Richard J. Grace. Opium and Empire: The Lives and Careers of William Jardine and James Matheson. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2014. 476 pp. $34.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-7735-4452-9. Reviewed by Amar Farooqui Published on H-Asia (March, 2016) Commissioned by Sumit Guha (The University of Texas at Austin) [Ed. note: This review is based on the unpagi‐ down to sorting the papers and writing a history nated Kindle edition of the book. References are to of the frm. Yorke’s unpublished manuscript was Kindle location numbers.] used (without adequate acknowledgment) by The role played by opium in the “opening” of Maurice Collis for his best-seller, Foreign Mud China during the frst half of the nineteenth cen‐ (1946). However, Greenberg’s work represented tury is well known. The frst major colonial mili‐ the frst professional study of the Jardine Mathe‐ tary onslaught against the Qing empire is known son papers. Surprisingly, a recent publication as the First Opium War (1839-42). One could argue sponsored by the British Academy,[1] containing a that the war inflicted on China was to a great ex‐ small selection from the Jardine Matheson ar‐ tent the result of aggressive lobbying in London chive (now housed in the University of Cambridge by Jardine Matheson & Co. to protect its own opi‐ Library), states that Foreign Mud was the frst um enterprise as well as on behalf of the syndi‐ study “to make extensive use of the Jardine Math‐ cate of smugglers operating in and around Can‐ eson Archive,” ignoring Collis’s own statement ton. The story of Jardine Matheson, and of its role that “[I] did not consult these papers myself.”[2] in precipitating the showdown between Britain Subsequently researchers, among whom one and China in 1839, has already been told in con‐ might specially mention W. E. Cheong, have uti‐ siderable detail. The pioneer in the feld was lized the archive to provide us more details about Michael Greenberg, whose British Trade and the opium smuggling in and around the Canton– Opening of China (1951) was based mainly on the Macao area, focusing on the activities of Jardine letter-books of Jardine Matheson and its predeces‐ Matheson. Richard Grace’s meticulously re‐ sor frms. These letter-books and other records searched joint biography of William Jardine and were accidentally discovered in a Hong Kong James Matheson does of course draw on the mate‐ godown in the 1930s by Gerald Yorke, who got rial contained in the records of the frm quite ex‐ H-Net Reviews tensively, but in combination with numerous oth‐ of business in China, where an entire economy er sources looks at the lives and careers of these centered on the smuggling of Indian opium was two smugglers—for that is what they were—be‐ already thriving. The two came together through yond their business operations in China. Never‐ a series of partnerships in which they were in‐ theless, these operations are central to the narra‐ volved and which included several China traders tive, since they are what give the lives and careers who had connections with Calcutta, Bombay, and of Jardine and Matheson some historical signifi‐ Macao. These partnerships were the predecessors cance. of Jardine Matheson; their complicated history Born in 1784, Jardine, the elder of the two was traced by Greenberg from records of the frm Scottish partners, grew up in circumstances of going back to at least 1799, when it bore the name economic hardship. He managed to gain admis‐ Hamilton and Reid. The two immediate predeces‐ sion to the University of Edinburgh where he sors of Jardine Matheson were Yrissari & Co., with studied medicine, obtaining a diploma in surgery. which Matheson was associated, and Charles At the age of eighteen he got a job as assistant sur‐ Magniac, with which Jardine was associated. geon on an East India Company ship, Brunswick. Eventually, when Jardine Matheson was formed He later served as surgeon on other ships of the in 1832, with Jardine and Matheson as senior company. It was during the course of a private partners, it inherited the business of both Yrissari voyage undertaken by the Brunswick from Bom‐ as well as Magniac. Since these two frms were big bay to Canton that he became acquainted with players in the opium market, Jardine Matheson Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, who would emerge as opium was able to stay well ahead of rivals, particularly king in western India by the late 1820s and be‐ Dent & Co., the other leading agency house deal‐ come the leading supplier of the drug to Jardine ing in the drug. Jardine Matheson and Dent domi‐ Matheson for its lucrative narco-trafficking enter‐ nated the trade in the second quarter of the nine‐ prise in south China. The voyage commenced in teenth century, establishing a virtual duopoly. It is 1805; we learn of the vicissitudes