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Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c5.s3: B. Early Modern Era

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c5.s3

Language
English

Contents

B. Early Modern Era

Opium Trade

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The trade in opium was one of the main forms of commercial interaction between India and China in the 19th century CE. Conducted under conditions of British colonial domination of India, it had a major impact on the relations between China and Britain and between China and the West as a whole. It was the immediate cause of the two Opium Wars (1839-42 and 1858-60). It significantly affected the economic and social conditions in China, through its effects on trade flows and fiscal stability, and through the devastating effects of addiction to the drug among different strata of Chinese society. It also contributed to the breakdown of existing structures of trade and authority in China. At the same time, the opium trade also had a significant impact on the revenues of the British administration in India and on the economies of those Indian regions that were connected with the production of and trade in opium.

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The opium warehouse of the British East India Company in India

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Opium had been imported to China primarily by Arab and Turkish traders since the 7th and 8th centuries and was used mainly for medicinal purposes. The consumption of opium in China as a narcotic dates from early 18th century CE. In 1729, the Yongzheng emperor issued an imperial edict prohibiting the domestic sale and consumption of opium and later the import of opium was also specifically prohibited. Nevertheless, opium continued to be smuggled into China.

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The growth of the opium trade in the 18th century CE was directly linked with the interests of the British East India Company. After the battles of Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764), the British East India Company gained control over large parts of eastern India. As part of its efforts to raise revenues, the Company organised the large-scale cultivation of opium in areas under its control. The Company was reluctant to carry contraband opium in its own ships to China, in order not to jeopardise its highly profitable trade with China. So, it auctioned the opium to private traders who smuggled it into China. The Company derived huge profits from the sale of opium in this manner. The sale of opium to China also served another purpose. In the course of the 18th century CE, the export of tea from China to Britain increased rapidly. The balance of trade became increasingly unfavourable to Britain as the market for British products in China did not expand much and consequently Chinese tea had to be paid for mainly with silver bullion. The problem became particularly acute for Britain after the passing of the Commutation Act in 1784 by the British Parliament, which, by drastically lowering the duty on tea, led to an exponential increase in tea imports. Initially, the British sought to make up for the trade deficit by exporting raw cotton from western India for which there was a market in China. This was the beginning of the so-called triangular trade between China, Britain and India. However, from the early decades of the 19th century CE and particularly after 1820, opium became the chief export to China from India.

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Initially, virtually all the opium sold in China from India was grown in Bengal and Bihar and was known as Bengal or Patna opium. However, from early 19th century CE, opium from the western part of India, known as Malwa opium, also began to find a market in China and eventually overtook Patna opium in sales. Unlike Patna opium, Malwa opium was not grown under the East India Company's supervision but by a large number of private cultivators. Malwa, being cheaper than Patna opium, had bigger sales and greatly expanded the market for the drug in China.

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An elaborate network of cultivators, brokers, shippers, agency houses and agents, closely linked with the East India Company and its officials, was involved in the shipping of opium from India to China. It has been estimated that opium revenues comprised about 17-20 per cent of the government revenues in India in the heyday of the trade. On the China coast, British, Indian, American and other traders colluded with local smugglers, officials and merchants to bypass the strict prohibitions on opium. British and other opium smugglers brought the opium to various secret locations up and down the China coast in order to expand their sales as much as possible. The highly addictive nature of the drug made it ever harder for the Chinese authorities to contain the trade.

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The adverse consequences of the opium trade for China were many. China's once favourable balance of trade began to reverse itself and silver began to flow out of the country in increasing quantities. This had a destabilising effect on the currency, causing particular hardship to cultivators whose tax payments had to be made in silver. The smuggling of opium on a large scale contributed to corruption and administrative breakdown in affected sectors. The effect of opium addiction on human productivity and on social life cannot be measured. The impact on the Chinese military forces amongst whom opium addiction spread rapidly was particularly alarming from the point of view of the imperial government. All this prompted the Jiaqing emperor and his high officials taking a firm decision to enforce the existing regulations and clamp down on the opium trade. To put this policy into effect, the emperor despatched the Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu to Canton in 1839. As is well-known, Lin Zexu’s efforts to put an end to the opium trade were met with Britain’s decision to launch the naval attack on China, known as the First Opium War which resulted in China’s defeat. After the Second Opium War, the Qing government was compelled to legalise the opium trade in 1860.

