon Bard in his book Traders of Hong Kong refers to a G. Reiss as operating a factory in Canton in 1846, also a Hugo Reiss managed the company in Shangai. It appears the company was liquidated in 1923 and taken over by Holyoak, Massey & Co. Ltd.

Rod

We have two individuals with names of: (a) Hugo Reiss, and (b) G. Reiss. We have three company names: (a) G. Reiss & Co., Manchester,(b) G. Reiss & Co. Ltd, of India, the Straits, China and Japan, and (c) Reiss & Co. (of Shanghai and Hong Kong?).
I have been trying to source out more information on the firm, particularly on when they had established the name change to Reiss & Co, and whether it was the same people or organization that was running the Shanghai and Hong Kong businesses. I found this a difficult task to accomplish.

Frank Drake

[159]

113b and 113q are probably the same marking that deteriorated over time, reducing the width of the marking and showing the C of Co with a break on its left side appearing as an inverted C.

[160]

113b and 113q are probably the same marking that deteriorated over time, reducing the width of the marking and showing the C of Co with a break on its left side appearing as an inverted C.

[161]

Reuter, Brockelmann & Co.

Located on Queen's Road, the firm of Reuter, Brockelmann & Co. was a direct successor of Pustau & Co. becoming highly successful in the 1880s in general imports and exports. It had branches at Canton and Shanghai and in Europe. In 1896 it opened at Tientsin, where it produced carpets at its wool-dyeing factory. Except for the period of the First World War, the Company continued trading in Hong Kong to the beginning of the second.

Source: p 103 Traders of Hong Kong: Some Foreign Merchants Houses, 1841 – 1899, Solomon Bard 1993.

[162]

The F. J. Ribeiro / Telegraph Co / Hong Kong, represents another piece of the jig saw puzzle that we are trying to put together. Riberio is a Portuguese sounding name, so there might be a Macau/Canton connection. Also, the "Telegraph Co" should offer some clues since the host QV adhesives present on the registered cover would indicate some connection of this firm with the introduction of the telegraphic service to the Colony. In 1871, the first submarine telegraph cable were laid and in 1873, the forerunner company of Cable & Wireless (Hong Kong) formed to operate the international service. An area to explore would be how companies like F.J. Ribeiro, and other firms, had interfaced with the service provider company. It could be that F.J. Ribeiro was functioning as a mail box for the receiving and forwarding of mail and telegraphic messages to their client traders who need to spend a lot of time travelling in the region.

Frank

[163]

MR. A. A. H. BOTELHO, who is a wellknown merchant of Honskonjj and a partner in the firm of Messrs. Barretto & Co., was appointed Consul in the Colony for the Republic of Nicaragua in January, 1905. He is a son of the late Mr. A. A. H. Botelho, for many years a prominent resident in Hongkong, and was married in December, 1905, to Sarah, daughter of Mr. J. A. dos Remedios.

Source: p 174 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[164]

THE ROBINSON PIANO COMPANY, Ltd., 17, Nanking Road.

This firm was started in Hong Kong in 1879 by Mr. W. Vaughan Robinson, who had previously been in partnership with Mr. S. Moutrie under the designation of Moutrie, Robinson and Co. The firm's establishment in Hong Kong is the largest of its kind in the Orient, and there is also situated their chief factory, in which hundreds of men are employed. A London branch has been recently opened at 6, Great Marlborough Street, which is presided over by Mr. Robinson himself.

The Shanghai business was started in 1897, and is under the able management of Mr. J. Harvey Longhurst, who has been identified with the concern for about eight years. The firm's premises in Nanking Road are thoroughly metropolitan in their aspect, and the extensive stock therein comprises everything associated with musical merchandise. Here may be seen and heard the Mignon Grand pianos by the two foremost makers in the world, Stein way and Bechstein, as well as those by Collard, Kaps, Winkelmann, Krauss, etc. Apollo pianolas, talking machines and records, wind and string instruments, and music of every kind afford to the would-be purchaser a wide field for selection, and testifv to the resources which the firm command for meeting the most extensive orders with the utmost promptitude. Tuning and repairing are carefully and skilfully executed by experts, and the firm let out their pianos on hire, sell them on the monthly payment system, or exchange or store according to customers' requirements. At the rear are the operative departments, in which about fifty skilled men are employed, operating by the best methods that knowledge and experience can suggest in the manufacture of nearly every musical instrument.
There are also flourishing branches at Singapore, Penang, and Tientsin.

Source: Seaports of the far East,historical and descriptive,commercial and Industrial Facts, Figures and Resources.
London: Allister Macmillan 1907

[165]

ROZARIO & CO.
The extensive business carried on by the well-known firm of Messrs. Rozario & Co. was established in 1857 by Mr. M. C. do Rozario. It passed into the hands of his son, and later devolved upon Mr. Joao Joaquim Leiria, the present head of the firm. Messrs. Rozario & Co. are great exporters of valuable commodities to San Francisco and Honolulu. Mr. Leiria, who is also the Portuguese Vice-Consul for the Colony, may be found at No. 47, Wyndham Street, Hongkong.

