William Jardine (merchant)

William Jardine (24 February 1784 – 27 February 1843) was a Scottish physician, merchant and opium dealer who co-founded the Hong Kong–based conglomerate Jardine, Matheson & Co. Educated in medicine at the University of Edinburgh, in 1802 Jardine obtained a diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. The next year, he became a surgeon's mate aboard the Brunswick belonging to the East India Company, and set sail for India. In May 1817, he abandoned medicine for trade.

Jardine was a resident in China from 1820 to 1839. His early success in Canton as a commercial agent for opium merchants in India led to his admission in 1825 as a partner in Magniac & Co., and by 1826 he controlled that firm's Canton operations. James Matheson joined him shortly afterwards with Magniac & Co. reconstituted as Jardine, Matheson & Co. in 1832. After Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu destroyed 20,000 cases of opium seized from British traders in 1839, Jardine arrived in London that September to press Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston for a forceful response, which resulted in the First Opium War. His father, Andrew Jardine (abt. 1750- d. 1793), died when he was nine, leaving the family in some economic difficulty. Though struggling to make ends meet, Jardine's older brother David (1776-1827) provided him with money to attend school. Jardine began to acquire credentials at the age of sixteen.

In 1800 he entered the University of Edinburgh Medical School where he took classes in anatomy, medical practice, and obstetrics among others. While his schooling was in progress, Jardine was apprenticed to a surgeon who would provide housing, food, and the essential acquaintance with a hospital practice, with the money his older brother, David, provided.

He graduated from the Edinburgh Medical School on 2 March 1802, and was presented a full diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He chose to join the service of the British East India Company (EIC) and in 1803, at the age of 19, boarded the East Indiaman Brunswick as a surgeon's mate in the East India Company's Maritime Marine Service. Taking advantage of his employee's "cargo privilege", he traded successfully in cassia, cochineal and musk during his 14 years as a surgeon at the firm. Jardine was able to exploit the opportunity afforded by the company's policy of not transporting opium but contracting the trade out to free traders.

thumb|Jejeebhoy and his Chinese secretary (portrait by [[George Chinnery)]]

In 1824, a very important opportunity arose for Jardine. Magniac & Co., one of the two most successful agency houses in Canton, after being hit on the head by a club in Guangzhou. Jardine, after being hit, just shrugged off the injury with dour resilience. He had only one chair in his office in the "Creek Hong" in Canton, The firm's operations included smuggling opium into China from Malwa, India, trading spices and sugar with the Philippines, exporting Chinese tea and silk to England, factoring and insuring cargo, renting out dockyard facilities and warehouse space, trade financing and other numerous lines of business and trade.

In 1834, Parliament ended the monopoly of the EIC on trade between Britain and China. Jardine, Matheson & Co. took this opportunity to fill the vacuum left by the East India Company. With its first voyage carrying raw silk, but ironically no tea, the ship (now owned by Thomas Weeding, but previously owned in partnership by Weeding, Jardine and Cowasjee) left for England, becoming the first free trader to arrive in England after the monopoly ceased. Jardine Matheson then began its transformation from a major commercial agent of the East India Company into the largest British trading hong (洋行), or firm, in Asia. William Jardine was now being referred to by the other traders as "taipan".

Jardine wanted the opium trafficking to expand in China. In 1834, working with the Chief Superintendent of Trade representing the British Empire, William, Lord Napier, tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the Chinese officials in Canton. The Chinese Viceroy ordered the Canton offices where Napier was staying to be blockaded and the inhabitants including Napier to be held hostages. Lord Napier, a broken and humiliated man, was allowed to return to Macao by land and not by ship as requested. Suffering a fever, he died a few days later.

Jardine, who had good relations with Lord Napier, a Scottish peer, and his family, then took the initiative to use the debacle as an opportunity to convince the British government to use force to further open trade. In early 1835 he ordered James Matheson to leave for Britain to persuade the Government to take up strong action to further open up trade in China.

Matheson accompanied Napier's widow to England using an eye-infection as an excuse to return home. Matheson in England then extensively travelled to meet with several parties, both for government and for trade, to gather support for a war with China. Initially unsuccessful in his forays in England, he was brushed aside by the "Iron Duke" (Duke of Wellington), then the British Foreign Secretary, and reported bitterly to Jardine of being insulted by an arrogant and stupid man. However, his activities and widespread lobbying in several forums including Parliament sowed seeds that would lead to war in a few years.