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Chinese people smoking opium

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In spite of the legalisation of the opium trade, the Chinese government continued to try and place restrictions on the trade throughout the 19th century CE. Opium production within China itself also began to give competition to opium imports from the last decades of the 19th century CE. Eventually, an agreement was signed by the British envoy in China and the representative of the Chinese foreign ministry, the waiwubu on May 8, 1911, to end the export of opium to China by 1917. However, the uncertain political situation in China resulting from the "Revolution of 1911" affected sales of imported opium and brought a premature end to the opium trade. The trade came to an end finally with the cessation of all transactions at the Bombay Opium Warehouse at the close of 1913.

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(*Madhavi Thampi*)

India-China Cotton Yarn Trade

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Manufactured cotton yarn was one of the main exports from India to China in the last quarter of the 19th century CE and the early years of the 20th century CE. The earliest Indian textile mills which were established in the 1850s initially produced cloth for the domestic market but they soon found that they could not compete with imported British cloth. Therefore, from the 1870s, Indian textile entrepreneurs, many of whom already had experience of trading with China in commodities like raw cotton and opium, turned to the China market where there was a demand for cotton yarn. Although China had been importing manufactured cotton yarn almost entirely from Britain until that point, there developed a preference for the coarse type of yarn produced by the Indian mills in the Chinese handloom industry.

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Cotton weaving factory of Yihe opened up in Shanghai in 1895

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From an average of just 2,000 bales of cotton yarn per year in the period 1875-79, by 1895-99 the Chinese market imported an average of 452,000 bales of yarn from India per year. The market share of Indian mills rose to 96 per cent, compared to that of Britain which dropped to four per cent. Of the total exports of cotton yarn from the mills of Bombay, the exports to China exceeded 92 per cent for the entire period from the 1870s to the first decade of the 20th century CE. This shows that the trade with China played a very important role in stabilising the Indian textile industry in its early decades of growth. Among the well-known mills of Bombay that supplied the China market were the China Mills, Moon Mills Jacob Sassoon Mills, and Tata’s Swadeshi Mills.

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Cotton yarn spindle

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From the turn of the 20th century CE, however, Indian cotton yarn exports to China began to decline mainly on account of competition from Japanese yarn which was cheaper. In 1906, India still supplied 77 per cent of Chinese yarn imports but a decade later, Japanese yarn exports had overtaken India’s exports. By 1924, the Indian share of the Chinese cotton yarn market had fallen to 24 per cent. By this time, Chinese production of manufactured cotton yarn had also begun to displace both Indian and Japanese imports. The decline in yarn exports to China almost immediately affected the textile industry in India with several mills in Bombay having to close down fully or partially. However, in the long term, it was one of the factors that led to the industry in India reorienting itself to produce cloth for the domestic market again, instead of focussing on producing yarn for export.

Abdoolally Ebrahim & Co

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Abdoolally Ebrahim & Co, (today known as the Abdoolally Ebrahim Group, AEG) was one of the earliest Indian companies to set up in Hong Kong, just after its establishment as a British colony. It is the oldest firm in Hong Kong surviving under its original name and is the oldest surviving client of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC).

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Shaikh Jaffer E Ebrahim

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The company was founded in 1842 by Seth Ebrahim Noordin, a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community from Bombay. Dawoodi Bohras from Gujarat have played a significant role in the overseas trade from western India to the Persian Gulf and East Africa as well as to various ports in East and Southeast Asia. Initially trading in cotton, silk, opium and tea, the company has over the decades expanded and diversified into many other areas. It was one of the companies whose opium stocks were confiscated just prior to the Opium War, which received compensation for it in 1864. The AEG began the first cross-harbour ferry service between Tsim Sha Tsui and Central in Hong Kong in 1842. In the same year, it opened offices in Canton and Shanghai. In Shanghai, its office was located on the Shanghai Bund. Although they vacated that office following the revolution, they reopened it in 2004. Since then, they have opened branch offices in Shenzhen and Dalian as well.

