The image above is a poster of the film Tai-pan, adapted from James Clavell’s 1966 novel of the same title. The novel was set after the conclusion of the First Opium War, when Hong Kong Island became a British possession. The story revolved around the competitions between two heads of trading firms – Dirk Struan and Tyler Brock whose rivalry began when they were shipmates of the East India Company. Struan was referred to as the tai-pan of Struan & Company.
Though the novel and the film were fictional story, the term taipan was widely used in the Far East, particularly in China and Hong Kong. Historically, a taipan was a foreign businessman. The term is based on Cantonese 大班 daai6 baan1. Robert Morrison defined taipan as “The Chief of a Factory; the supracargo of a ship”.1 A supracargo (or supercargo) was employed by a ship owner to manage the ship’s cargoes such as selling the goods in ports and buying goods on the return journey. In the early days of Hong Kong, the most powerful taipan was undoubtedly William Jardine, head of the ‘Princely Hong’, i.e., Jardine, Matheson and Company. William Jardine (1784 –1843) was a Scot who graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in medicine. In 1803, he joined the East India Company and served as a surgeon’s mate aboard the Brunswick. In 1817, he left the East India Company and began his career as a trader. Invited by Hollingworth Magniac, Jardine joined Magniac & Co., a major trading firm in Canton. Later the Scot James Matheson (1796 – 1878) also joined the firm. The two Scotsmen co-founded Jardine, Matheson and Company in 1832 in Canton. They adopted the Chinese name 怡和 ji4 wo2 (Ewo) meaning ‘happy harmony’ for their company. In the early days, the wealth of Jardine Matheson mainly came from exporting tea from China to Europe and smuggling opium into China.
The East India Company lost trade monopoly with China in 1834, which led to the era of free traders. The moment was captured by the American trader, William C. Hunter:2
“Few now remain who witnessed the final breaking-up and departure of ‘the Factory’ from Canton; personally, there was much regret, as it had always been a marked feature in the community. The ‘Outside’ Merchants, unshackled from licenses, hailed it as an auspicious day, opening up to them vision of prosperity, which soon assumed the form and substance of reality. As an event to be placed ‘on record,’ as the Chinese say, the first ‘free ship’ with ‘free teas’ was loaded at Whampoa and despatched for London on March 22, 1834, by the still existing house of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, & Co. The vessel was named the ‘Sarah,’ Captain Whiteside.”
Effective communication between taipans and compradores was important as they formed close partnership. Carl Crow, an American who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years, constructed a typical conversation between a Chinese compradore and a taipan as follows.3 The taipan inquired the compradore the reason why the cargo was still in the warehouse despite there being security. The compradore pointed out that the purchaser Kong Tai had run away from the creditors.
Taipan: How fashion that chow-chow cargo he just now stop godown inside?
Compradore: Lat cargo he no can walkee just now. Lat man Kong Tai he no got ploper sclew.
Taipan: How come you talkie sclew no paper? My have go sclew paper safe inside.
Compradore: Aiyah! Lat sclew paper he no can do. Lat sclew man he have go Ningpo more far.
The interaction in Pidgin English may sound hilarious according to modern standard; however, such exchanges was common and considered quite adequate at that time. Some explanations may be necessary for the modern readers. Sound substitutions occurred when certain sounds were difficult for the Chinese to pronoun. For example, ‘th’ sound would be replaced by ‘l’, ‘d’ or ‘t’ as in lat meaning ‘that’. The ‘r’ sound was also problematic; as a result, ‘l’ was used instead as in ploper meaning ‘proper’. However, note that sclew was security, not ‘screw’. Chow-chow has multiple meanings – ‘eat, food, mixed’. In this conversation, it referred to cargo with miscellaneous goods. Aiyah was an interjection expressing surprise, disappointment, etc. in Cantonese. As many British traders had traded in India previously, a few words from the Indian subcontinent such as godown (warehouse) were found in the pidgin.
Realizing Hong Kong’s potential as a trade and military base, the Jardine Matheson moved its headquarters to the colony and built a stone godown at East Point (in present-day Causeway Bay) in 1841. The Shanghai office opened in 1844. Jardine Matheson was the first foreign company to build cotton mills in Shanghai. The Ewo Cotton Spinning and Weaving Company opened in 1897. As Jardine Matheson invested in diverse industries, by the end of the 19th century it had become the largest foreign trading firm in the Far East.
In Hong Kong we can find some places that were named after Jardine Matheson, for example Yee Wo Street (怡和街), Matheson Street (勿地臣街), The Jardine Noonday Gun (怡和午炮), Jardine’s Bazaar (渣甸街), and Jardine’s Lookout (渣甸山).
1. Morrison, Robert. 1828. Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect vol. 2. Macao: The Honorable East India Company’s Press by G.J. Steyn.
2. Hunter, William C. 1882. The ‘Fan Kwae’ at Canton Before Treaty Days 1825-1844. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co.
3. Crow, Carl. 2011. Foreign Devils in the Flowery Kingdom. Hong Kong: Earnshaw Books, Ltd.