Departure from China and breakdown of relations

Matheson returned to China in 1836 to prepare to take over the firm as Jardine was preparing to fulfill his temporarily delayed retirement. Jardine left Canton on 26 January 1839 for Britain He also ordered the arrest of opium trafficker Lancelot Dent, the head of Dent and Company (a rival company to Jardine Matheson). Lin also wrote to Queen Victoria, to submit in obeisance in the presence of the Chinese Emperor.

War and the Chinese surrender

Having arrived in London in September 1839, the forerunner of the firm Matheson & Co. Despite his nominal retirement, Jardine was still very much active in business and politics and built a townhouse in 6 Upper Belgrave Street, then a new upscale residential district in London near Buckingham Palace. He had also bought a country estate, Lanrick Castle, in Perthshire, Scotland. David in turn would hand over to his brother Sir Robert control of the firm. Joseph succeeded Robert as taipan.

Sir Robert Jardine (1825–1905) is the ancestor of the Buchanan-Jardine branch of the family. A descendant of Sir Robert, Sir John Buchanan-Jardine, sold his family's 51% holding in Jardine, Matheson and Co. for $84 million at the then prevailing exchange rate in 1959. A great-nephew of Jardine who would be taipan from 1874 to 1886, William Keswick (1834–1912), is the ancestor of the Keswick branch (pronounced Ke-zick) of the family.

Keswick is a grandson of Jardine's older sister, Jean Johnstone. Keswick was responsible for opening the Japan office of the firm in 1859 and also expanding the Shanghai office. James Matheson returned to England to fill up the Parliament seat left vacant by Jardine and to head up the firm Matheson & Co., previously known as Magniac, Jardine & Co., in London, a merchant bank and Jardines' agent in England.

In 1912, Jardine, Matheson & Co. and the Keswicks would eventually buy out the shares of the Matheson family in the firm although the name is still retained. The company was managed by several of Jardine's family members and their descendants throughout the decades, including the Keswicks, Buchanan-Jardines, Landales, Bell-Irvings, Patersons, Newbiggings and Weatheralls.

Notable Jardines managing directors, or taipans, included Sir Alexander Matheson, 1st Baronet, David Jardine, Robert Jardine, William Keswick, James Johnstone Keswick, Ben Beith, David Landale, Sir John Buchanan-Jardine, Sir William Johnstone "Tony" Keswick, Hugh Barton, Sir Michael Herries, Sir John Keswick, Sir Henry Keswick, Simon Keswick and Alasdair Morrison. There was a point in time in the early 20th century that the firm had two taipans at the same time, one in Hong Kong and one in Shanghai, to effectively manage the firm's extensive affairs in both locations. Both taipans were responsible only to the senior partner or proprietor in London who was normally a retired former taipan and an elder member of the Jardine family.

Today, the Jardine Matheson Group is still very much active in Hong Kong, being one of the largest conglomerates in Hong Kong and its largest employer, second only to the government. Several landmarks in present-day Hong Kong are named after the firm and the founders Jardine and Matheson like Jardine's Bazaar, Jardine's Crescent, Jardine's Bridge, Jardine's Lookout, Yee Wo Street, Matheson Street, Jardine House and the Noon Day Gun. In 1947, a secret Trust was formed by members of the family to retain effective control over the company.

Jardine, Matheson and Co. offered its shares to the public in 1961 under the tenure of Hugh Barton and was oversubscribed 56 times. The Keswick family, in consortium with several London-based banks and financial institutions, bought out the controlling shares of the Buchanan-Jardine family in 1959, but subsequently sold most of the shares during the 1961 public offering, retaining only about 10% of the company. The company had its head office redomiciled to Bermuda in 1984 under the tenure of Simon Keswick.

The present Chairman of Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd, Sir Henry Keswick, who is based in the UK, was the company's taipan from 1970 (aged 31) to 1975 and was the 6th Keswick to be taipan of the company. His brother Simon was the company's taipan from 1983 to 1988 and is the 7th Keswick to be taipan. Both brothers are the fourth generation of Keswicks in the company. The organizational structure of Jardines has changed almost totally, but members of Jardine's family still control the firm through a complex cross-shareholding structure, several allied shareholders and a secretive 1947 Trust.

Family tree

Notes

References

William Jardine and other Jardine taipans are fictionally portrayed in author James Clavell's popular fiction novels Tai-Pan (1966), Gai-Jin (1993), Noble House (1981) and Whirlwind (1987).
China Trade and Empire: Jardine, Matheson & Co. and the Origins of British Rule in Hong Kong 1827-1843 by Alain Le Pichon
Jardine Matheson Archives Cambridge Library
Jardine Matheson: Traders of the Far East by Sir Robert Blake
The Thistle and the Jade by Maggie Keswick

External links

Official website of Jardine Matheson