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In Hong Kong, the AEG’s headquarters since 1920 has been located at 20 Stanley Street. In 1940, it became a founding member of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, and in 1952, it joined the Indian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong. Some of the major sectors in which it has been involved are agri business, metals and minerals and ship-chartering. Textiles and housewares are other major areas in which the group is involved. (*Madhavi Thampi*)

E D Sassoon & Co

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E D Sassoon was the second of eight sons of David Sassoon, founder of the wealthy and powerful Sassoon group of companies that had major commercial, industrial and financial interests in China from the mid-19ᵗʰ to mid 20ᵗʰ century CE. Belonging to the Baghdadi Jewish community, David Sassoon arrived in Bombay as a refugee in 1832 and very quickly moved into the China trade. Bombay was the headquarters of their business empire for about one century although various members of the family eventually relocated to England in later decades.

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The Sassoons initially derived most of their profits from the opium trade in which they had a commanding presence. Later, they diversified into many different lines of business, becoming one of the most prominent business families of Hong Kong and Shanghai. E D Sassoon, who was first sent to China by his father in 1844, eventually separated from the parent Sassoon Company. In 1872, he set up his own company known as the E. D. Sassoon Company with its headquarters at 5 Renji Road in Shanghai. In Chinese, it was known as the (New Sassoon) company, to distinguish it from the original Sassoon Company. Eventually, under the two subsequent heads of the company, Jacob Sassoon and Victor Sassoon, it went on to become the dominant Sassoon company in China.

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Shaxun mansion in Shanghai

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Apart from their interests in the opium trade, E D Sassoon Company had a thriving cloth business, importing cloth from Britain and supplying it to the most prominent stores on Shanghai’s Nanjing and Tianjin Roads. They also had a profitable insurance business. From the end of the 19^th century CE, they ventured into manufacturing, setting up spinning and weaving factories, and rice, paper and flour mills as well as breweries. Among their most successful ventures was their involvement in real estate. They controlled the Hua Mao Real Estate Company, Shanghai Real Estate Company and Far East Real Estate Company. Some of the most iconic buildings on the Shanghai Bund were owned by them. They owned among others the Huamao Hotel, Cathay Hotel, Guo Tai Grand Theatre and the grand building they constructed in 1928 known as Sassoon House. In the insecure conditions of China in the 1920s and 1930s, they made huge profits through the issue of shares and bonds. The E D Sassoon Company was also prominent in the business life of Hong Kong although their interests reduced after the beginning of the 20^th century CE.

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The main business interests of the E D Sassoon Company in Shanghai were wound up by Victor Sassoon in 1948 but they continued to receive rent from their many properties there for some years until these were finally taken over by the Chinese Government in 1958.

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(*Madhavi Thampi*)

Parsis

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The Parsis are an Indian community of ethnic Persian origin who are followers of Zoroastrianism. The original Parsis migrated to the west coast of India in the 8^th or 10^th centuries CE to avoid religious persecution in their original homeland of Persia. Originally a largely agricultural community, they later ventured into and made their mark in trade and modern industry. From the later 18^th century CE until the early 20^th century CE, they played a major role in the overseas trade from the port of Bombay (Mumbai), particularly in the trade between Bombay and the China coast.

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*A Parsi family in India*

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The earliest Parsi merchant known to have sailed to China was Heerjee Jeevanjee Readymoney in

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*Ludunzhi hospital in Hong Kong, China, founded in the middle of the 19th century by the family of Ludunzhi*

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1756. In this period, as a by-product of the tea trade between China and Britain, raw cotton from western India began to be shipped to Canton (Guangzhou) to pay for the rapidly growing export of tea from China. Enterprising Parsi merchants were among the earliest to profit from the spurt in trade between Bombay and China from the last quarter of the 18^th century CE. One of the earliest Parsi firms to be established at Canton was that of Cowasjee Pallanjee & Co (1794). The great Parsi merchant and benefactor Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, who played a major role in the growth of Bombay in the first half of the 19^th century CE, made his fortune in the trade with China. The raw cotton and opium trade and the shipping business with China contributed to the rise of many other prominent Parsi families as well, including the Banajis, Wadias, Petits, Tatas, Dadiseths, Camas and others. Later, when several leading Parsi businessmen ventured into the newly emerging cotton textile industry in India in the second half of the 19^th century CE, they exported a significant portion of the cotton yarn produced in their factories to China.

