Robert Mackenzie (trader)

Last updated

Robert Mackenzie (died 15 May 1853) was a trader and co-founder of the Mackinnon Mackenzie Company, now known as Inchcape plc.

Inchcape plc is a multinational automotive distribution, retail and services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. An outgrowth of Calcutta-based Mackinnon Mackenzie Company, Inchcape has operations in 32 countries across Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and South America.

Career

Born in Campbeltown in Argyll, Robert Mackenzie went out to Calcutta in India where, in 1836, he set up an oil goods import and export business [1] and also became involved in the coasting trade around the Bay of Bengal. [2] [3]

Campbeltown town in Scotland

Campbeltown is a town and former royal burgh in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies by Campbeltown Loch on the Kintyre peninsula. Originally known as Kinlochkilkerran, it was renamed in the 17th century as Campbell's Town after Archibald Campbell was granted the site in 1667. Campbeltown became an important centre for Scotch whisky, and a busy fishing port.

Argyll Historic county in Scotland

Argyll, sometimes anglicised as Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland.

India Country in South Asia

India is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

In 1847, together with William Mackinnon, he co-founded the Mackinnon Mackenzie Company [3] which went on to become a major trading house, shipping goods from India to the United Kingdom. [2] [3] Mackenzie chose Ghazipur as the base for his own activities. [2]

Sir William Mackinnon, 1st Baronet British Baronet

Sir William Mackinnon, 1st Baronet was a Scottish ship-owner and businessman who built up substantial commercial interests in India and East Africa. He established the British-India Steam Navigation Company and the Imperial British East Africa Company.

United Kingdom Country in Europe

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea separates Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom's 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi) were home to an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

Ghazipur City in Uttar Pradesh, India

Ghazipur, is a town in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ghazipur city is the administrative headquarters of the Ghazipur district, one of the four districts that form the Varanasi division of Uttar Pradesh. The city of Ghazipur also constitutes one of the five distinct tehsils, or subdivisions, of the Ghazipur district.

In 1853 Mackenzie set out for Australia to seek out trading opportunities for the McKinnon Mackenzie Company. [2] He died on board the SS Monumental City which was shipwrecked off the coast of Victoria, near Gabo Island on 15 May 1853. [4]

Australia Country in Oceania

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east. The population of 26 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.

Victoria (Australia) State in Australia

Victoria is a state in south-eastern Australia. Victoria is Australia's smallest mainland state and its second-most populous state overall, making it the most densely populated state overall. Most of its population lives concentrated in the area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, which includes the metropolitan area of its state capital and largest city, Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city. Victoria is bordered by Bass Strait and Tasmania to the south, New South Wales to the north, the Tasman Sea, to the east, and South Australia to the west.

Gabo Island island located off the coast of eastern Victoria, Australia

Gabo Island is a 154-hectare (380-acre) island located off the coast of eastern Victoria, Australia, between Mallacoota and Cape Howe on the border with New South Wales. It is separated from the mainland by a 500-metre (1,600 ft) wide channel; access is available by arranged flights and boats. Gabo Island is a shipping reference commonly referred to in Victorian weather warnings issued by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

Related Research Articles

North West Company Historical fur-trading company

The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada. With great wealth at stake, tensions between the companies increased to the point where several minor armed skirmishes broke out, and the two companies were forced by the British government to merge.

George Simpson (HBC administrator) Canadian administrator of the Hudsons Bay Company

Sir George Simpson was the Governor-in-Chief of the Hudson's Bay Company during the period of its greatest power. From 1820 to 1860 he was in practice, if not in law, the British viceroy for the whole of Rupert's Land, an enormous chunk of northern North America.

William Barnard Rhodes New Zealand politician

William Barnard Rhodes, casually referred to as Barney Rhodes, was a New Zealand landowner, pastoralist, businessman and politician. He was probably born in Lincolnshire, England, but took up a career at sea at an early age. In 1839 he settled in Wellington New Zealand and remained there for the rest of his life. He brought three of his younger brothers to New Zealand and they co-ordinated their efforts.

