Government and the main banks. Apart from the banks, four conglomerates are most prominent on the Hong Kong scene: Jardine Matheson, Hutchison, Wheelock Marden and the Swire Group (formerly Butterfield and Swire). Be- tween them, these four are generally reckoned to account for about half the total value of all companies listed on the Colony's stock exchanges. In 1973, when the Hong Kong stock market was at its peak, the Jardine group had a market value of £5,000m, and its main subsidiary, Hong Kong Land, with a market value of nearly £2,000m, stood for a while as not only the largest property company in the world, but at a higher value than all the big U.K. property companies put together.44 In 1971 the head of Jardines held 87 directorships, including one on the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank (i.e., the institution issuing some 85% of the Colony's currency, controlling two-thirds of its deposits, and leading the cartel which set interest rates).45 He also was one of the 10 stewards of the Jockey Club. There are 15 companies in Hong Kong which have to have Jardines officials as chairmen or effective heads, regardless of Jardines' actual holding in the firm. In 1971 Jardines controlled the biggest wharf company in the Colony, as well as the biggest property com- pany - though having less than 10% of the shares in these companies. The ar- ticles of Lombard Insurance Co. give Jardines control so long as it owns 10 out of the 409,924 shares - a ruling which can only be abolished by a vote representing three-quarters of the total shares. Jardines is, naturally, a member of the cartel which fixes the Colony's insurance rates- another activity not subject to government regulation. Jardines is close to the major public utilities; it has close links with the tramway, ferry, electric and telephone companies. Many of the most lucrative contracts and franchises in this important sector (see later) are distributed without open bidding or public hearings. One dis- gruntled American businessman interviewed by Fortune in 1971 expressed the frustration of many about this closed network. A propos of the links between Jardines and Hong Kong Land (chairman of both: Henry Keswick), he com- plained: "I accuse Hong Kong Land of this and they say, 'Well, the chairman leaves the room.' I don't care if he leaves the bloody Colony, he still controls it. Conglomerates like Jardines have now branched out well outside the con- fines of the Colony, but Hong Kong is still a privileged base because of the extraordinary licence allowed as regards not merely taxation, but especially the auditing of accounts and the freedom to move currency; plus, of course, the un- paralleled advantage of being in on the inside of every key decision concerning currency supply, lending rates, etc. The Colony, too, it must be remembered, is not some minor economy, but in many ways one of the world's major econo- mies. In 1973, at the height of the stock market boom the average capitalisation value of each of the companies quoted on the Stock Exchange was £405m. Turnover reached as much as £45m in a single day, and the Colony's stock mar- ket was doing more business than the exchanges of France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands put together.
,,46
Small wonder, therefore, that the big old companies enjoy the protection the Colony affords them. This makes any comparative calculation of investment in Hong Kong highly tentative. But it would seem that in recent years of the new
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