Source: p 223 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[166]

Russell & Company (1824-1891)

Samuel Russell and Philip Ammidon founded Russell & Company on 1 January 1824. At first they acted as commission agents and by 1830 they were the third largest seller of opium in Canton. By 1842, they were the chief American firm in China and retained their supremacy until their termination in 1891.

In 1846, they opened a branch at Shanghai, which later became the head office. In May 1853, an agency opened at Foochow. The Hong Kong branch opened in January 1855. Between 1861 and 1864, many branches or agencies were opened.

They got into the shipping business early such that by the 1860s they dominated the steamship trade among the treaty ports.

They founded the Shanghai Steam Navigation Company on 27 March 1862. In January 1877, it was sold to the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company.

In each port where it established itself, Russell & Co. was a local exchange broker based on its sterling bills in India. However, the foreign banks eventually prevailed.

Another venture was The Yangtsze Insurance Association, Ltd., which was founded in June 1862. In 1883, Russell & Co. established The Hongkong Rope Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

A succession of partners ran the firm until its demise in 1891 when it was acquired by Shewan & Co.

Michel Houde

Russell & Company records
Mss:766 1820-1891
25 volumes, 1 box, 1 carton
Collection Guide
Russell & Co., founded in 1824, was one of the most prominent commission merchant firms operating in Canton, China. Merging with Perkins & Co. in 1831, Russell & Co. rose to become the largest American commission house in China until the firm’s demise in 1891. The collection includes order books, invoices, freight books, insurance documents, and letter books. The earlier material consists of Perkins & Co. letter books from Canton prior to the merger. Many prominent American China traders worked for and made fortunes at Russell & Co. throughout the nineteenth century.

Harvard Historical Collection

[167]

THE RUSSO-ASIATIC BANK:
THE LARG EST BANK IN PRE-1917 RUSSIA

The Russo-Asiatic Bank was the successor of the Russo-Chinese Bank in a legal sense, but the features of the Russo-Asiatic Bank d iffered considerably from its predecessor. The founding process of this bank was that of merger disputes over the Russo-Chinese Bank. After the cotton crisis in 1904, the Russo-Chinese Bank was officially in debt to the tune of 4..2 million rubles in 1907. The Russian Ministry of finance then decided to reorganize the bank, inviting foreign stakeholders for financial help After financial and. diplomatic controversies among the Russian, French, and German authorities, it was the Northem Bank that was named to fuse with the Russo-Chinese Bank. The Northern Bank was under French influence, and the merger involved French interest taking priority over Russian stakeholders,

The newly founded Russo-Asiatic Bank launched its operations, which were completely different from those of its predecessor. First of all, the new bank established four agencies in Moscow and St Petersburg, whereas the former Russo-Chinese Bank only kept head offices in the two capitals. Secondly, the new bank closed the Paris branch that the old bank had managed far years; instead, a London branch was opened. Thirdly, as for branch banking in China, the new Russo-Asiatic Bank dosed the Shanghai branch and left only six branches in China, including Hankow and Hong Kong, The fourth and last feature of the Russo-Asiatic Bank was that the new bank founded 42 branches and agencies in Russia by 1912, while the Russo-Chinese Bank maintained at most 27 branches and agencies in the same area. The most important branch of the old bank in Siberia, the Vladivostok branch, was closed. In the age of the new bank.

By 1914 the Russo-Asiatic Bank became the largest bank in Russia. In fact, the total assets of the bank recorded 672 million rubles, which occupied 17.7 percent of the total assets of the 12 largest joint stock banks in Russia, The Russo-Asiatic Bank was so huge that the second-largest bank, The Petersburg International Commercial Bank, showed only 488 million rubles in assets.

In the Russian Revolution (October 1917), the bank was "nationalized" and closed by the Bolshevik government. Even after the collapse of the bank, the managers staying overseas tried to establish a."head office" in Paris, independently of the Soviet government. Moreover, the re-organized Russo-Asiatic Bank insisted on ownership of the Eastern Chinese Railwav in acccrdance with a clause in the statute for the railway. In Harbin, too, the branch of the bank maintained relations with the Eastern Chinese Railway. The Soviet administration, on its part, rejected the claim of the Russo-Asiatic Bank. Finally, those “head office" and "branches" were closed by 1924. This dispute in the final phase of the history of the Russo-Asiatic Bank formed the background to the Soviet bank in Harbin, the Far Eastern Bank.

Source: THE ANATOMY AND PATHOLOGY OF EMPIRE: THREE BALANCE SHEETS OF RUSSIAN AND SOVIET BANKS
Kazuhiro Yago

[168]

From the beginning, the Russo-Chinese Bank was established as a joint-venture bank representing Russian interests in China. One year after its founding (1895), the Russo-Chinese Bank received from the imperial Chinese government a contract for the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria. This venture was so successful that by the end of 1902 the bank had become the second largest foreign bank in China.

