William Jardine
Books
- Fast Ships, Bad Trade Opium Clippers and the Making of the China War · Liszt Think
In 1829, the East India Company’s monopoly birthed a vessel designed to outrun monsoons and defy imperial law.
- The Empire’s Last Monopoly…Matheson & Co. was among the most prominent, though in the late 1820s it was still one of several firms competing for a share of the trade. William Jardine had arrived in China in 1802, a young Scottish physician who had traded his medical practice for a career in commerce. Educated in medicine…
- The Red Rover’s Revolution…pose: outrunning the monsoon winds to deliver the first opium of the season. The men who came to examine her plans understood the calculus. William Jardine had arrived in Calcutta that year with a reputation already established in Canton. James Matheson, his partner, had been watching the shipp…
- A Fleet Takes Shape…who could shave days off the passage from Bengal. The competition had begun almost immediately after the Red Rover’s first successful runs. William Jardine, watching the vessel’s performance from his desk in the Canton factory, understood that speed translated directly into profit. An opium cli…