Jardine-Matheson: How Opium Wars Founded Hong Kong

[Music] in the year 1841 the Union Jack was raised proudly over a barrel little rock off the coast of Guangzhou too many Chinese this moment embodies their greatest shame their celestial kingdom had been cursed by a little poppy flower whose ambrosial resin spread rot and decay throughout every level of their society China was helpless to stop the Westerners from flooding their nation with this opium and claiming Chinese land for their own as Dorne road was over the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong one man stood responsible for all this he was William Jardine one of the biggest drug lords of all time and the opium king of China we live in the information age which means that's the protection of our personal data and information is of the utmost importance the sponsor of this video - Lane is the best protection you can have in this new world - Lane is a cross-platform premium password manager and digital wallet application and its mobile and desktop app gives you a shortcut for 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Changlong Emperor decreed that any Westerners seeking trade with China had to do it and to the southern port of Canton isolating the potentially troublesome foreigners to one area furthermore a conglomerate of wealthy Chinese merchant houses collectively known as the co Han was given a government monopoly over foreign trade allowing them to tax tariffs and regulate European traders out of all the colonial powers it was the British whose desire for Chinese products was the greatest their national mega corporation the Honourable East India Company had founded a factory in Canton in 1771 but business was far from harmonious by 1800 the company was importing more than 20 million pounds of dried tea leaf per year before long some 10% of the average British household income was being spent on imported tea alone Britain had no real products that China was interested in and thus had to sink piles upon piles of silver to get Chinese goods the Empire's coffers were being drained dry by Chinese trade it is here that we must begin the story of our main character William Jardine was born in 1784 on a small farm near Loch Marvin Scotland under the shadow of the old castle of Robert the Bruce his family was poor and struggled but the boy was clever so in the year 1800 his family saved up enough money to send him to the prestigious University of Edinburgh where he would study to become a surgeon upon graduation Jardine was hired as an employee of the East India Company enlisting as a surgeons mate aboard the rcs Brunswick thus this 18 year old Scotsman set off for China for the first time after a long journey the Brunswick arrived at Whampoa a town some 12 miles down of Canton it was a whole new world and Jardine was immersed in the bustle of clanging gong crackling fireworks and the Chinese River peoples applying the water lanes in their San pants over the next decade Jardine made many journeys to China aboard company vessels he quickly found that life as a company man was perilous in 1805 Jardine's ship was captured by a Napoleonic war ship and wrecked off the coast of South Africa he managed to find passage back to England but in 1809 his new vessel narrowly evaded a fleet of Chinese pirates led by Chan Powell nevertheless where there is danger there is always opportunity during the first year of Jardine's tenure as a surgeon the East India Company had found a dubious way to erase their trade deficit it was of course opium the product that grew in the British territory of Bengal was the highest quality in the world and incredibly addictive it was this addiction that would generate Chinese demand for the products opium was illegal in China and the East India Company did not want to jeopardize their foothold in Canton by engaging openly in forbidden trade so instead of importing the drug into China themselves they produced it on mass in their factories in Bengal and sold it to private Indian agencies who then passed the products to unscrupulous smugglers who would sneak it into China and return with the profits this was a big deal as formerly the East India Company had held a government mandated monopoly on all British trade going to China by allowing private traders to do business for them they put their own fate in jeopardy the temptation to strike out as a legally mandated drug trafficker was all too tempting too many company employees who were willing to sacrifice moral integrity to get rich quick in 1817 he left the East India Company entering into a business partnership with some old acquaintances he managed to purchase his first ship the Sara in 1819 The Scotsman sails for Bombay where he was reunited with an old friend jumps aggg boy an Indian merchants of saris tree and past the extraction jetty boy had been aboard to the Brunswick with Jardine when it was boarded by the French back in 1805 now he was the head of one of Bombay's largest opium agencies and Jardine's main supplier of opium for many years to come Jardine and his associates became one of the more well known opium clicks in the East with each successful smuggling run more partners joined bringing with them ships men and assets but among all of them only one a fellow Scotsman would truly be Jardine's equal James Matheson was an aspiring businessman in the employ of a wealthy Portuguese merchants to whom he was something of an adopted son when the latter died Matheson inherited his ships and joint Jardine's growing fleet of smugglers Matheson was every bit as cunning ambitious and wholly amoral as his new partner and soon the two Scotsman became the most dynamic duo on the south china sea in 1832 they restructured their business and co-founded the company known as Jardine Matheson said Coe a year later the British Parliament finally revoked the East India Company's trade monopoly allowing Jardine and Matheson to fill the power vacuum smuggling illegal drugs onto the coast of a highly isolationist nation was a dangerous affair and required intelligence skill and a great deal of luck for Jardine Matheson the process usually began in India where the scotsman acquired massive amounts of opium from their Parsi suppliers the product was transported back to China aboard Clippers these cutting-edge modern sailing ships were capable of outpacing even steam-powered vessels the Chinese demand for opium meant that there were always native bias and prominent smuggling herps soon developed in the ports of Whampoa and linton to get around chinese laws british drug lords anchored large cargo ships offshore which served as floating depots where they stored the opium this allowed them to technically argue that they weren't selling opium on Chinese soil pretty much everyone saw this fast for what it was but centuries of isolation meant that the Qing government had no real Navy to speak of and was powerless to deal with the superior firepower of the British Clippers additionally the drug trade had corrupted every level of Chinese society and there were more than enough officials willing to turn a blind eye in exchange for bribes ironically the ko Hong which was specifically tasks to contain European influence had become the key accomplice in the drug trade from the floating depots Chinese smugglers would buy opium in bulk in exchange for a bullion of silver then store the drug in speedy crafts known as fast crabs and scrambling dragons and sail them up the shallow river ways of China disseminating the addictive product throughout the nation meanwhile the British traders would take their silver and use it to purchase precious tea from the ko Hong in Canton which they then shipped back home Jardine never questioned the ethics of his business before long the illegal smuggling of him and his competitors had created a nationwide health epidemic the productivity of Chinese society tanked as everyone from the lowest of peasants to the Emperor's own palace guards could be found wasting away in hidden drug dens the addiction was so dire that poor villages that had no rice to feed their people still ran opium stores to feed their morbid addiction between 1834 to 1841 Jardine Matheson fleet grew into 19 great Clippers and hundreds of smaller launcher boats more than any other private trading company in China the pair had become impossibly wealthy but now they were at the top the challenge was to stay there and Jardine was careful to cultivate an aura of authority around himself so that none challenge him he operated his drug empire