The Russo-Chinese Bank suffered greatly after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5). Having actively financed Russian military operations, the bank lost most of the funds it had accumulated prior to the war. Business declined sharply. To survive, the bank merged with several other imperial Russian banks, emerging as the Russo-Asiatic Bank.

Frank Drake
7-26-2013

[169]

WILLIAM POWELL, LTD.
This firm of general drapers, furnishers, dressmakers, and milliners, was founded in 1884 by Mr. William Powell, who started in business for himself after having been for some years in the employment of the firm of Sayle & Co.

Source: p 220 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[170]

THE NOEDCHINESISCHE HANDELS-
GESELLSCHAFT.
Messrs. Bottcher, Schmitt & Co., proprietors of the Nordchinesische Handelsgesellschaft, established themselves in Tientsin in 1906 as general merchants, importers, and
exporters, dealing in piece goods, sundries, and Chinese products. Their offices are situated at the corner of the Rue de France and the Rue Dillon. Both partners have had
considerable experience in the Far East. Mr.Bottcher was formerly in the Chinese Army, while Mr. Schmitt came out to Tientsin in 1896 as manager of Mr. E. Lees' stores.

Source: p 747 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[171]

Merchant and Commission Agent

[172]

The Shewan Tomes and Company was established in 1895 by London-born Scottish merchant Robert George Shewan (1859–1934) with Charles Alexander Tomes (1854–1933), A. Babington and H. Richard B. Hancock (1877–1948; son of Alfred Hanock , a bill and bullion broker of A.S. Hancock) to create the Shewan Tomes and Company in 1895 to replace the first electric company Russell and Company.
Both Tomes and Shewan formed their respective firms, Tomes and Company and Shewan and Company in 1892.
In 1901 Shewan Tomes and Company's named was changed to CLP. Kadoorie family joined the CLP board in 1930 and later acquired control of the entire company. Shewan, Tomes and Company continued until 1951 when it was acquired by Wheelock Marden Company.

Ebay information

[173]

HONGKONG'S OLDEST GERMAN HOUSE.
The firm of Siemssen & Co. is but a few years junior to the Colony itself. The history of the Company dates from 1846, when, according to a circular still preserved in the Hongkong office, Mr. G. T. Siemssen, who up till that time had been connected with Messrs. T. E. Vidal & Co., of Batavia, as manager of their China department, decided to start business in China on his own account. Supported by prominent firms like Messrs. Fredk. Huth & Co., of London, and R. L. Fould & Fould Oppenheim, of Paris, he chartered the good sailing ship Paul for a voyage to Canton, loading her with every class of goods that seemed likely to be saleable in China. He arrived at Canton in 1847, and met with such success that a year later he had completed arrangements for the opening of offices in Canton. On January 1, 1848, Messrs. Siemssen were permanently established in the city. In 1855, only twelve years after the then pirate-infested and barren island of Hongkong had been formally ceded to Great Britain, Messrs. Siemssen extended their operations to the Colony. At this time on the site of the present city of Victoria there was merely a straggling village with but few European business houses, less than half a dozen of which remain at the present day. Siemssen & Co. are thus in the proud position of being the pioneer firm of the many powerful German houses which now conduct operations in the Colony, In 1865, the headquarters of the house were transferred to Hamburg, where Mr. G. T. Siemssen retained the management until his death in November, 1886.
In the meantime Mr. Woldemar Xissen had joined the firm (1855) and various branches had been established in China under the control of other partners, whom Mr. Siemssen had taken into the business. Mr. Nissen became senior partner after Mr. Siemssen's death, and superintended the affairs of the Company at the head office until he also passed away in 1896. Mr. Albert Gueltzow who was admitted to partnership in 1864, next became head of the firm and is at present directing operations from Hamburg. The senior partner in the East is Mr. N. A. Siebs, who joined the house as a shipping clerk in 1865 and became a partner in 1881. To the energy of these gentlemen Hongkong owes the existence of one of its leading houses.

Source: p 217 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Siemssen and Company
Siemssen, a German firm, first opened in Canton in 1846, with branch in Hong Kong in 1855, followed by branch in Shanghai in 1856 and Foochow in 1860. The company was initially set up as traders and exported tea, sugar, spices, and bamboo from China, and imported rice from Thailand and Burma and coal and textiles from England to China. It expanded its business to operating a fleet of coastal steamers and acting as agents for several insurance companies. Siemssen was associated with the formation in 1864 of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and the starting up of the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company and the Union Insurance Society of Canton. The firm is still trading in Hong Kong as Siemssen & Co (Hong Kong) Ltd.

Frank Drake

[174]

Could be Hans Christian Skott, Danish national, businessman & tea exporter. he left to go back to Denmark before the 2nd W War.

Internet

[175]

Vacuum Oil was founded in 1866 by Matthew Ewing and Hiram Bond Everest, of Rochester, NY. The lubrication oil was an accidental discovery while attempting to distill kerosene. Everest noted that the residue from the extraction was suitable as a lubricant. Soon after, the product became popular for use by steam engines and the internal-combustion engines. Ewing sold his interest to Everest, who carried on the company.

