It was the largest opium trader and, in fact, one of the players of the Opium War. But its business empire was not limited to opium trade;making Hong Kong its headquarters and Shanghai its operation base, Jardines established trade networks and production lines all over China, engaging in all kinds of business such as the trading of foreign goods, Chinese goods, textiles and medicines, as well as shipping, storage, finance, insurance, real estate, manufacturing, machinery, metalwork, railroad and public service. It was the largest Hong, that is, foreign trading house, in the entire country.
My first recommendation goes to this palatial tai-pan dwelling — The Jardine Gardens — at East Point. It belonged to Jardine, Matheson & Co. (Yee Wo in Chinese today), the biggest trading house in colonial Hong Kong.
Jardine, Matheson & Co. (commonly known as Jardines) was established by two Scots, William Jardine and James Matheson, in 1832. Both of the founders had worked for East India Company, then the monopolist of Far Eastern trade. With its enormous wealth built from opium trade, still legal at that time, Jardines had gained a foothold in Guangzhou and Macau even before Hong Kong’s open-up.
