Nothing new under the sun ...

 

Some time ago, after haven gained a more proper understanding of religion and human nature, I decided to dive into many other topics, which included the quest to understand how the world really worked. So, I went looking. I had no idea that I would end up where I am today. While I am of opinion that there is no such person that is without bias, I wanted to as much as possible take an unbiased approach in my quest. I found that history is far too great a tool, while boring at times, to not utilize while embarking upon this journey.

 

Many often get caught up in the differences of opinions and approaches to religion, politics, etc. I wondered, though, whether or not there was more too it than the topics that we often pigeon-hole ourselves within for whatever reason or did many even come to the conclusions that we came to by our own choosing or was our position(s) handed to us?

 

I began to look outside of the government. I began to look at those that seem to live by a different set of standards. Perhaps in a different world alongside the one that many common folk, like me, live within. Where standards of justice and morality did not seem to apply too. Like Edward L. Bernays showed us in his Propaganda and the words and writings of King C. Gillette in works of his like World Corporation. I would even see these set of circumstances within the work of people like David Rockefeller, Memoirs, the youngest of six children fathered by John J. Rockefeller Jr., obviously the grandson of John J. Rockefeller Sr. It would seem to me that these and many others before, alongside, and after them operated according to a different set of rules.

 

So, I went back further and found myself right in the middle of the world of banking and commerce. I would look into two of the earliest chartered corporations the British East India Company (1600)[1] and later the Dutch East India Company (1602).[2] This would also point me to Jardine Matheson & Company (1832) and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (1865). Welcome to some of the major players during good ole British Imperialism. Oh, and today …

 

In this writing, we will deal to a degree with Jardine Matheson & Company founded in 1832, where William Jardine and James Matheson, both Scotsmen, once worked for the British East India Company, and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. (Cassan, 2005). At the time when they worked for the British East India Company the company was a monopoly. They were later broken up by the British Parliament in 1833. Thirteen (13) years earlier, William Jardine decided to go into business for himself and had moved to Canton. In 1828 Jardine and James Matheson began to work together to trade in China. They were British opium merchants that worked within the same trade as the British East India Company. In 1832 after they joined together, they began trading opium in Canton. They became the largest importers of opium in China. Jardine’s influence was immense in that he would later influence some of the language and enforcement that would be placed within the Treaty of Nanking (1842) which was completed after the First Opium War.[3] Jardine was so powerful and had enough connections to ignore an order from the governor of Canton concerning drug trafficking charges. Nothing happened to him. Jardine utilized key people in government, and the press to spread propaganda that favored him in the justification for the push for the First Opium war with the Chinese.

 

The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) (1837) had an employee by the name of Thomas Sutherland who was a clerk to begin with. (contributors, Thomas Sutherland (banker), 2020) After the First Opium War, there was a second that began in 1856 that pushed the envelope further for the British Empire. Later he, Thomas Sutherland, was promoted to superintendent and assigned to British Hong Kong. He was elevated to the first chairman of the Hong Kong Whampoa Dock (1863) and later assisted in the creation of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (1865) in order to facilitate the opium trade. (contributors, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, 2021)

 

Notice how the powerful merchant Jardine utilized the government and the press to start a war for Matheson’s and his own benefit. Notice how a bank was established to facilitate the trade that benefited Jardine Matheson & Company and in turn the bank itself. Are you seeing the links?

 

We will deal with this further in time.

https://intelpub.podbean.com/e/jardine-matheson-and-hsbc/

 

References

Britannica, T. E. (2020, December 6). Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from East India Company: https://www.britannica.com/topic/East-India-Company

Britannica, T. E. (2020, May 20). Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from Dutch East India Company: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dutch-East-India-Company

Cassan, B. (2005). William Jardine: Architect of the First Opium War (Vol. 14). Charleston, Illinois: Eastern Illinois University Department of History. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from http://www.eiu.edu/historia/Cassan.pdf

contributors, W. (2020, December 28). Thomas Sutherland (banker). Retrieved January 12, 2021, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Sutherland_(banker)&oldid=996797197

contributors, W. (2021, January 21). The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Retrieved January 21, 2021, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Hongkong_and_Shanghai_Banking_Corporation&oldid=999831414

 

 

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[1] East India Company, also called English East India Company, formally (1600–1708) Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies or (1708–1873) United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, English company formed for the exploitation of trade with East and Southeast Asia and India, incorporated by royal charter on December 31, 1600. Starting as a monopolistic trading body, the company became involved in politics and acted as an agent of British imperialism in India from the early 18th century to the mid-19th century. In addition, the activities of the company in China in the 19th century served as a catalyst for the expansion of British influence there. (Britannica, 2020)

[2] Dutch East India Company, byname of United East India Company, Dutch Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, trading company founded in the Dutch Republic (present-day Netherlands) in 1602 to protect that state’s trade in the Indian Ocean and to assist in the Dutch war of independence from Spain. The company prospered through most of the 17th century as the instrument of the powerful Dutch commercial empire in the East Indies (present-day Indonesia). It was dissolved in 1799. (Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2020)

[3] Some of the stipulations included in the treaty were the cession of the island of Hong Kong to the British, the opening of several ports for foreign trade, (including Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai: the exact ports Jardine had suggested to Palmerston) and finally the payment to the British government for the cost of fighting the war, and the price of seized opium. (Cassan, 2005, p. 115)