| Dent & Co. | |||||||||||
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 Dent building, c. 1858 | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 寶順洋行 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 宝顺洋行 | ||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 顛地洋行 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 颠地洋行 | ||||||||||
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Dent &Co. or Dent's,was one of the wealthiest British merchant firms,or Hongs,active in China during the 19th century. A direct rival to Jardine,Matheson &Co,together with Russell &Co.,these three companies are recognised as the original Canton Hongs active in early Colonial Hong Kong.
Former East India Company supercargo George Baring (1781–1854), son of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet of the eponymous banking family founded the firm later to become Dent & Co in 1809. [1] After the firm ordered its supercargos to stop trading in opium, William Davidson joined the firm, becoming sole partner between 1813–1820. In that year Thomas Dent came on board and he in turn brought in Robert Hugh Inglis, who had connections with the East India Company, of which his father and uncle were both directors. A relation of Thomas, Lancelot Dent joined his brother in the firm in 1827. [2] Thomas Dent arrived in Canton in 1823 to join Davidson & Co as a partner. When Davidson left in 1824, the company changed its name to "Dent & Co.".
Lancelot succeeded Thomas as the senior partner when his brother departed the company in 1831. Lin Zexu's warrant for the arrest of Lancelot Dent in 1839 to force him to hand over his store of opium was the opening shot of the First Opium War.
Thomas Chaye Beale joined the firm as a partner in 1845 whereupon it became Dent, Beale & Co. [3] It once again became Dent & Co. upon Beale's departure in 1857.
In 1841 Dent moved its headquarters to Victoria, where it was one of the first companies in Hong Kong to purchase land in what was to become known as Central District. [4] [ page needed ] Dent was one of the first traders to open offices when Shanghai opened to foreign trade in 1843 following the First Opium War. The firm built offices there at 14, The Bund, and became involved in the international silk and tea trade, having divested their (now) criminal shares in Opium to their associates in Boston, Massachusetts, out of reach of the English Justice.
Dent's was one of the founding members of the provisional committee that launched The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited in March 1865. Francis Chomley of Dent's chaired the first meeting, held on 6 August 1864. It also led the foundation of the Union Insurance Society of Canton in 1835.
In 1866, the collapse of Overend, Gurney and Company, a discount house in Lombard Street, London rocked the financial world. This failure caused a run on many banks which in turn brought down many other businesses and forced Dent's to shut its Hong Kong office in the wake of the affair. Jardine Matheson & Co averted disaster by learning the news sooner – its mail steamer carrying news from Calcutta arrived one hour earlier than others – and emptied its balances at a failing bank before anyone else had heard of the news in Hong Kong. Dent's officially folded in 1867. [4] [ page needed ] Its headquarters moved to Shanghai following the collapse in Hong Kong.
Dent occupied a building on the corner of Pedder Street and Praya Central (the waterfront), where The Landmark complex is now situated. The first building was constructed in 1850, and was redeveloped in 1864. [5]
After Dent collapsed, half of its land on Pedder Street was sold to the newly established Hongkong Hotel Company. The hotel was duly built, and became Hong Kong's first deluxe hotel. The remaining part of the west wing was let out to other trading firms. The hotel expanded northwards, and was later rebuilt into a 6-storey structure, completed in 1893, [6] but the hotel burned down in 1926.
The site was acquired by Hongkong Land, and Gloucester Tower constructed in 1932. It was redeveloped into The Landmark in 1979. [5]
William Jardine was a Scottish physician, opium merchant and trader who co-founded the Hong Kong based conglomerate Jardine, Matheson & Co. Following his return to England from the Far East, between 1841 and 1843, he was Member of Parliament for Ashburton representing the Whig party.
Sir James Nicolas Sutherland Matheson, 1st Baronet, FRS, was a Scottish opium trader and taipan. Born in Shiness, Lairg, Sutherland, Scotland, he was the son of Captain Donald Matheson. He attended Edinburgh's Royal High School and the University of Edinburgh. He and William Jardine went on to co-found the Hong Kong-based trading conglomerate Jardine Matheson & Co. that became today's Jardine Matheson Holdings.