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The Parsi merchants showed a greater willingness to travel and reside in China than any other Indian merchants involved in the China trade. Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy himself travelled several times to China as a young man. As a result, hundreds of Parsi men in the 19^th century CE were to be found in Canton, Macau and later Hong Kong, Shanghai and other Chinese ports. In the early years of the 19^th century CE, at times there were more Parsis in Canton than there were British. They were often referred to by the Chinese as baitouren (whiteheads) on account of their distinctive white caps. Before the Opium War, Parsis lived in Macau and in the foreign factories on the Canton waterfront. One of these even came to be known as the ‘Parsi factory’. Parsi cemeteries in Canton and Macau have tombstones dating back to 1829.

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Parsis played a pioneering role in the early settlement and development of Hong Kong after 1842. Among those who purchased land on the Hong Kong waterfront in the first land auction conducted by the British authorities on the island in June 1841, were Dadabhoy Rustomjee, Heerjebhoy Rustomjee, Framjee Jamsetjee and Pestonjee Cowasjee. Starting out initially in the import-export trade from Hong Kong, the Parsis soon ventured into diverse business activities, including real estate, share brokerage, the hospitality industry, banking and so on. One of them, Dorabji Naorojee, founded the cross-harbour transport service that evolved into Hong Kong’s famous "Star Ferry" service. The Parsis were also known for their involvement in charitable activities in Hong Kong. The individual, who played the pioneering role in the establishment of the University of Hong Kong, was a Parsi businessman known as H N Mody. The Ruttonjee family established one of the earliest anti-tuberculosis sanatoriums on the island.

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This community played an interesting role in the transmission of cultural influences from China to India in the 19^th century CE. Deeply impressed by the skill of Chinese silk embroiderers at Canton, Parsi merchants commissioned Chinese embroiderers to produce beautifully embroidered silk for the sarees worn by the women of their families back home. This was the origin of the famous Parsi gara saris, which have become an intrinsic part of Parsi textile culture. Parsi merchants imported large quantities of Chinese porcelain, furniture and other artefacts which had a significant impact on the lifestyle of the elite in Bombay at that time. They also commissioned Chinese painters like Lamqua and others to paint oil portraits of themselves and their families.

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With the changing occupational structure of the Parsi community back in India, the number of Parsi traders and businessmen in China began to dwindle in the early 20^th century CE. Nevertheless, there continues to exist a small but flourishing Parsi community in Hong Kong today whose links with China go back many generations.

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(*Madhavi Thampi*)

Shikarpuri Financiers

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During the 18^th and 19^th centuries CE, merchants from the town of Shikarpur in Sindh (present-day Pakistan) played a very important role in the caravan trade between India and Central Asia. They were particularly important as financiers for this trade which played a significant role in binding together the economies of northwestern India, Afghanistan, southeastern Iran and several khanates of Central Asia. In this context, Shikarpuri traders were to be found in the bazaars and towns of Xinjiang as well.

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Shikarpur in Sindh was not a place which could boast of its own agricultural products or manufactured goods. However, its strategic location on the trading routes between Central Asia and India gave it an advantage in trade. Shikarpuri traders were mainly Hindus who for several decades functioned under the patronage of the Durrani rulers of Afghanistan. They were known for their sophisticated banking systems, which included the issuing of bills of exchange (*hundis*) which lent a degree of security and stability to the trading activities across a wide arc of Central Asia.

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Although never large in number, Shikarpuri traders could be found in many of the major oasis towns of Xinjiang. In towns like Yarkand, their number was large enough for them to be able to maintain their own resthouses which were known as "*Hindi serais*". Shikarpuri traders rarely settled down in Xinjiang, but would come for short trips without their families. They were known as very shrewd moneylenders who would lend small sums of money to a large number of people at high rates of interest. Their moneylending activities frequently brought them into conflict with the local people. Moneylending was also, strictly speaking, illegal according to local laws. However, the role the Shikarpuri merchants played in providing quick and easy credit was important to the bazaar economy and accounts for the fact that they were tolerated by both the authorities and the local populace. In the early decades of the 20^th century CE, their number in Xinjiang dwindled to almost nothing.