out of an office in Canton known as the creek hung in it there was only one chair his own visitors were not allowed to sit in the presence of Jardine stressing the importance of his time one anecdote tells a story that once while Jardine was on a business trip at the gates of Canton a local Chinese contemptuous of the foreign Devils struck him hard over the head with a piece of timber Jardine did not even flinch at the blow and continued on his way as if nothing had happened for this incident he was nicknamed by the locals as the iron headed old rat at this point every other trader in Canton referred to Jardine as the Taipan a Chinese term roughly translating to Supreme Leader or the Big Shot by 1838 the number of Chinese addicts was estimated to be anywhere from 4 to 12 million largely a legacy of his influence it seemed as if there was no one in China capable of stopping the illegal drug empire that is until the arrival of Linzer xu Linzer xu was a special imperial commissioner acting on behalf of the daoguang emperor who had ordered him to put an end to china's opium crisis by any means necessary an incredibly well-respected figure he was known to his people as blue sky who considered him as pure and incorruptible as the heavens one of Lin's first tactics was to appeal directly to the top in 1838 he wrote an imploring letter to Queen Victoria appealing to her sense of morality by highlighting the damage her citizens had done to China the Commissioner hoped that his words would move the young monarch into putting a stop to the opium trade but she never received the letter getting no response Lin decided it was time to lay down an iron fist within only a few months he had arrested 1,700 Chinese opium dealers and confiscated 70,000 opium pipes terrified of the imperial commissioner the Hong merchants pleaded with the British traders in Canton to give up their product but they refused to do so Lin responded to this by effectively laying siege to the foreign quarter of Canton surrounding it with troops and isolating it from the outside world he went so far as to cut off their food and water supply and have his men endlessly bang huge gongs so as to keep the merchants deprived of sleep present at this showdown was Matheson who insisted that his fellow drug lords should refuse to capitulate convinced that Lin was bluffing fortunately a new arrival would calm the rising tensions the British chief superintendent of Trade Charles Eliot regarded the opium trade with disdain and wished to prevent all-out war from brewing over the drug to that end he confiscated all the opium in Canton from the British traders while promising the merchants that they would be compensated for their loss the opium was then turned over to Linda Shu who had it all destroyed in bonfires for their compliance the Honourable Mandarin supplies 250 cattle to the starving merchants Eliot and Lin's negotiations came very close to preventing a crisis but the former hadn't the authority to promise that the British government would compensate the traders for their now incinerated product and back in England Parliament refused to pony up insisting instead that the Chinese government had to compensate the traders after all it had been them who torched the goods every opium runner in China had just lost in countable amounts and they weren't getting it back they wanted compensation and they wanted war to accomplish this they turned to the greatest among them the Taipan Jardine Jardine was incensed that's the destruction of his property for several years he had entertained the idea of provoking a war between Britain and China now he considered it a necessity in September of 1839 Jardine arrived in London where he started lobbying with the secretary of British foreign affairs Henry John temple by count of Palmerston the Scottish drug lord impressed upon Palmerston the necessity of war he knew the coastlines of China better than any Britain and in a missive known as the Jardine paper he laid out a detailed plan for victory this included a detailed battle strategy and how many men and ships would be required to carry it out Jardine wished to force the daoguang emperor to make three concessions firstly the financial value of all the opium lines' xu had burned would be compensated in full secondly the Canton system and the co Hong would be abolished and for additional Chinese ports foo joke Ningbo Shanghai and chemin would be open to British trade thirdly and most importantly an island off the coast of China had to be ceded to the British crown a permanent base where British companies could operate under British law rather than suffer under stringent Chinese commissioners like Linzer Xu Jardine had a few suggestions on where this new colony should be but he had his heart set on one in particular a barren little rock just off the Kowloon Peninsula in Guangzhou Jardine Matheson Sankoh had used the island to smuggle opium in the past and the Taipan knew that it had a naturally protected Harbor it was the perfect trading hub known to the fishermen who lived there as the fragrant Harbor this island was of course Hong Kong soon North Palmerston caved under Jardine's pressure and the British Empire finally declared war on China it was a quick and one-sided affair Chinese spares bows and matchlock muskets were no match for the cutting-edge British firepower while the Imperial Qing armies were losing manpower with many of its soldiers frail from opium drugs that have led them into the war in the first place relying largely upon the war plans drawn out by Jardine the British had all but won the First Opium War by 1841 the iron headed old rat had come out on top and all of his war goals were achieved meanwhile Linzer shoe was scapegoated for China's loss considered responsible for the celestial kingdom's great humiliation he was exiled to remote fishing Jiang 4 Jardine Hong Kong was the ultimate prize a culmination of his many years of hard labour once it had been officially ceded to Britain he and Matheson quickly set to work turning the bleak Rock into the great colonial entrepot of the East it was not a smooth transition as typhoons and fires sabotage early construction malaria ravaged its settlers and Seabourn piracy was rampant nevertheless the Scottish partners pushed on continuing to be major promoters of the struggling Island Matheson established their company's new head office on the islands East Point in 1842 while warehouses wharfs and houses were built to accommodate the firm's business operations and employees Hong Kong quickly turned into a boomtown doubling in population from 7,000 to 15,000 within its first year while it would be untrue to say that Jardine Matheson & Co were the sole driving force behind Hong Kong success it is unlikely that the tiny colony would have become the booming city it is today without the investment of the Scottish drug lords at some point in 1842 William Jardine became afflicted with cancer he continues to run his trading empire through his sickness but on February 27th 1843 the great Taipan passed away at the age of 59 the crown colony of Hong Kong continued to flourish especially as a center for a newly resurgent opium trade which the Chinese were now doubly helpless to stop following Jardine's death the business was held at first by James Matheson and later by their descendants as the fragrant Harbor evolved from a colonial frontier into one of the world's most bustling trade cities the descendants of William Jardine were always there at the center of it all each of them bearing the title of Taipan as their ancestor had today Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited is Hong Kong's largest private employer second only to the government a worldwide corporation it has subsidiaries in cars insurance real estate hygiene products and hotels among others from these lofty Peaks we must not forget the humble origins and troubled history of Jardine Matheson which ultimately is the story of a peasant boy in the Scottish lowlands whose endless ambition saw him slowly become one of the most infamous drug lords of all time and in doing so forever changing the face of the Chinese world we always have more stories to tell so make sure you are subscribed to our Channel and have pressed the bell button we would like to express our gratitude to our patreon supporters and channel members who make the creation of our videos possible now you can also support 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Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 483,987