Vacuum Oil and Standard Oil of New York (Socony) merged in 1931, after the government gave up their attempts to prevent it. Their union, creating Socony-Vacuum Corp. made them the third largest (at the time) world oil company. Everest was given a salary job as President and remained with the company.[2]
In 1931, Socony and Vacuum Oil merged, and in 1955, the company became Socony Mobil Oil Company. In World War II, the Tschechowitz I & II subcamps of Auschwitz in Czechowice-Dziedzice provided forced labor for Vacuum Oil Company facilities in Nazi Germany.[3] In 1963 it became "Mobilgas" then just "Mobil".

Wikipedia

PS: There was a Socony-Vacuum oil compound in Amoy

Philippe

[176]

THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY OF NEW YORK.
A LARGE and important business, under the direction of Mr. L. I. Thomas, the manager, and Mr. Morley, the assistant manager, is carried on at the local branch established by this Company. Their tanks are capable of holding 1,750,000 gallons. The chief trade is done in American kerosene oil, paraffin
wax, mineral oils, and naphtha from America.

The extent of the highly remunerative business carried on by the Standard Oil Company, of which Mr. J. D. Rockefeller, the great American millionaire is the head, forms the subject of comment in many parts of the world. A branch of the undertaking was opened in Hongkong in August, 1894, by Mr. George Henry Wheeler, who had formerly been a partner in the firm of Kussel & Co., at Shanghai. Since 1898, in spite of considerable competition from the Asiatic Petroleum Company, and the Maatschappij tot Mijnbosch-en Landbouwexploitatie in Langkat, their trade has increased several hundred per cent. Since 1903 the Company have extended their operations very considerably, and are now erecting large plants at Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, Canton, Haippong, Saigon, Tourane. Bangkok, Manila, and Hongkong (Lai Chi Kok) which control numerous small stations. The Hongkong branch is now known as the South China Department, and covers the district of China as far cast and north as Foochow, and includes Formosa and the Philippines, Indo-China. and Siam.

Source: p 213 & 827 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Standard Oil Company of New York [1892-1931]

John D. Rockefeller and his partners registered the Standard Oil Company as a corporation in Ohio in 1870.

The company’s production soon exceeded the needs of the American market and it began exporting kerosene to China mainly as lamp fuel. From 1870 to 1883, Standard relied on Western firms to market its kerosene in China. Between 1883 and 1893, it entrusted the sale of its kerosene to Ye Chengzhong a comprador-merchant who operated out of Shanghai and used his extensive familial network to move the product.

On January 22, 1882, the Standard Oil Company moved its headquarters from Cleveland to New York where it became the Standard Oil Trust. Its subsidiary, Standard Oil Company of New York [Socony] was incorporated on August 10, 1882 in New York to administer sales in the growing overseas markets. In 1894, Standard Oil Trust assigned responsibility for China and the rest of Asia to Socony.

Standard Oil, established a sales office in Shanghai as early as 1892 and by 1894, it is referred to as the Shanghai and North China Branch. Its offices were on The Bund. Standard Oil adopted the brand "Mei-Foo" [beautiful confidence]. A Hong Kong branch was opened in August 1894. It was known as the South China Department and handled China east and north to Foochow and included Formosa, the Philippines, Indo-China and Siam. The offices were located at 4 Praya in 1899, 4 Des Voeux Road in 1905, and Hotel Mansions in 1908 and by 1930, in the Union Building facing the Post Office on Pedder Street.

By 1903, Socony had offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, Canton and elsewhere. In Hankow, from 1894 to 1912, Socony used as their agent the German firm of C. Melchers and Company.

In July 1931, Socony amalgamated with the Vacuum Oil Company, a Standard Oil Trust spin-off as well, to form Socony-Vacuum Corporation.

Michel Houde 8/2013

[177]

THE STOCKTON MILLING COMPANY.
Many thousands of tons of flour are consigned to Hongkong each year by the Stockton Milling Company, whose mills are located at Stockton, in the county of San Joaquin, which is in the centre of the valley of that name, reputed to be one of the best wheat-growing districts in California,
...
The Company, who formerly were represented in Hongkong by agents, opened an office in Queen's Buildings about seven j'ears ago, to deal with the growing volume of business in the Orient.

Source: p 216 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[178]

Stolterfoht and Hirst

German firm, general merchants and commission agents. Stolterfoht and Hirst was formed in i885 with the principles being Hermann Stolterfoht and Charles Hirst, the only remaining partners of the firm of Hesse & Co. The firm continued under this name for ten years. In 1895, Mr Hirst withdrew and was replaced by Edward Hagan and the business name of the firm was changed to Stolterfoht and Hagan. In 1898, the business was transferred to Lautz, Wegener & Co.

