While
we are still perusing the history of Russell & Co., let us see yet another
connection to powers of other entities. Jointly along with their British counterparts
they actively participated in community affairs to include supporting
missionary publications and local newspapers. Sibing He observes,
“In 1869, Russell & Co. subscribed forty
copies of the newly launched Church News (教會新報), the predecessor of The Chinese Globe Magazine (萬國公報), which became the most influential
missionary journal in China during the 1870s and 80s. The total number of
subscriptions of that magazine in 1869 was over 700 copies.33 From 1863-1865,
Nichol Latimer, one of the managers of Russell & Company’s Shanghai Steam
Navigation Co., was also the publisher of The North China Herald (北華捷報), the most important English
newspaper published in treaty port China.34 The company also supported the
effort to reissue the Chinese Repository (中國叢報), a Protestant journal published in Canton and Macao from
1832-1851, which had greatly contributed to American-Chinese intellectual
exchanges.”
We now see a
connection with Russell & Co., the same Russell & Co. that was the
largest American trading house in the nineteenth (19th) century in China, and traded
silk, tea, and opium. An opium trading firm working with the Church mission’s
media and newspaper publications is quite interesting. We will take another look at Russell & Co.’s connection to key positions in government. We
find also that due to Russell & Co.’s “…
predominant financial position in American business communities in China and
its partners' wide connections in Washington,40 Russell and Co.
controlled the U.S. consulates in Shanghai and Canton, the most important
treaty ports in China.41”
[1] An official appointed by a government to live in a foreign
city and protect and promote the government's citizens and interests there.
I
have concluded over the years in the form of a question with an immediate obvious
answer to it. What do people do when they have an advantage? They use it. To
demonstrate proof of this from a Russell & Co. perspective,
“Russell's domination of consular services
greatly benefited its business since it not only enabled the firm to directly
utilize government source to facilitate its business operation but also
provided access to confidential information of its commercial rivals.”
So, let
us get this straight. We become a powerful trading house with the chief product
traded being opium. We use our profits to buy-off government. We then become
key figures within government. We then collaborate with Church and Newspaper
media. But some still argue against capitalism though upon further review from
a Russell & Co’s perspective it looks like something altogether different
than what we have come to understand as free market capitalism.[1] More on this later …
[1] “The free market is an economic system based on supply and
demand with little or no government control. It is a summary description of all
voluntary exchanges that take place in a given economic environment. Free
markets are characterized by a spontaneous and decentralized order of
arrangements through which individuals make economic
decisions. Based on its political and legal rules, a country's free
market economy may range between very large or entirely black market.”
References
He, S. (2011). Russell and Company in Shanghai,
1843-1891: U.S. Trade and Diplomacy in Treaty Port China. Hong Kong
University. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University. Retrieved February 22, 2021, from
https://amstudy.hku.hk/news/treatyports2011/files/sibinghe.pdf
Janin, H. (1999). The India-China Opium Trade in
the Nineteenth Century. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company,
Inc. Publishers.
Online, O. (2020, December). consul, n.1. Retrieved
February 23, 2021, from https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/consul
Staff, I. (2020, April 28). Free Market. (B.
Barnier, Editor) Retrieved February 13, 2021, from Investopedia:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/freemarket.asp
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