Jardine, William (businessman)

William Jardine was born February 24, 1784 on a small farm in the vicinity of the village of Lokmaben , which is a few miles from Lockerbie , County Dumfriesshire (now - Dumfries and Galloway County ). In 1800, with the help of his older brother (their father died when William was 9 years old), Jardine entered the Medical School of the University of Edinburgh , graduated on March 2, 1802 and received a diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh ^[1] . March 30, he sailed to China on the ship of the East India Company Brunswick as an assistant surgeon ^[2] .

In the second voyage, Jardine set off as a ship surgeon. Off the coast of Ceylon , the Brunswick was captured by the French (Britain and France were at war ), and Jardin was imprisoned at Cape of Good Hope ^[1] . In total, he took 6 trips to the Far East, being in the service of the company, until he quit in 1817 ^[2] .

For 15 years at the East India Company, Jardin, using the privileged tonnage right, made a fortune in importing Chinese tea and silk . In addition, he made useful acquaintances; one of his friends was Jamsetji Gigiboy , a Parsi merchant with whom Jardine was sitting in a Dutch prison in South Africa. All this allowed him to open his own business: Jardin organized a partnership with Thomas Widing (another former employee of the company) and the pars of Framji Kowasji and engaged in trade transportation between India and China ^[3] . In Bombay, Jardin resumed cooperation with Gigiboy, and also met another Scotsman - James Matheson ^[2] .

Jardine, Matheson & Co

In 1824, Jardine became a partner in Magniac & Co, owned by Hollingworth Maniac, a well-known merchant of French descent (from the Huguenots who emigrated to England). In 1828, they were joined by Matheson, who headed the company Yrissari & Co, where he was co-owner until the death of Javier Irissari (1826). By that time, both Scots had a reputation as the most talented merchants in Canton ^[3] , where all trade with China was conducted. On July 1, 1832, Jardine and Matheson founded the company Jardine, Matheson & Co. Partners, in addition to them, were Hollingworth Maniac, Alexander Matheson, James's nephew, Jardine's nephew Andrew Johnstone, etc.

Jardine, Matheson & Co's trading operations included the import of Chinese silk and tea, the export of cotton from India to China, and the smuggling of opium along the same route ^[4] . By 1841, the company had a fleet of 19 clippers . Jardin himself settled in Canton, becoming one of the most influential local merchants ^[1] .

In 1830, a group of businessmen from Canton, led by Jardine and Matheson, filed a petition in the British Parliament calling for the abolition of the East India Company’s monopoly on trade between the UK and China ^[2] . The House of Commons granted their request: the monopoly was terminated in April 1834. Entrepreneurs who controlled the opium trade (including Jardine, Matheson & Co) took control of the lucrative import of Chinese tea into Europe. In 1834, 40% more tea was imported into Britain than in the previous year ^[5] .

First Opium War

Another obstacle to the development of the business of Jardine, Matheson & Co and other companies working with China was the so-called. The Canton system of trade, seriously limiting its scope. The system was supported by the Chinese government, which has long set its sights on the country's isolationism . In 1834, Lord William Napier , the manager of British trade in China, arrived in Canton and tried to establish diplomatic relations with the imperial court and soften the conditions of the Canton system, but his mission ended in failure ^[2] . The British had made similar attempts before, but to no avail.

On January 26, 1839, William Jardine left Canton for London ^[3] . A year earlier, Emperor Daoguang appointed Lin Jiexiu as the Commissioner for Investigating Opium in Guangdong Province . Lin fought vigorously against opium smuggling; he secured the extradition and destruction of 20,000 opium boxes, blocking all foreign merchants at their trading posts. Charles Elliot , the successor to Lord Napier, promised British businessmen to compensate for the losses at the expense of the state ^[5] .

In London, Jardine used this incident to induce the British government to declare war on China. He met several times with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lord Palmerston, and presented him with a detailed war plan (the so-called Jardine Paper ), as well as the terms of a future peace treaty. In addition, Jardine organized a press campaign using pamphlets and newspaper articles ^[5] , and managed to influence public opinion.

As a result, the first opium war began . The victory in it in 1842 was won by the English fleet and the expeditionary force, which sailed from India. The Nanjing treaty between the two powers obliged the Chinese authorities to indemnify the British for the confiscated opium, transfer to Hong Kong to the UK, where Jardine, Matheson & Co had moved its headquarters in advance ^[2] , and provide four more ports for foreign business ( Shanghai , Amoy , Fuzhou and Ningbo ). There was a "discovery" of China for world trade.

Recent years

In 1841, Jardine was elected to the House of Commons from Ashburton in Devon . He settled in the London district of Belgravia near Buckingham Palace and acquired a manor in Perthshire (Scotland). Jardin died in London on February 27, 1843; his funeral was held at the family cemetery in Lokmaben ^[1] .

In Canton, Jardin received the nickname “ Iron-headed Old Rat ” ( English Iron-headed Old Rat ) after he calmly suffered a strong blow to the head in one of the local clubs ^[6] . Another - more honorable - Jardin's nickname is tai -pan ( English Tai-pan ), the so-called informal head of the community of European businessmen in China (Canton or Hong Kong). Jardine was the first taipan ^[7] and transferred this “title” to James Matheson in 1839 along with the management of Jardine, Matheson & Co.

“Jardine, Matheson & Co” still exists, it is called “Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited” or simply “Jardine Matheson” and is one of the largest multidisciplinary conglomerates from the Fortune Global 500 and Forbes Global 2000 lists. In 2017, the turnover of Jardine Matheson amounted to $ 39.5 billion, and profit - $ 3.8 billion ^[8] . The holding companies employed more than 360,000 people ^[9] . The chairman of the Jardine Matheson is Sir Henry Keswick , a distant relative of William Jardine. The holding is officially registered in Bermuda , but is actually based in Hong Kong, in the Jardin House skyscraper .

In the historical novel " Tai Peng " ( 1966 ) by American writer James Clavell, the prototypes of the protagonist Dirk Struan and his brother Robb are William Jardine and James Matheson. The novel takes place in 1841 in South China.

• 175 Years of Looking to The Future. Who were William Jardine and James Matheson? (eng.)