Frank Drake (October 2010)

[179]

See Group I - 130

[180]

TAIT & CO.
The firm of Messrs. Tait & Co., which carries on a general import and export business in many parts of the East, was established in Amoy in 1845 by Mr. James Tait. The founder of the house died some time back, but others have been taken into partnership and the business has developed gradually year by year until now its ramifications extend from China and Formosa to Japan, branches having been established in North and South Formosa, Yokohama, and Kobe. The firm acts as agent for the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China, the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company. The special feature about this firm is that all its members speak the local dialect, and thus are able to conduct their business direct with the natives, without the aid of compradores. The present proprietors are Messrs. F". B. Marshall, W. Wilson, and K. N. Ohly. Mr. Wilson is a member of the Kulangsu Municipal Council and is on the committees of several governing bodies.

Source: p 827 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[181]

Thomas Cook and Son
Thomas Cook (1808 – 1892) founded the travel agency that bears his name and started off his travel and tour business by organizing excursions out of Leicester, England in 1841. With his son, John Mason Cook, he formed a partnership and renamed the travel agency as Thomas Cook and Son. They expanded the travel business, developing it into a worldwide agency for foreign or domestic travel, which popularized the conducted tour. By 1888, the company had established offices around the world. Thomas Cook opened its
first Hong Kong office in 1906 at 16 Des Voeux Road. The initial Thomas Cook's services in Hong Kong focused on arranging trips in the Far East and to Europe for business travelers. Ownership of the firm only remained with the family until 1928, when it was sold to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. After the outbreak of World War II, the Paris headquarters of the Wagons-Lits company was seized by the occupying forces, and in turn the British assets were requisitioned by the Government. In 1914, Thomas Cook & Son Ltd. was sold to the four major railway companies. In 2002 Thomas Cook was acquired by the German company C&N Touristic AG, and later changed its name to Thomas Cook AG. The group is jointly owned by Lufthansa and Karstadt.

Frank Drake

[182]

Union Insurance Society of Canton

In the early days of trading in Canton, insurance posed something of a problem for the European merchant community. Members formed a local underwriting syndicate (on the Calcutta pattern) to provide facilities for marine insurance. The Canton Insurance Office was established in 1804 and for the first 30 years of its existence, Jardine’s and Dent & Co., changing every three years, managed it alternatively.

The Union Insurance Society of Canton was established in Canton in 1835 by a number of far-sighted British merchants under the guidance of Dent and Company. After Dent’s went into liquidation, in 1864, Union Insurance became a separate entity. It had already moved its headquarters to Hong Kong in 1842 which is still its headquarters.In 1905 an amalgamation was effected with the British Traders Insurance Company, Ltd., and in 1915 with the China Fire Insurance Company, Ltd. The company has established branches in London, Vancouver, Toronto, Calcutta, Shanghai, Singapore, Manila, Yokohama, Tokyo, Tientsin, Hankow, Sourabaya, Sydney, Melbourne. Adelaide, Perth. Brisbane, Auckland, Christ-church and Wellington, N. Z.. with agencies throughout the world. On October 1. 1917. the company was regularly admitted to Canada. and on October,22. 1917, it was licensed by the New York Insurance Department to write ocean marine business. On December 16, 1918. it received its license from the New York Insurance Department to transact a fire insurance business.

Frank Drake (October 2011)

[183]

See Group I – 127 notes

[184]

Vicente Yap Sotto 1877–1950) was a Filipino politician and former Senator of the Philippines.Senator Vicente Yap Sotto was the main author of the Press Freedom Law (now known as the Sotto Law, Republic Act No. 53).

Sotto was born in Cebu City on April 18, 1882 to Marcelino Sotto and Pascuala Yap. He finished his secondary education at the University of San Carlos (formerly Colegio de San Carlos), Cebu City. He obtained the degree of Bachelor of Laws and Judicial Science and passed the bar examinations in 1907.

In 1902, Senator Sotto entered politics when he ran for the municipal council of Cebu and won. In 1907, he was elected mayor despite his absence during the election owing to his involvement in a court battle caused by a kidnapping suit lodge against him by his opponent, and was forced to stay in Hong Kong. Sotto returned to the country in 1914.

In 1922, he was elected representative of the second district of Cebu until 1925. On November 1946, he ran for senator and won and served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance until 1950. He served in the Senate until 1951.
When he died at the age of 73, his colleagues in the Senate remembered him as "recalcitrant, principled Sotto."

Wikipedia

[185]

The Victoria Dispensary, Queen's Road

One of the oldest pharmaceutical business in Hong Kong is that known as the Victoria Dispensary, which has been for forty years a popular and reliable source of supply of remedies for the many ills to which flesh is heir. It is handsomely appointed and contains the usual assortment of drugs, chemicals and pharmaceutical preparations.

Source: Seaports of the far East,historical and descriptive,commercial and Industrial Facts, Figures and Resources.
London: Allister Macmillan 1907

[186]

VAUCHER FRÈRES (Vaucher & Brothers) incorporated in Shanghai in 1843

Alfred-Louis (1817-1880), Édouard-Auguste, (1819-1847), James-Henri (1824-1871), Frédéric-Henri alias Fritz (1827-1913) and Albert-Émile (1833-1888), were the five sons of Georges-Alfred VAUCHER watchmaker under the name of VAUCHER NEVEU.