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(*Madhavi Thampi*)

Ismaili Traders

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Traders from the Ismaili Muslim community from western India formed an important segment of the Indian mercantile community on the China coast in the 19^th century CE. The Ismailis were a traditional trading community who took advantage of the new opportunities held out by the European penetration of Africa and Asia. Although better known for their commercial role in East Africa, they also had their presence in eastern Asia. In the early 19^th century CE, like the Parsi and Jewish traders from India, they engaged in trade in raw cotton, opium and other products of western India. Among them was the firm of Cassumbhoy Nathabhoy which was operating in Canton (Guangzhou) in the 1830s. After the establishment of the British colony in Hong Kong in 1842, some of the Ismaili merchants shifted base from Canton to Hong Kong. An 1864 list of 28 Indian traders compiled by the Hong Kong government contains the names of 15 Ismaili traders and firms. Abdoolally Ebrahim & Co, which was founded in 1841, remains today the oldest firm operating in Hong Kong under its original name. Established by Ebrahim Noordin, it traded in beans, spices, raw silk, sugar and cotton yarn among other things. By and large, the Ismaili enterprises were family firms. Some of the Ismailis acted as brokers for Parsi firms while others were independent merchants. Records show that in 1920, there were 240 Ismailis in Hong Kong but their number was only 60 by 1938. Some Ismaili merchants also established their base in Shanghai and took advantage of growing opportunities there. Families such as the Tyabjis, Roghays, Ghattys and Kurs made considerable fortunes from trade with China.

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Lao Huo Hua “Zhuangyuan Jidi”, published as a overseas version in Hong Kong

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(*Madhavi Thampi*)

The Tatas

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The Tatas are one of the most prominent business families of India with extensive business interests both in India and abroad in diverse sectors such as iron and steel, textiles, power, automobiles, information technology and so on. Primarily known as pioneers of Indian industry, they began their operations as a trading firm in the middle of the 19ᵗʰ century CE. Their trading links with China date back to this period.

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Members of the Tata family

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The founder of the business, Nusserwanji Tata, in December 1859 established a firm called Jamsetji & Ardeshir in Hong Kong's Hollywood Road, with two partners, Premchand Roychand and Kaliandas. This firm imported opium and cotton from India, and exported tea, silk, camphor, cinnamon, copper, brass and Chinese gold. Nusserwanji sent his son, Jamsetji Nusserwanji, to Hong Kong to assist in the business. Jamsetji Nusserwanji, the real founder of the family's fortunes, spent four years in China from 1859 to 1863 during which he opened a branch of the firm in Shanghai as well. In the great Bombay stock market crash of 1864, the Tatas was among the many business firms of Bombay that was badly jolted and they temporarily retrenched their China business interests. A few years later, however, Nusserwanji visited China and Japan and tried to revive the firm's branch in Hong Kong. He collected porcelain and other items of art during this trip, marking the start of the Tata collection of oriental art which is now housed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum) in Bombay. Nusserwanji invested funds in a firm run by two of his brothers-in-law, Dadabhai and Sorabji, which had been trading for some time in East Asia under the name D C Tata, and the firm was renamed Tata & Co Nusserwanji and his son J N Tata occasionally retained some interests in this firm which was managed by Dadabhai and then his son.

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When the Tatas entered the textile manufacturing business in India just like some other Indian businessmen they began to export the chief product of their mills, cotton yarn, to China. By the end of the 19ᵗʰ century CE, the Indian share of the market for imported cotton yarn in China had risen to 96 per cent. Before the Tatas, it was believed that only lower quality cotton yarn produced in India would sell in the Chinese market. However, in the Tatas' Swadeshi Mills in Bombay, a fine quality cotton yarn was produced that also sold very well in China. In the early part of the 20ᵗʰ century CE, however, Indian cotton yarn was displaced in the China market first by Japanese manufactured yarn, and then by yarn produced in Chinese factories.

