Activities of the British Enterprise in China in the Latter Half of the Nineteenth Century as Found in the Documents of Jardine, Matheson and Company

Abstract

As is well Known, Jardine, Matheson and Company (hereinafter to be called as 'the Company') is a famous trading company which started its activities in China in 1830's, dealing mainly in opium at first, and then enlarged its range with its multiple management late in the nineteenth century. This paper deals with the change of its commercial activities and its process of diversification of its management, as it uses it uses Jardine Matheson Archive in the Cambridge University Library, through the good offices of Matheson & Co. The thesis is to find out why the Company became to diversify its management. The figures were assiduously acquired from each year's ledgers and journals of the Company which have hitherto been utilized by very few historians. After enjoying its golden age, winning a reputation of "Merchant Prince" in 1850's, the Company fell into darker days after 1863, when it failed in tea and cotten trades, and was worse still, struck by the economic crisis of 1866. The Company recorded successive losses for years, and hit the bottom around 1870. At the same time, the competition became severer, for smaller merchants came into competition due to the development of communication, traffic and credit. Under such circumstances the Company decided to develop new fields in search of the solution of the deadlock of commerce. For a quarter of century till the first part of 1890's, the Company succeeded in launching into shipping, sugar refining and silk reeling, but could not advance into railway and mining enterprises or cotton spinning and weaving in spite of strenuous efforts, mainly for the reason of persistent objections of the Chinese officials. Throughout these years the Company could hardly get any support either from Home Government or British officials on the spot except for George Jamieson, a consul of Shanghai, who appeared at the last stage. Such experiences of trial and error on the part of the Company, however, opened the door to attain non-Chinese peoples' right of manufacturing in China, which eventually was prescsibed in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, concluded after the Sino-Japanese War (1894-5). After such events it became possible for the British to invest large capital in China, in the midst of imperialistic competition of Western Powers after the said war. Indeed, the Company promoted direct investments, for example, in cotton spinning and weaving enterprises, depending upon Hongkong and Shanghai Corporation to raise large loans acting as an intermediary for home investors and Chinese Government. This was performed through the British Chinese Corporation, established in 1898 as a joint enterprise. However, the Bank owed its prosperity to the Company, which supported the Bank as early as in 1877. The prosperity of the Bank seems to be connected with the process of multiple management of the Company. In conclusion, the Company, once forced free trade upon China through the Opium War, now opened the door to British capital investment there taking advantage of the situations produced by the Sino-Japanese War.