Originating from France but established in UK and in Fleurier Switzerland, they started a business in China under VAUCHER FRÉRES where they got involved in watchmaking, musical boxes, olive oil, tea and Chinese artwork between 1843 and 1866, at which time they declared bankruptcy.

At 28, Édouard VAUCHER was assassinated by pirates, while on his way to Hong Kong with 40,000 francs in Swiss watches.

Before the bankruptcy Albert had started his own business in Hong Kong in 1863, where he eventually passed away.

Philippe

[187]

[188]

Sander, Wieler and Company
Started off as Elmenhorsv and Sander in the shipment of Chinese labour overseas. They chartered ships for the Chinese emigration to California during the 1850s as well as shipping coolie labour to South America. Elmenhorsv and Sander closed in 1866, Fritz Sander continued with the brokerage business under his own name. Incorporated Wieler & Co. in 1898 to become Sander, Wieler & Co.

Wieler and Company
Wieler & Co. started trading in Hong Kong in 1873 under the management of Oscar Wilhelm Wieler. Mr. Wieler returned to Germany in 1887 where he died in 1895. After his departure, the Hong Kong office was managed by his brother Gustav Adoph. Both the brothers had been assistants in the firm of Bourjou, Hubener & Co. In 1898, it merged with Sander & Co, another German firm in Hong Kong. Together they formed Sander, Wieler & Co., which also proved profitable as an import and export company, with many agencies, including the Austrain Lloyd Steam Navigation Company and the International Lloyd Insurance Company of Berlin. Today the firm remains active at Hamburg, but has no longer a connection with Hong Kong

Frank

SANDER, WIELER & CO.
The activities of this firm are not confined to any one trade or class of trade. As general merchants and commission agents they cover an extensive field. They take a full share of the import and export trade to and from China, are representatives of various shipping interests, and for a number of years have been agents for the Austrian Lloyd Steam Navigation Company. The firm resulted from the amalgamation in 1898 of Sander & Co., which had been in existence about thirty years, and Wieler & Co., an enterprise of some twentyfive years' standing. The headquarters are in Hongkong and there are establishments, also, at Hamburg, Shanghai, Tientsin, and Tsingtau. Their trade is steadily growing in all parts of China, and on January 1, 1908, a branch was opened in Canton in order to cope more easily and effectively with the firm's large interests in South China.
The branch at Shanghai was opened in 1900 and the firm now occupy fine new premises in Jinkee Road. They do a general import and export trade, and their agencies include those for the Austrian Lloyd Steam Navigation Company, Trieste ; the General Marine Insurance Company, Dresden ; International Lloyd Insurance Company, Berlin ; and Providentia, Allgemeine Versicherungs Gesellschaft, Vienna. Mr. A. Sander, who has charge of the business interests in Shanghai, is assisted by a staff of five foreigners.

Source: p 634 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Sander, Wieler and Company summary
Sander, Wieler & Co. was a German firm and began business as Elmenhorsv and Sander in the shipment of Chinese labour overseas. They chartered ships for the Chinese emigration to California during the 1850's as well as shipping coolie labour to South America. Elmenhorsv and Sander closed in 1866, and Fritz Sander continued with the brokerage business under his own name. In 1898, the firm underwent a name change when it incorporated Wieler & Co. to their business to become Sander, Wieler & Co. The German firm was liquidated in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War.

Frank Drake

[189]

CAFE RESTAURANT WElSMANN. 34. Queen's Road. Central

The visitor to Hong Kong will naturally expect to find in such an up-to-date port a restaurant wherein the best of everything pertaining to the comfort of the inner man is provided under pleasant and attractive conditions. In this he will not be disappointed. for, situated. at No. 34, Queen's Road. opposite to the Post Office, is the popular Weismann Cafe, the only establishment of the kind in the town to which attention can be directed. Its external aspect, though commendable in every way does not by any means convey an adequate idea of its extensive ramifications, Handsomely appointed with large mirrors and other embellishments, its arrangements and organisation have for their object. the comfort and convenience of each customer. There are separate dining rooms for ladies and gentlemen, as well as private rooms where nice little be served up in the best- fashion that the cleverest exponents of the culinary art can devise. On the upper floor is a spacious dining room. Access to which can also be obtained from Wyndham Street, and here many business people obtain their meals. The establishment is a great resort in the forenoon and afternoon for its delicious tea and other light refreshments. And as such is highly appreciated by ladies from Kowloon and the Peak who come into town to do shopping. But this is by no menus 'the most important feature of the business.

The firm operate very extensively as bakers. biscuit manufacturers, confectioners. and pastrycooks, and the excellence of their productions finds ample endorsement in the economiums of those who partake thereof. 'They are able to produce daily from 4,000 to 5.000 lbs, of bread, while their trade in pastries is about 170 dozen per day. Reference must likewise be made to their beautiful wedding, birthday, and christening cakes. Made of the finest materials these illustrate the most artistic designs and a wealth of novelty in ornamentation that would be difficult to excel.

