15
He returned with his savings. In middle age, he started his own business, a timber shop in Hong Kong.
When I was young I lived in the village. When grown up I went to California. I came to Hong Kong in my middle age and established the business of the Kwong Ut Lung timber shop. Fortunately I accumulated some savings and invested them in property, business and shares of which the following...
Li Hing, a Dongguan native, had worked in an opium shop in Hong Kong for more than twenty years. As he said, he was diligent and economical otherwise he could not save money. It was known that his "little money" amounted to 5,440 taels, for Li held partnerships in a native bank, two opium shops, a timber shop and a wharf in Hong Kong. In addition he also had eleven shops and a share in the Hong Kong Fire Insurance Co. of $340. As he mentioned in his will:
I (Li Hing), alias Peng Sam, maker of this will, I am a native of the Village called Tong Mei, in the District of Tung Koon, I have been employed, as a Manager, in the Tuk Lung opium shop over twenty years. I have always been contented with my lot, and I have always behaved myself with decorum. I have been diligent and economical, and by self-denial, I have fortunately obtained favour from Heaven above, and saved a little money.
Li was not only employed in the opium shop, but he had also invested for himself, though we do not know from the above whether his investment was started after he left the Tuk Lung firm or when he worked in the firm.
Table 1
Native Origins of Hong Kong Merchants
Native places 1850-70 1871-80 1881-90 1891-1900 1901-06 Total Xinning 7 3 4 14 Xinhui 3 4 6 I 14 Kaiping 2 2 4 Xiangshan 2 2 9 3 17 Baoan 1 2 2 6 Panyu 3 5 9 2 8 5 15 Nanhai among the richest of the Chinese compradors in the treaty