Dent & Co.
Dent & Co. ( Chinese 寶順 行 ) also called Dent's , was one of the wealthiest British trading houses (also called hong ) that were active in 19th century China. The company was a direct competitor of Jardine, Matheson & Co . Together with Russell & Co. , these three trading houses became known as the original canton companies of early colonial Hong Kong.
history
Thomas Dent (1796–1872) settled in Canton in 1823 and joined Davidson & Co as a partner. Davidson left the company in 1824 and from then on the company was called "Dent & Co." It traded mainly in tea, silk, indigo and opium. In 1826 his brother Lancelot Dent (1799-1853) joined the company. He succeeded Thomas in the company's management when he left the trading house in 1831. Lin Zexu 's order for Dent's arrest in 1839, aimed at forcing him to surrender his opium storerooms, marked the beginning of the Opium Wars .
With Thomas Chaye Beale as a partner, the company traded as “Dent, Beale & Co.” from 1845. After Beale left the company in 1857, the old name “Dent & Co.” was used again.
In 1841 Dent moved its headquarters to Victoria City . He was one of the first Hong Kong companies to buy land in the Central District as part of the urban development program . Dent was also one of the very first traders to open offices in Shanghai when the city opened to worldwide trading in 1843. Its business premises were at address 14, The Bund , and it was from there that the company's involvement in the international silk and tea trade began.
Dent's offices were also located in 35 Grosvenor Square, London and Foo Chow Foo, China.
Dent was a founding member of the provisional committee that established Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited in March 1865. Francis Chomley of Dent & Co. presided over the first meeting of the provisional committee on August 6, 1864.
On May 11, 1866, the financial world fell into crisis with the bankruptcy of Overend, Gurney and Co. Limited , a discount bank on Lombard Street in London. The panic in the City of London sparked a run on a multitude of banks, which in turn led to the collapse of many other businesses. As a result of these events, Dent was forced to cease operations in Hong Kong. Its competitor Jardine's escaped the disaster because the company was notified early - its mail steamer, bringing news from Calcutta , arrived an hour before the other ships - and withdrew its funds from a bankrupt bank before anyone else in Hong Kong knew of the crisis attained.
Dent & Co., on the other hand, ceased operations in Hong Kong in 1867. Its headquarters, which had moved to Shanghai, also collapsed a short time later. On May 8, 1867, Dent's proposed to its lenders to settle the outstanding debts within two and a half years, beginning on June 30, 1867, on the basis of a 12.5: 1 arrangement. The offer was accepted.
Dent & Co. was re-established shortly afterwards as Dent Brothers with headquarters in London and Shanghai by Thomas Dent's sons Alfred and Edward.
Business premises
On the corner of Pedder Street and the Praya Central at the harbor - where the office and shopping complex The Landmark is today - was the Dents office building. The first building was erected in 1850 and completely rebuilt in 1864.
After Dent & Co. collapsed, half of the property on Pedder Street was sold to the newly formed Hong Kong Hotel Company . The hotel installed in it became Hong Kong's first luxury hotel. Other trading companies moved into the remaining part of the west wing. The hotel was expanded to the north and converted into a six-story building in 1893. In 1926 it fell victim to a fire.
The site was bought by Hong Kong land and Gloucester Tower was built there in 1932. In 1979 the complex The Landmark was built there.
See also
literature
- Hosea Ballou Morse, The Chronicle of the East India Company Trading to China, 1635-1834. 5 volumes. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1926-1929.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Genealogical page of the Robarts family , accessed June 29, 2011
- ↑ John L. Cranmer-Byng, Lindsay T. Ride: Notes on Hunter's Journal. In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch. Vol. 4, 1964, ISSN 1991-7295 , pp. 37-41, here p. 40, no. 36, online (PDF; 180 kB) .
- ↑ a b Jason Wordie: Streets. Exploring Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong 2002, ISBN 962-209-563-1 .
- ↑ a b partner of Captain Alexander Blakely RA ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 28, 2011
- ↑ a b Trevor Bedford, Hong Kong Land , reported in "Meeting heritage challenge," South China Morning Post, November 30, 1978
- ↑ Feature: Buildings for Pedder Street since colonialization ( Memento of the original from March 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Sing Pao Daily News, Oct. 29, 2005
