Imported Clocks and Jewellery at Fabulous Prices:
Early Clippers and Schooners Messra, Jardine, Bat Ca. Lid, who have been tu China since 1782, have recently been investigating their old records in their head office Hongkong. In the "process most interesting documents relating to the firm's Ratory of 180 years have. been overed. Mr. Gerald Yorke ts preparing Book on the basis of these documents. the meantime, the Deen able to obtain a series of three articles from Mr. Yorke outlining some of the features. of the discoveries made im the course of his researches." These fticles throw interesting light on the hgo of foreigners tin China te the last century "and they also" reveat piquant details of customs, habits end {dionymcrasies of the various personalities of the day.
By Grasto Youee the early days of British trade in China, firms were known by the names of their senior partners. The story of Messrs, Jardine, Matheson Ca, Lid, begins in 1782, with Cox and Beale, the first firm founded in Canton by Englishmen, in competition with the United Company of the Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, 'To do this, Daniel Beale became, or at least was asserted to be, a naturalized Dane, a nationality which he dropped on' becoming Prussian Consul in 1787. Cox, having died in ¥101, Beale appears' to have gone home, and the firm continued under the name of Hamilton & Reld, the latter taking over the Prussian Consulate, At this point the history of the firm can be reconstructed from the ledgers, letter books and papers preserved in a warehouse in Hong-Kong. The letter books are intact from 1819, whilst the earliest docu ment is part of an invoice book dated 1792, The names by which the firm successively was known were Cox Beale, Hamilton & Reld, Reld Beale, Beale & Magniac, Beale Shank & Magniac, Charles Magniac Ca, Magniac & Ca, and in 1832 Jardine, Matheson & Ca, Monopoly of Imports Until 1825 the firm bad a virtual monopoly of the import of clocks, watches, and mechanical toys—known collectively. as Sing Songs—which were sold to the amount of $30,000 annually to Chinese merchants for presentation to the Emperor and his Court at Pekin. Enamelled watches, shaped Iked butterflies, sold at $1,500 or £300 a pair. 'There is a pleasing item In an account book, "To draping 'Cupid ten dollars." He was, probably poised on top of a clock, but aid' they drape him in a toga, mandarin robes, or what?
Chinese officials visited the Sing Song showroom in 1812, and the com= pany repaired to the Creek Factory, Where the depot of the most, curious and costly productions of British art fand ingenuity was situated. Here the visitors had the opportunity of seeing and admiring the perfection at which the mechanical arts had arrived in England, They saw the most superb Jewellery, clockwork, watches, gold and silver vessels, of the most ex. quisite workmanship, engraved and chased by the first artists, fire-arms, cabinets, boxes for snuff, or for betel and oplim, but what most surprised and delighted the guests were the automata, consisting of many wonder~ ful pieces of mechanism—and machinery, displaying moving figures of birds singing and fluttering their wings, self-moving chariots, musical timepieces, ete, 'The Hoppo' (Chinese Superintendent of Maritime Customs) examined several articles very minutely, and those with which he seemed most delighted were set aside to be presented to him by the East India Company.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.