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For a few years in the later 19ᵗʰ century CE, the Tatas had also sought to challenge the monopoly of the big European shipping companies in the routes to the East. They set up their own Tata Line in collaboration with the Japanese shipping company, Nippon Yusen Kaisha. However, in the fierce "freight war" that was waged by the European shipping companies against this new entrant to the field, the Tatas suffered losses and had to withdraw from the steam navigation business.

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Although trade with China was never the main focus of the Tatas' enterprise, it nevertheless played some role, especially in the early phase of their growth. In the last few years, the Tata Group once again established its presence in China in various sectors. These include information technology, steel, engineering and consumer products. At present, the Tata Group has over 3,000 employees in China.

The Harilelas

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The Harilelas are currently the most prominent business family of Indian origin in Hong Kong. They wholly-own the multi-million dollar Harilela Group of Companies which has a very strong presence in the hospitality industry in Hong Kong besides having substantial real estate and other business interests in Hong Kong and outside. Their presence on the China coast dates nearly one century back when Naroomal Lilaram Mirchandani arrived in Guangzhou (Canton) from his home province of Sindh (then a part of India and today in Pakistan). He set up a shop to export antiques primarily to Europe from China. After several years, in 1930, he brought his wife and sons over to join him in China.

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*H N Harilela*

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Since the antiques business was hit hard by the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Harilelas reoriented their business. They set up a mail order custom tailoring business that became very successful. They managed to survive through the difficulties caused by the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. After the War, they were commissioned to produce uniforms for the British army which helped them to prosper further. However, in 1960, under the aegis of the newly-formed Harilela Group, the family once again reoriented their business interests, moving into the real estate business and hospitality industry. They acquired substantial property in Hong Kong's most prestigious locations. Among the many hotels that they own and operate are the Holiday Inn Golden Mile in Hong Kong and the Westin Resort in Macau. Four generations and about a hundred members of the Harilela family reside together in a huge mansion in Kowloon Tong.

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The current chairman of the group, Hari Harilela, has served as Hong Kong Affairs Advisor to the Chinese Government and in 2000, a was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government. The Harilelas are a good example of versatility and business acumen displayed by Indian entrepreneurs who have managed to overcome challenges and thrive in the turbulent conditions of 20^th century CE China.

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(*Madhavi Thampi*)

Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy

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Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy (1783-1859) dominated Bombay's trade with China in the first half of the 19^th century CE. An orphan from the small town of Navsari in Gujarat, he came to Bombay (Mumbai) as a youth to assist in his uncle's bottle-selling business. Sensing the boom in the export trade in raw cotton to China, Jamsetjee was quick to seize the opportunity. He made several trips to China in quick succession in the first decade of the 19^th century CE and thereby established the foundations of a flourishing business. It was in the course of one of his voyages that he became acquainted with William Jardine who later co-founded the well-known China coast firm Jardine Matheson & Co.

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After 1807, Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy directed his vast and expanding commercial empire from Bombay. He dealt mainly in raw cotton and opium trade with China. He was the principal shipper of opium to Jardine Matheson & Co, in China and was an immensely powerful figure in the trade from Bombay. His ships, such as *Good Success*, *Bombay Castle*, *Fort William*, *Charlotte* and so on, were familiar sights in the Canton-Macau region. A large number of smaller merchants who engaged in trading with China from Bombay consigned their goods to his shipping business. Apart from his close relations with other Indian merchants and with British merchants in Bombay and the China coast Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy also had good relations with Chinese merchants at Canton (Guangzhou), especially the wealthy Hong merchant, Howqua (Wu Bingjian).

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[Figure: *Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Tata and his* *Chinese scribe*]

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From the 1840s, changes in the maritime trade between India and China including the influx of private British traders and the appearance of steamships worked to the disadvantage of Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy and his commercial empire. His firm no longer dominated this trade, particularly after his death in 1859. Nevertheless, Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy remains an iconic figure in the history of Mumbai, especially because of his numerous charitable activities which included his role in setting up some of Mumbai’s best-known hospitals and educational institutions. An interesting legacy of Jamsetjee is the voluminous letters he left behind which are preserved even till today in the library of the University of Mumbai and which are among the main sources we have for the early growth of trade between Mumbai and China.