of its crew and pertinent that Jardine was not keen on the legal‐ passengers following the capture of the vessel by ization of the opium trade in China, advocated by the French, who were then at war with Britain. many of the dealers who entered the trade when Possibly Jardine and Jejeebhoy got to know each the East India Company’s China monopoly ended other quite well during these adventures. It is in 1833-34, as legalization would have resulted in likely that Jejeebhoy, who had already traveled a further increase in the number of small-time thrice between Bombay and Canton, gave Jardine speculators whom the big dealers were keen to valuable information about the opium trade in keep out. It is a pity that the author has ignored conversations aboard the ship. some of the published research on the connec‐ tions of Jardine Matheson with Bombay opium ex‐ Matheson belonged to a relatively well-to-do porters. The difficulties, increasingly insurmount‐ family of southern Scotland. He too gravitated to able, faced by Indian dealers in having their earn‐ Edinburgh for higher education, but moved to ings remitted from China after 1834 have been London before he could acquire a degree. He highlighted by Asiya Siddiqi in her study of the spent two years in London learning the basics of Bombay–Canton commerce, which was based on commerce and then went on to Calcutta, where he the Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy letter-books (these con‐ spent some time working for his uncle’s agency tain copies of the extensive correspondence with house, Mackintosh & Co. By the time the Jardine Matheson on the subject of opium con‐ Napoleonic Wars came to an end, Jardine and signments.) Matheson were thinking in terms of the prospects 2 H-Net Reviews Grace’s perusal of source material relating to China was launched. He temporarily lived aboard the First Opium War by and large confirms the ships, his personal needs attended to by his “old conclusion drawn by several scholars who have servant” Ibrahim, an Indian; he was requesting written on the issue, that Jardine and Matheson his associates in India tofnd him a good cook, “‘a pushed for an aggressive policy vis-à-vis China, first rate Artist,’” whom he was willing to pay a advocating the use of force to compel the Qing au‐ hundred rupees a month (loc.7565). The business thorities to allow unrestricted access to the Chi‐ continued to prosper, conflict itself making possi‐ nese market, and actively assisted the British gov‐ ble large earnings from the sale of opium. Some of ernment in preparing the blueprint for the mili‐ these earnings Matheson invested in land for tary campaign. The book states quite categorically farming and sheep rearing in Australia. The study that “if we were to ask how much they had to do tells us about the wide-ranging commercial and f‐ with the origin of the war, the answer would have nancial ventures of Jardine Matheson, handling to be plenty” (loc.7148). Shortly after the Treaty of consignments of opium, tea, raw cotton, rice, and Nanjing was concluded Lord Palmerston declared silk; shipping; insurance and transactions involv‐ that the “assistance and information” that Jardine ing bills of exchange; and speculation in land (ad‐ (and by implication Matheson too—Matheson was ditionally in Hong Kong, post-1842). Its operations in England between 1836 and 1838; Jardine had extended from London to India, Canton, Macao, returned home at the beginning of 1839) “hand‐ the Philippines, and eventually Australia. Yet opi‐ somely afforded us, it was mainly owing that we um remained of critical importance in the years were able to give our affairs, naval, military and that Matheson resided at Canton, and afterwards diplomatic, in China, those detailed instructions as well. which have led to these satisfactory results” (loc. Jardine died in 1843, but Matheson was fortu‐ 8530). During his two-year stay in Britain on the nate to fully savor his retirement from direct par‐ eve of the war, Matheson had among other things ticipation in the China trade. He lived on for thir‐ circulated an eighty-page tract, Present Position ty-five years after his return to Britain in 1842, and Future Prospects of the British Trade with marrying in 1843 (the couple did not have chil‐ China (1836), in which he had strongly urged the dren), and was knighted in 1851. In 1847 Mathe‐ British government to commit itself to taking “‘ef‐ son was elected to the House of Commons. He re‐ fectual measures’” to protect and promote British mained a member of Parliament until 1868. As commercial interests in China (cited loc.4704). At MP was able to use his political influence to ad‐ the same time he evaded the question of opium vance the interests of the P&O shipping company smuggling, which was the main cause of the con‐ of which he became chairman, occupying the po‐ flict.