Imperial British East Africa Company company

The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) was the administrator of British East Africa, which was the forerunner of the East Africa Protectorate, later Kenya. The IBEAC was a commercial association founded to develop African trade in the areas controlled by the British colonial power. Created after the Berlin Treaty of 1885, it was led by William Mackinnon and built upon his company's trading activities in the region, with the encouragement of the British government through the granting of an imperial charter—although it remained unclear what this actually meant. It granted immunity of prosecution to British subjects whilst allowing them the right to raise taxes, impose custom duties, administer justice, make treaties and otherwise act as the government of the area.

British India Steam Navigation Company company

British India Steam Navigation Company ("BI") was formed in 1856 as the Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company. The company had been formed out of Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co, a trading partnership of the Scots William Mackinnon and Robert Mackenzie, to carry mail between Calcutta and Rangoon. It became British India SN Co in 1862. Under the hand of Lord Inchcape, who had become chairman in 1913, the company became part of the P&O group of companies in 1914 through a complex amalgamation, but continued with its own identity and organisation for another nearly 60 years until 1972, when it was entirely absorbed into P&O.

Robert OHara Burke Australian explorer

Robert O'Hara Burke was an Irish soldier and police officer who achieved fame as an Australian explorer. He was the leader of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, which was the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, finding a route across the continent from the settled areas of Victoria to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The expedition party was well equipped, but Burke was not experienced in bushcraft. A Royal Commission report conducted upon the failure of the expedition was a censure of Burke's judgement.

Major-General Sir Colin John Mackenzie, KCB was a British soldier and Chief of the General Staff, the head of the Canadian Army, from 1910 until 1913.

James Matheson British politician and merchant

Sir James Nicolas Sutherland Matheson, 1st Baronet, FRS, was a Scottish Tai-Pan. 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.

William Forbes Mackenzie was a Scottish Conservative politician and temperance reformer. He is best known for the Forbes MacKenzie Act, legislation passed in 1853 to regulate public houses in Scotland.

Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company (C&BSN) was formed in 1856 and was the immediate forerunner of British India Steam Navigation Company (BISN). The company was formed out of Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co, a trading partnership of the Scots William Mackinnon and Robert Mackenzie, who had set up their business in Calcutta, India.

William Alexander Mackinnon (Dunwich MP) British politician, died 1870

William Alexander Mackinnon was a British politician and a colonisation commissioner for South Australia.

James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape British Earl

James Lyle Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape,, known as Sir James Mackay from 1894 to 1911, was a British businessman and colonial administrator in India who became Chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company ("P&O").

Sir William Norris, 1st Baronet was an English diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1695 to 1701. He served as ambassador to Aurangzeb.

Colin Mackenzie (Indian Army officer) Scottish Indian Army officer

Lieutenant-General Colin Mackenzie was a Scottish officer in the Indian Army who was active as a political officer in Afghanistan.

Battle of Glen Affric

The Battle of Glen Affric took place in 1721 in Glen Affric, in the Scottish Highlands. It was fought between Government backed forces of the Clan Ross against rebel the forces of the Clan Mackenzie and their allies the Clan Macrae.

James Stewart Johnston was a Scottish-Australian businessman, newspaper owner and politician, a member of the Victorian Legislative Council November 1851 to December 1852 and the Victorian Legislative Assembly, October 1859 to August 1864.

Countess of Harcourt was a two-decker, teak merchant ship launched at Prince of Wales's Island in 1811, and sold in Great Britain in 1814. An American privateer captured her in 1814, but the British recaptured her in 1815. Later, she made five trips transporting convicts to Australia. Between the third and fourth of these, she undertook a voyage to China and Nova Scotia while under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). She was wrecked in late 1830.

Sir George Sutherland Mackenzie was a British businessman and explorer.

References


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.