Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c13.s3.t1.49

v2.c13.s3.t1.49

The connection of India and Indians with Shanghai goes back to the immediate aftermath of the First Opium War in 1842 when Shanghai was one of the four ports opened up for maritime trade along with the already open port of Canton (Guangzhou). Among the many foreign commercial firms that shifted their businesses northwards to Shanghai from the Guangzhou-Macau-Hong Kong area were several Indian firms and merchants. David Sassoon, the Baghdadi Jewish merchant based in Bombay (Mumbai), was one of the most prominent merchants from India to shift his main operations in China to Shanghai. The firm set up by his son, ED Sassoon & Co also concentrated on the trade between Bombay and Shanghai. It set up its headquarters at 5 Renji Road in Shanghai. While the Sassoons dominated the opium trade between India and China from the 1870s, they also imported cotton textiles and Indian cotton yarn with the latter business overtaking their opium sales in the early 20^th century. They also took advantage of the expanding commercial life of Shanghai to diversify into other areas, such as insurance, manufacture, hospitality, construction and public utilities, employing several hundred Chinese. They also owned several prominent real estate firms such as the Hua Mao Real Estate Co, Shanghai Real Estate Co., Far East Real Estate Co, and so on. Some of the most prominent buildings in Shanghai, including on its famous Bund, were built and owned by the Sassoons. These included the famous Cathay Hotel (later the Peace Hotel and now the Fairmont Peace Hotel) on the Bund, Cathay Mansions (Grosvenor House), the Embankment Building and Cathay Cinema. Another prominent Indian business house that established its presence in Shanghai early on was the Tatas. The patriarch of the Tata family, JN Tata, himself spent two years in China as a young man and set up a branch of his father’s firm in Shanghai. The Tatas later owned several cotton mills in Shanghai.