K R Cama

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Kharsedji Rustomji Cama (1831-1909) was an eminent Parsi social and religious reformer and educationist. He was a multifaceted personality and scholar whose name was associated with many educational institutions in his native city of Bombay including the University of Bombay.

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*K R Cama*

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He took particular interest in female education. He also actively campaigned to reform the practice of Zoroastrianism in India, aiming to purge it of what he believed were unnecessary rituals. He came from a long line of China traders and himself had spent some years doing business in China as a young man.

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The first members of the Cama family to establish trading links with China were the brothers, Mancherji and Edalji Cama. Of Mancherji’s three sons, all of whom traded with China, one of them established the firm of Hormasji Mancherji Cama’s Sons in China in 1842. Hormasji’s grandson was K R Cama. He was sent to China from Calcutta in 1850 to join his uncle’s firm, Messrs Ruttonji Hormasji Cama & Co of Canton. He became a partner of this firm in 1852 and spent a total of four years in China until 1854, after which he returned to India.

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The life and career of K R Cama is illustrative of the connection of Bombay traders, particularly of the Parsi community, with China in the 19th and early 20^th centuries CE. The wealth that some of these merchants acquired through China trade enabled them on the one hand to move into other business ventures in industry and finance and on the other hand to engage in philanthropic activities back at home. Even while he was in China, K R Cama made numerous endowments for educational purposes back in India. After his initial forays into business, K R Cama devoted himself to his reformist activities and educational reform. He played an active role in the Asiatic Society of Bombay as well.

v1.c5.s3.t11.6

(*Madhavi Thampi*)

H N Mody

v1.c5.s3.t12.1

Hormusjee Naorojee Mody (1838-1911), a Parsi merchant from Bombay (now Mumbai), was a leading entrepreneur and philanthropist of Hong Kong. He accumulated considerable wealth from his diverse business enterprises but is remembered today mainly for the pioneering role he played in the establishment of the University of Hong Kong.

v1.c5.s3.t12.2

*H N Mody*

v1.c5.s3.t12.3

H N Mody arrived in Hong Kong in 1860 (some sources say in 1858) from Bombay on the suggestion of his uncle, Jehangirjee Buxey, to help him with his auction business. In the 1860s, he appears to have worked in the opium trading firm of S A Seth and also the Bank of Hindustan, China and Japan before taking over the auction house of his uncle after the latter’s death. While working in the bank, Mody got acquainted with the Calcutta Armenian Catchik Paul Chater with whom he formed a highly successful business partnership later under the name of Chater & Mody in 1868. It ventured into share brokerage and also into real estate. Early on, they realised the potential of Kowloon on the mainland opposite Hong Kong island and heavily invested in property and development in Kowloon. Today, there exist a Mody Road and Mody Square in Kowloon’s Tsim Sha Tsui area, named after H N Mody. Chater & Mody was famed for its harbour development and land reclamation schemes in Kowloon and Hong Kong including the Praya Reclamation scheme along the northern waterfront of Hong Kong island.

v1.c5.s3.t12.4

*Bell Tower of Bombay University*

v1.c5.s3.t12.5

H N Mody was known for his many charitable endowments in Hong Kong, including towards the building of a Seaman’s Institute and a Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home. However, his outstanding contribution to the growth of Hong Kong was his work to establish the University of Hong Kong at a time when few considered it important that this largely commercial colony have its own institution of higher education. Mody pledged then a huge sum of $1,50,000 provided that the sum could be matched from other sources. He persisted with the project in the face of initial indifference until finally, the foundation stone of the main building of the university was laid in March 1910, a year before he died. On the 90ᵗʰ anniversary of the inauguration of the University of Hong Kong on June 17, 2002, a bronze bust of Mody was installed in the Main Building in recognition of his role in the establishment of the University.

v1.c5.s3.t12.6

(*Madhavi Thampi*)