The Keswick family are a business dynasty of Scottish origin associated with the Far East region since 1855 and in particular the conglomerate Jardine Matheson.
James Johnstone Keswick (1845–1914) was a Scottish businessman in China and Hong Kong. He was the taipan of the Jardine Matheson & Co.
Pedder Street is a major thoroughfare in the core of Hong Kong's Central District. It runs south–north from Queen's Road Central, continues through Des Voeux Road Central, and ends at its intersection with Connaught Road Central.
A hong was a type of Chinese merchant establishment and its associated type of building. Hongs arose in Guangzhou as intermediaries between Western and Chinese merchants during the 18–19th century, under the Canton System.
The Hongkong Hotel was Hong Kong's first luxury hotel modelled after sumptuous London hotels. It opened on Queen's Road and Pedder Street in 1868, later expanding into the Victoria Harbour waterfront of Victoria City in 1893.
Sylph was a clipper ship built at Sulkea, opposite Calcutta, in 1831 for the Parsi merchant Rustomjee Cowasjee. After her purchase by the Hong Kong-based merchant house Jardine Matheson, in 1833 Sylph set a speed record by sailing from Calcutta to Macao in 17 days, 17 hours. Her primary role was to transport opium between various ports in the Far East. She disappeared en route to Singapore in 1849.
Russell & Company was the largest American trading house of the mid-19th century in China. The firm specialised in trading tea, silk and opium and was eventually involved in the shipping trade.
Hollingworth Magniac (1786–1867) was a merchant and connoisseur of medieval art. He briefly ran the free trading firm of Magniac & Co. which was later to become Jardine, Matheson & Co., one of the largest trading houses in Asia during the 19th century.
Thomas Chay Beale was a Scottish merchant and diplomat operating in the Far East during the 19th century. He was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and of the Portuguese Order of Christ.
Daniel Beale (1759–1842) was a Scottish merchant and fur trader active in the Far East mercantile centres of Bombay, Canton and Macau as well as at one time the Prussian consul in China.
Jardine, Matheson & Co., later Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., forerunner of today's Jardine Matheson Holdings, was a Far Eastern company founded in 1832 by Scotsmen William Jardine and James Matheson as senior partners. Trafficking opium in Asia, while also trading cotton, tea, silk and a variety of other goods, from its early beginnings in Canton, in 1844 the firm established its head office in the new British colony of Hong Kong then proceeded to expand all along the China Coast.
Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited is a Hong Kong-based, Bermuda-domiciled British multinational conglomerate. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on the Singapore Exchange and Bermuda Stock Exchange. The majority of its business interests are in Asia, and its subsidiaries include Jardine Pacific, Jardine Motors, Hongkong Land, Jardine Strategic Holdings, DFI Retail Group, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Jardine Cycle & Carriage and Astra International. It set up the Jardine Scholarship in 1982 and Mindset, a mental health-focused charity, in 2002.
David Sassoon & Co., Ltd. was a trading company operating in the 19th century and early 20th century predominantly in India, China and Japan.
John Dent (1821–1892) was an English merchant of the then prominent trading firm Dent & Co. and member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and Chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council.
John Francis Chomley was an Irish businessman in Hong Kong and China in the mid-19th century. He was the first chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company and member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
Phineas Ryrie, JP was a Scottish tea merchant in Hong Kong. He was the Senior Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and the first Chairman of the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
William Howell Forbes was an American businessman in Hong Kong. He was the head partner of the Russell & Co. and was the 11th chairman of the board of Directors of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation from 1879 to 1880. He was the uncle of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Douglas Lapraik was a British watchmaker, shipbuilder and shipping magnate of Scottish origins, most famous for his business empire and his role in the founding of many of Hong Kong's early conglomerates such as HSBC.
Dermigny, Louis (1964), La Chine et l'Occident: le commerce à Canton au XVIIIe siècle, 1719-1833, École pratique des hautes études. VIe section. Centre de recherches historiques. Ports, routes, trafics, vol. 2, Impr. nationale
