Letter from 2004

Since there is nothing happening at the moment, let's grab another old letter at random:


Goss! Goss! Goss! Discovered something downright mmmmmm-ish today. You know the odd fact that the Jardine Mathersons had a godown in Causeway Bay way back in the 1830s, before HK was even a twinkle in UK's eye? Well, I just assumed that "godown" was Cantonese for "warehouse" ... but it isn't! It's the Hindi word for "opium processing factory." and the J.M.s had a "godown" in the Bay of Bengal as well, so it's the SAME WORD MEANING THE SAME THING in both cases.

I knew it!!! I knew they had to have an opium connection somewhere in their origins. I've long suspected these guys were the ones who started the Opium Wars and HK was acquired by UK mainly for their benefit ... and now I'm planning, as soon as I've finished writing these M.A. pieces, to read up all I can find on these wars and this family and uncover this mystery once and for all.

Actually, I don't have anything against either of these families. Not even slightly. When a couple of them were in Fiji back in the mid 70s (they were worried about what would happen after the Handover and were trying to come up with Plan B) I found them unutterably charming and NICE. In fact, I'd even say the madcap female one who was crazy about parrots is probably up there with Jessica Mitford and Lloyd Georges' daughter as the most interesting and lovely women I've ever met.

But this isn't really about them at all. It's really about me wanting to know what actually happened and how a family rises up from nothing to become so vastly major in the world of business. There could even be a mini-series in it someplace ... although I think they'd hate me for it.

Oh, and the other thing I discovered is that among the names the J.M.s use to hide the full extent of their wealth are: Yee Wo (it's the name of a major HK street) and Ewo. AND you may not know that Ewo is the major shareholder in all the biggest cigarette factories in China. Gosh, can you imagine having the lion's share of Mainland China's tobacco revenue? The way the Mainlanders smoke, the Jardine Mathersons must be among the richest families on earth.

 Oh, I do so love having a mystery to solve. I want to get onto it immediately. I wonder if they'll let me hand in my M.A. pieces very, very late?




2010 Update:  Solved this one by reading the most extraordinary book "Opium: A History" by Martin Booth which answered all my questions plus added a great many new ones. Most fascinating subject, opium ... and the Jardine Mathersons too!