Paul Chater

v1.c5.s3.t13.1

Catchik Paul Chater (September 8, 1846 – May 27, 1926) was an Armenian businessman from Calcutta who played a major role in the early development of Hong Kong. His Chinese name was Zhe Da 遮打. There are many monuments to Chater in Hong Kong and the centrally located Chater Garden on Hong Kong Island is named after him.

v1.c5.s3.t13.2

Catchik Paul Chater

v1.c5.s3.t13.3

Chater came to Hong Kong in 1864 as a clerk in the Bank of Hindustan, China and Japan. With the help of the Sassoon business group, he ventured into share brokerage and had great success. In 1868, he established a flourishing partnership with the Parsi businessman Hormusji N Mody under the name Chater & Mody. But his major achievement was in the sphere of real estate development, helping to develop a significant portion of the island’s Central district. In 1886, he set up the Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company to develop Kowloon Harbour on the mainland and Kennedy Town in the northwestern part of the island. His grandest project, however, was the Praya Reclamation scheme to develop the central waterfront area on the northern shore of Hong Kong island. This was done through the company which he formed in1889, Hong Kong Land. He was a visionary who pushed to bring electricity at an early stage to Hong Kong through his Hong Kong Electric Company which he formed in 1889. In recognition of the role he played in Hong Kong’s development, he was appointed to the Executive Council of Hong Kong in 1896 and knighted by the British government in 1902. He, however, continued to support institutions back in India like his alma mater, the well-known La Martiniere College in Calcutta.

v1.c5.s3.t13.4

Chater bequeathed most of his estate, valued at nearly $5 million, to Hong Kong on his death including the fabulous mansion ‘Marble House’ on Conduit Road. After the death of his wife in 1935, this became the residence of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. He also built up a very valuable art collection which includes some of the best visual representations of life in the ports of the China coast in the 19th century. Although most of the collection was destroyed during the Japanese occupation what remains is housed in the Hong Kong Museum of Art today.

v1.c5.s3.t13.5

(*Madhavi Thampi*)

Ellis and Elly Kadoorie

v1.c5.s3.t14.1

Ellis Kadoorie (1865-1922) and Elly (Eleazer Silas) Kadoorie (1867-1944) were two brothers from the Baghdadi Jewish community of Bombay who established the foundations of a big business empire in Hong Kong during the late 19th century. Today, CLP Holdings, the main company of the Kadoorie Group, which was founded in 1890, supplies power to a major portion of Hong Kong. The total wealth of the family is estimated to be nearly US$10 billion.

v1.c5.s3.t14.2

Elly Kadoorie came out to Hong Kong at the age of 15. He initially worked for the immensely successful fellow Jewish business family, the Sassoons, and served in Shanghai, Tianjin, Ningbo and other treaty ports. Although he prospered in the service of the Sassoons, he decided to set up on his own, borrowing some money from his brother Ellis who joined him in Hong Kong in 1883. He set up the brokerage firm of Benjamin, Kelly and Potts in Hong Kong. The brothers also developed their business interests in Shanghai. During the period of World War I, they acquired stakes in the China Light Company in Hong Kong and in Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels. In Shanghai, Elly Kadoorie’s residence was the fabulous Marble Hall which he built on what is today’s Yan’an Xi Lu. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and China, Elly Kadoorie was interned first in Hong Kong and then in Shanghai. He died in Shanghai in 1944 just after being released from the Zhabei internment camp on medical grounds.

v1.c5.s3.t14.3

*Kadoorie Family*

v1.c5.s3.t14.4

The Kadoories were well-known for their charitable endowments, particularly in the sphere of education. Among other things, Ellis Kadoorie established a school for Chinese boys in Hong Kong which was acknowledged by the British authorities there to be "one of the finest school buildings in the Colony". He built five other schools as well for Chinese students including in Guangzhou (Canton) and Shanghai. He also set up a school for Indian boys in Hong Kong as he believed that their requirements were different from those of Chinese students.

v1.c5.s3.t14.5

*The Marble Hall, residence of Ellis and Elly Kadoorie in Shanghai, now known as the Children’s Palace of the Chinese Welfare Association.*

v1.c5.s3.t14.6

After the death of Ellis and Elly Kadoorie, their business empire was managed by Elly’s sons, Lawrence and Horace.