Keywords: hong kong, opium wars, far east, east asia, kings and generals, jardine matheson, full documentary, decisive battles, military history, documentary film, king and generals, history lesson, world history, history documentary, history channel, animated historical documentary, animated documentary, ancient rome, roman empire, colonial, zheng he, age of discovery, age of gunpowder, age of colonization, colonial wars, ming, sicilian mafia

Id: mHu-msqcrnk

Length: 20min 29sec (1229 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 16 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/allinwonderornot]

Chinese government should confiscate the properties of Jardine-Matheson for reparation.

[u/PresidentWordSalad]

Grew up in Hong Kong. I was always annoyed at how there were streets named after people like Lord Palmerston who supported the Opium Wars. I always thought that if Hong Kong wanted to still recognize its colonial heritage, it should rename Palmerston Street after William Gladstone, one of the UK’s greatest Prime Ministers and who considered the Opium War to be unconscionable.

[u/Masher_Upper]

If yall are interested, this super underrated channel: History of China is by far the best channel about Chinese history on youtube. It's really great. They also had a video on the Opium War, that focused more on the conflict itself, with details on battles, negotiations, and important figures.

[u/simian_ninja]

I've always maintained that it's ridiculous so many people look at colonialism all lovingly and glowingly.

[u/lightgeschwindigkeit]

David Sassoon and family as well. In India, they are regarded as humanitarians, but they also had a big role in importing opium to China.

the Treaty of Nanking opened up China to British traders, Sassoon developed his textile operations into a profitable triangular trade: Indian yarn and opium were carried to China, where he bought goods which were sold in Britain, from where he obtained Lancashire cotton products. He sent his son Elias David Sassoon to Canton, where he was the first Jewish trader (with 24 Parsi rivals). In 1845, David Sassoon & Co. opened an office in what would soon become Shanghai's British concession, and it became the firm's second hub of operations.

In 1844, he set up a branch in Hong Kong, and a year later, he set up his Shanghai branch on The Bund to cash in on the opium trade.