James Matheson
Encyclopedia
Lairg
Lairg is a village in Sutherland, Highland, Scotland. It has a population of about 700and is situated at the south-eastern end of Lairg is a village in [[Sutherland]], [[Highland |Highland]], [[Scotland]]...
, Sutherland, Scotland, was the son of Captain Donald Matheson, a Scottish trader in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He attended Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
's Royal High School
Royal High School (Edinburgh)
The Royal High School of Edinburgh is a co-educational state school administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. The school was founded in 1128 and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland, and has, throughout its history, been high achieving, consistently attaining well above average exam results...
and the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
.
China and Hong Kong
After leaving university, Matheson spent two years in a London agency houseLaw of agency
The law of agency is an area of commercial law dealing with a contractual or quasi-contractual, or non-contractual set of relationships when a person, called the agent, is authorized to act on behalf of another to create a legal relationship with a third party...
before departing for Calcutta, India and a position in his uncle's trading firm, Mackintosh & Co.
In 1807, Matheson was entrusted by his uncle with a letter to be delivered to the captain of a soon-to-depart British vessel. He forgot to deliver the missive and the vessel sailed without it. Incensed at his nephew's negligence, the uncle suggested that young James might be better off back in England. He took his uncle at his word and went to engage a passage back home. However, a chance encounter with an old sea captain instead saw Matheson departing for Canton
Canton
- Administrative divisions :* Canton , territorial/administrative subdivision in some countries, notably Switzerland* Township , known as canton in Canadian French- China :...
.
Matheson first met William Jardine
William Jardine (surgeon)
William Jardine was a Scottish physician and merchant. He co-founded the Hong Kong conglomerate Jardine, Matheson and Company. From 1841 to 1843, he was Member of Parliament for Ashburton as a Whig....
in Canton in 1818. The two men later formed a partnership which also included Hollingworth Magniac
Hollingworth Magniac
Hollingworth Magniac was a merchant and connoisseur of medieval art. He was instrumental in the formation of Jardine Matheson, and Company, one of the largest trading houses in Asia during the 19th century.-Biography:...
and Daniel Beale
Daniel Beale
Daniel Beale 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.-Biography:...
. At first the new firm dealt only with trade between Canton, Bombay and Calcutta, at that time called the "country trade" but later extended their business to London.
In 1827 he provided a small hand press for the printing of the Canton Register
Canton Register
The Canton Register was an English newspaper founded by Scottish merchant James Matheson and Philadelphian William Whiteman Wood. First published in Canton on November 8, 1827 and printed every two weeks, it was China's first English-language newspaper....
, the first English language newspaper in China.
On 1 July 1832, Jardine, Matheson and Company, a partnership, between William Jardine, James Matheson as senior partners, and Hollingworth Magniac, Alexander Matheson, Jardine's nephew Andrew Johnstone, Matheson's nephew Hugh Matheson, John Abel Smith, and Henry Wright, as the first partners was formed in Canton, and took the Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
name 'Ewo' (怡和 "Yee-Wo" Literally Happy Harmony. The name was taken from the earlier Ewo Hong
Ewo (hong)
The Ewo Hong ; Cantonese: yi wo hong) was a Qing Dynasty hong established by Wǔ Guóyíng in Canton in 1783 and later became the leader of the cohong of the Thirteen Factories under the stewardship of Howqua, who took over in 1803...
founded by Howqua
Howqua
Howqua was the most important of the Hong merchants in the Thirteen Factories, head of the E-wo hong and leader of the Canton Cohong–Gong1 hong2 . He was once one of the richest men in the world.-Biography:...
which had an honest and upright reputation.
In 1834, Parliament ended the monopoly of the British East India Company on trade between Britain and China. Jardine, Matheson and Company took this opportunity to fill the vacuum left by the East India Company. With its first voyage carrying tea, the Jardine clipper ship "Sarah" left for England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Jardine Matheson began its transformation from a major commercial agent of the East India Company into the largest British trading hong, or firm, in Asia from its base in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
.
Jardine wanted the opium trade to expand in China and despatched Matheson to England to lobby the Government to press the Qing government
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
to further open up trade. Matheson's mission proved unsuccessful and he was rebuked by the then British Foreign Secretary The Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
. In a report, he complained to Jardine over being insulted by an "arrogant and stupid man". Matheson returned to Asia in 1838 and the following year Jardine left for England to continue lobbying.
Jardine's lobbying efforts proved more effective than his partner's and he succeeded in persuading the new British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, KG, GCB, PC , known popularly as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century...
to wage war on Qing China. The subsequent First Opium War
First Opium War
The First Anglo-Chinese War , known popularly as the First Opium War or simply the Opium War, was fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over their conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice...
led to the Treaty of Nanking
Treaty of Nanking
The Treaty of Nanking was signed on 29 August 1842 to mark the end of the First Opium War between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Qing Dynasty of China...
which allowed Jardines to expand from Canton to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and Mainland China.
After Jardine died a bachelor in 1843, his nephews David and Andrew Jardine assisted James Matheson in running the Hong as Tai-Pan
Tai-Pan
The term tai-pan was originally used to describe a foreign businessman in China or Hong Kong in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Cantonese colloquialism is now used in a more general sense for business executives of any origin...
. Matheson retired as Tai-Pan during the early 1840s and handed over to David Jardine, another nephew of Jardine.
Return to Scotland
Matheson married Mary Jane Percival on 9 November 1843. He bought the Scottish Isle of Lewis in 1844 for over half a million pounds and built Lews CastleLews Castle
Lews Castle is a Victorian era castle located west of the town of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. It was built in the years 1847-57 as a country house for Sir James Matheson who had bought the whole island a few years previously with his fortune from the Chinese Opium trade...
, near Stornoway
Stornoway
Stornoway is a burgh on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.The town's population is around 9,000, making it the largest settlement in the Western Isles and the third largest town in the Scottish Highlands after Inverness and Fort William...
. In 1845, he began an improvements programme on the island, including drainage schemes and road construction. He increased the programme during the Highland Potato Famine and by 1850 had spent some £329,000 on the island. Between 1851 and 1855 he assisted 1,771 people to emigrate.
As a result of his actions during the famine, Matheson was rewarded with a baronetcy in 1851. He was Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Ashburton
Ashburton (UK Parliament constituency)
Ashburton was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament at Westminster, for one Parliament in 1298 and regularly from 1640 until it was abolished for the 1868 general election. It was one of three Devon borough constituencies newly enfranchised in the Long...
from 1843 to 1852 and for Ross and Cromarty
Ross and Cromarty (UK Parliament constituency)
Ross and Cromarty was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 to 1983. The constituency elected one Member of Parliament using the first-past-the-post voting system....
from 1852 to 1868. He died at the age of 82 in Menton
Menton
Menton is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.Situated on the French Riviera, along the Franco-Italian border, it is nicknamed la perle de la France ....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The baronetcy became extinct on his death.
After his death, his wife erected a memorial to him in the grounds of Lews Castle.
External links
- Overview of Sir James Matheson
- The Opium Wars: how Scottish traders fed the habit from The ScotsmanThe ScotsmanThe Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
- Sir James Matheson a 19th century improver with links to references for further study