JARDINE MATHESON & CO. (contd.)
588 II.
An East Indiaman bound for Hongkong from Calcutta went ashore on Lamma Island, about five miles from Hongkong, and was taken over by Jardine's as she lay. The crest, believed to be a composite design of the Master's, the East India Company's and the Government's, was removed to East Point, where it has remained ever since.
Together with this ornamental crest there were brought from the ship her whole small armament of fifteen muskets, ten pistols and eight cutlasses, still kept at East Point. The firearms have on them a Crown and "H.H.M. & Co.," and the cutlasses are marked with the Crown and "V.R.".
There is a large stack of old shipping documents in the possession of the firm which some day, if sorted out, may give the authentic history of this crest.
Jardine, Matheson and Co. also did a great deal of business from the very early times in the treaty ports, Swatow, Amoy, and Shanghai, in addition to Hongkong and Canton. At a time when stable currency was even less known in some of the ports than to-day, a system of "banknotes" was found convenient, and the firm issued a number of these, one of which, for $100, is reproduced. It is headed Swatow, China, and the date is 188-, showing that this "banknote" system was in operation in the Eighties. The inscription reads "We promise to pay the bearer on demand at our office here." The name of the firm is printed in bold lettering up the edge of the English portion of the note, with a Chinese equivalent to the left. The whole document measures eight and a quarter inches by four and a half, and is printed on a good quality handmade white paper, watermarked "Jardine Matheson & Co., China."
The printing was done by Waterlow and Sons. I have seen copies of these notes in denominations of ten dollars in addition to the hundred dollar one reproduced here, and it is likely that various other denominations were printed. It is not known exactly when they went out of use.
This closes the series of notes on Jardine's, and if I have succeeded in recapturing some of the romance associated with British commercial pioneering in the Far East, I shall be content.
EARLY CHART OF CHINA COAST
Readers will be interested to know that among some old documents found recently by Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., at their Godowns at East Point, going back to 1790, was an old Chart of the China Coast published by James Horsburg, Hydrographer to the Honourable the East India Co., in February, 1835.
This Chart is in a wonderful state of preservation and must be the first issued of the China Coast. It now hangs in the firm's Shipping Office, and can be seen during office hours by anyone interested.
The history of the Indo-China S. N. Co., Ltd. can be traced further back than 1835, for though the Company was incorporated under the Companies' Act on November 30, 1881, it had its origin in sail in the early days of the nineteenth century when the vessels were the property of Jardine, Matheson & Co. and sailed under the same house flag as they do to-day.
It is interesting to note that the Chart referred to was compiled partly from information supplied by Captain John Rees, who was in the employ of Jardine, Matheson & Co., and in the affectionate wording of the period the Chart bears the following inscription to this intrepid navigator: "To John Rees, F.R.S., for the liberal aid of his Chinese M.S.S. and the benefit derived from his excellent map of that Empire presented by him to the Honourable the East India Co., this Chart of the East Coast of China is inscribed by his obliged friend James Horsburg."
Incidentally, Horsburg is commemorated in the name of an important lighthouse near Singapore.