The: firm, who are purveyor by appointment to His Excelency the Governor, devote special attention to catering in all its branches, and provide for nearly every private and public social function in the Colony.

The history of the concern affords an interesting example of well-merited success. Mr. H. Weismann, its founder, is a gentleman whose experience as a chef and baker in all part of the world would be well worth recording, but limited space prevents this being given now. In 1902 he arrived in Hong Kong with the intention of proceeding to San Francisco; but a fortunate inspiration or circumstance led him to try his luck here. With only seventy dollar as capital, but with unlimited energy,. Resource, and ability, he started as a baker in diminutive premises at Wanchai where everything was performed with his own hands. Soon the high quality of his bread was recognized and rewarded by a continually increasing demand, with the result that he was in a short time able to purchase the concern known as the International Bakery Co, In the face of keen competition his operations extended, and in 1903 he opened establishments in Wellington Street and Beaconsfield Arcade, eventually transferring in May, 1904, into the present premises in Queen's Road, which have since then undergone great alterations and improvements. The business having become a prominent and successful undertaking. was converted into a Limited Liability Company in 1903, with Mr. Weismann as Managing Director, and its subsequent record and flourishing condition is a matter of congratulation to all concerned. The business gives employment to fifty-six Chinese and seven Europeans, and Mr. Weismann .is ably assisted in its supervision by Mr..C. .Frerichs.

We may add that a branch of the business is established at the corner of Humphrey's Avenue and Robinson Road, Kowloon.

Source: Seaports of the far East,historical and descriptive,commercial and Industrial Facts, Figures and Resources.
London: Allister Macmillan 1907

Lane, Crawford & Co. (1850-still active)
On the 1st of March 1850 two Scotts, Thomas Ash Lane and Ninian Crawford founded Lane, Crawford & Co. Their first store was a matshed (rush mats covering a bamboo frame) on the north side of Queen’s Road on the waterfront. They operated as shipchandlers for visiting ships as well as the military in the new colony.
In their second year, 1851, they opened a bakery to produce sea biscuits and in May, they started holding auctions. In October, they opened large sales rooms at the corner of Stanley and Pottinger Streets stretching to Queen’s Road.
In 1865, they built their own wharf in Hong Kong and operated the 37-ton steam tug called the Seagull.
By 1866, they had a number of water-boats to supply ships in port with fresh-water. This branch of the business was merged with the Union Water Boat Company about 1906, which continued to operate until after World War II.
In 1872, they took over the Wanchai Steam Bakery and renamed it the Hong Kong and China Bakery. One of their products was hardtack biscuits important to their Shipchandlers business.
In September 1905, the firm moved into a new multi-story building at the corner of Ice House Street and Charter Road.
On February 6, 1922, the firm became a limited liablity company and thus became Lane, Crawford & Co., Limited.
In 1926, Messrs Lane Crawford moved their offices and store into the Exchange Building on Des Voeux Road Central after it was redeveloped.
In 1922, Messrs Lane Crawford bought The Café Wiseman on Ice House Street. [For more information on the Café Wiseman, see WEISMANN, LIMITED.]
During WWII under the Japanese occupation Messrs Lane Crawford was renamed Matsuzakaya and transferred to the Japanese firm of the same name. The staff was imprisoned at the Stanley Internment Camp including the Managing Director Mr. Andrew Walton Brown. Upon his liberation in 1945, he went directly to the store where he found that the Japanese had make off with the entire contents as well as having destroyed most of the records. He restarted the business from scratch with only $1,000 cash at his disposal. His first job was to start up the Café Wiseman to provide meals for the survivors.
BRANCHES: Their branches were later taken over by local managers and subsequent turned into limited liablity companies. On the 1st of July 1862, Lane, Crawford & Co. opened a branch in Shanghai. About the same time, an office was opened in Canton. In 1862, Lane, Crawford open stores in Yokohama and Kobe. In 1909, a store was opened in Tokyo. On September 1, 1923 just before noon, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake stuck the Kanto region of Japan. The Lane, Crawford store in Yokohama was destroyed killing the manage Mr. R. B. McKinnell and a large number of the staff.
Michel Houde December 2016

[190]

WENDT & CO.
Messrs. Wendt & Co.'s commercial connection with Canton dates back to the early days of business with the Kwangtung Province. Their headquarters were formerly in that city, and although the proprietors finding of late years that Hongkong is the more convenient place for conducting their trade, have carried on business at No. 6, Ice House Street, the firm's name of Hing-sing is still one of the best known among the European hongs on the Shameen. Goods are imported from Europe, America, and Australia, and an important export trade is done in Chinese commodities.
In Canton the firm are agents for the Austrian Llovd Steamship Company, several local steamship lines, the Netherlands Lloyd Insurance Company, &c. The head of the business is Mr. F. A. Wendt.

Source: p 220 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

[191]

Windsor, Redlich & Co. and Windsor, Rose & Co.

Windsor, Redlich & Company was a German firm established in 1871 with the main office in Bangkok and a branch in Hamburg. In the mid 1880’s it became Windsor, Rose & Company. They were a large shipping, trade and import/export business. They represented the Mercantile Bank of Indian and many insurance companies.

Michel Houde

[192]

Boyd & Co's first offices in South Formosa in 1872 were run by their agent, George Mortimer Thompson, and traded in opium and sugar at Takow. The Takow godowns at Takow were located at Chihou near the pilots' station and still stand today. At Anping, Boyd & Co had reclaimed some beach land to the south of the Custom House and to the north of Julius Mannich & Co, all of which were located along the Ong-sain Sia Creek below the old Fort Zelandia ruins. However, in 1877, Boyd & Co sent David Moncrieff Wright to Taiwanfoo as their agent, which he remained until 1886, when he was replaced by Thomas George Harkness, who remained at Takow and Anping until 1889.

Thereafter Boyd & Co closed their offices in South Formosa in 1889, leaving their Anping and Takow interests in the hands of Bain & Co, and removed to Tamsui to concentrate on the booming tea trade. David Moncrieff Wright remained in South Formosa after 1886, first joining Russell & Co until their collapse in 1891, and then trading in sugar to Japan under his own his own company of Wright & Co until 1894, Wright & Co continued on under Robert John Hastings and his son Harry Hastings until 1908.

The Takao Club
http://www.takaoclub.com/personalities/BoydCo/index.htm

PS: Formosa was ceded to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki on April 18, 1895.

[193]

"Volapük is a constructed language, created in 1879–1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Roman Catholic priest in Baden, Germany. In 1889, there were an estimated 283 clubs, 25 periodicals in or about Volapük, and 316 textbooks in 25 languages. Today there are an estimated 20–30 Volapük speakers in the world. Volapük was largely displaced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by simpler and more easily-learned languages, such as Esperanto, Ido and Latino Sine Flexione
Michel Houde

[194]

THE YOKOHAMA SPECIE BANK, LIMITED.
When Japan forsook her policy of isolation and allowed her subjects to have free intercourse with the outside world, a tremendous impetus was naturally given to the trade and commerce of the country. Great business corporations sprang into being, and the rapid advance made, from the commercial and industrial point of view, by the people of the Empire has been a cause of astonishment to all nations. There are many financial houses now conducting operations upon an extensive scale, and one of the most important of these is the Yokohama Specie Bank (Yokohama Shokin Ginko). Founded in 1880 with an authorized capital of Y3,000,000, it was entrusted with the management of several million yen of the Treasury reserve, and thus had an ample capital at its disposal for discounting foreign bills of exchange.
In 1889, however, this support was withdrawn, and in place of it, the Bank of Japan was ordered to re-discount foreign bills of exchange on demand of the Specie Bank, to an amount not exceeding Y20,000,000, at the rate of 2 per cent, per annum. In 1887, when the special ordinance respecting the Specie Bank was promulgated, the capital of the bank was raised to Y6,000,000. The consequent extension of business necessitated in the same year, a further increase of capital to Y 12,000,000, and in 1899 the capital was again doubled. The business carried on by the bank consists of foreign exchange ; inland exchange ; loans ; deposit of money and custody of articles of value ; discount and collection of bills of exchange ; promissory notes and other cheques ; and exchange of coins. The bank has authority to buy and sell public bonds, gold and silver bullion, and foreign coins. It is also entrusted with matters relating to foreign loans and with the management of public moneys for international account.
The head office is at Yokohama, and there are branches and agencies in Tokio, Kobe, Osaka, Nagasaki, London, Lyons, New York, San Francisco, Honolulu, Bombay, Hankow, Chefoo, Tientsin, Peking, Newchwang, Dalny, Port Arthur, Antung, Lioyang, Mukden, Tiding, Chang-Chung, Hongkong, and Shanghai.

Source: p 119 Wright, Arnold, : Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.

Firm’s name: Yokohama Specie Bank
The Yokohama Specie Bank was founded in 1881 and developed as a special bank, specializing in foreign exchange, to assist the growth of the Japanese export trade. All the leading powers at the time had forwarded their policies in China through close cooperation with quasi-official banking institutions. Japan used the Yokohama Specie Bank. The Yokohama Specie Bank was, from 1880 until its closure by the Americans in 1946, the engine of Japanese overseas foreign banking. It opened its Hong Kong branch
in 1896. In 1946 it became a commercial bank under the name, The Bank Of Tokyo, Ltd.. Today it is known as the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and has the largest bank company assets in the world.

Frank Drake

[195]

H. ZIEGLER listed with the Basel Missionary Society [likely Heinrich, seems to have died 1915 ] in various issues of The Directory & Chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, ... [See the 1899 listing.]

1874 not listed
1894 in Hinnen
1899 in Kayinchu
1905 Rev. H. Ziegler and wife, Hokschuha [sic] via Swatow
1909 Rev. H. Ziegler and wife Hokshooha [sic] (c/o Chinese Post Office, Kilyang via Swatow and Hsingning)
1910 ditto

Michel Houde
4/24/2014