[
    {
        "id": 213235,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1994",
        "page_number": 57,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "36\n\nPaul Ehlers opened an office in Macao in September 1858 as a general agent and commission merchant (FC 9 Sept. 1858). This was during the Second Opium War when foreign merchants who had been trading at Canton had to locate in Hong Kong or Macao. After the British forces occupied Canton, some of the merchants moved back; Paul Ehlers moved on 9 December 1858 (FC 9 Dec. 1858). In January 1859, he and Theodore Hesse entered into partnership as Hesse, Ehlers and Co. (GG 8 Jan. 1859). Mr. Ehlers returned to Europe in 1865 and withdrew from the firm. It continued under the name of Hesse and Co. (GG 18 Nov. 1865). Five years after his departure from China, Mr. Ehlers returned and began conducting business under his own name at Hong Kong (GG 14 May 1870). In 1872, Paul Ehlers and Carl Robert Meuser formed a partnership. Meuser had been doing business on his own account since October 1871 (CM 3 Jan., 20 Oct. 1872). The firm went into liquidation in 1874. The business was taken over by a former employee, Justus Peter Lembke of Hamburg (CM, 29 Sept. 1875). He continued doing business in Hong Kong as Justus Lembke and Co. until 1890, when he transferred the business and goodwill to the China Export and Import Bank Compagnie. Mr. Lembke was appointed the manager of the new Hong Kong office of the Hamburg-based firm, and Hermann Witte and Ernest Brubitz were authorised to sign for the firm (HKT 3 Mar. 1890). Since writing this article, I have received from Mr. Alfred Schmitt, of Hoechst China Ltd, a history of the firm entitled Die China Export-Import-und-Bank-Compagnie, undated but recently published. After the First World War, the company was re-established in Hong Kong with its head office in Shanghai and branches also at Canton, Tientsin, Osaka, and Tokyo.\n\nWhen Paul Ehlers returned to Europe in 1865, the business of Hesse, Ehlers and Co. was continued by Theodore Hesse under the name of Hesse and Co., with Herman Peter Hase in charge of the Canton office. Under his full name, Anton Hermann Peter Hase, he was admitted a partner in 1867 (GG 5 Jan. 1867). Six months later, Mr. Hesse withdrew, and it was continued under the same name by Mr. Hase. Hase died at Marseilles in December 1873. He named Hermann Stolterfoht, an assistant in his firm, as the executor of his will (PRO Will File No. 221 of 1874 [4/274]). Leonard Stael became a partner of Hesse and Co. in 1869 and retired in 1879 (GG 3 July 1869, DP 1 Jan. 1880).\n\nHermann Stolterfoht was admitted a partner in Hesse and Co. shortly after the death of the senior partner in 1873. Charles Joseph Hirst joined",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213236,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1994",
        "page_number": 58,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "37\n\nMr. Stolterfoht in 1880 (DP 6 Mar. 1880) The following notice appeared in the Government Gazette on 1 January 1885: “We, Hermann Stolterfoht and Charles Hirst, the only remaining partners in the firm of Hesse and Company, Hong Kong and Canton, have decided to continue the business of the said firm under name Stolterfoht and Hirst with the same capital as heretofore. The interest and responsibility of the original partner, Mr. Theodore Hesse, ceased entirely on 30 June 1867 when his capital was withdrawn. Mr. Oscar Wegener has been authorised to sign for the new firm per procuration The firm continued under this name for ten years. Then Mr. Hirst withdrew and was replaced by Edward Hagen and the name was changed to Stolterfoht and Hagen.\n\nIn 1898 the business was transferred to Lautz, Wegener and Co The liquidators of the old company were Oscar Wegener and Alfred Finke (DP 5 Jan. 1898).\n\nMr. Hagen must have died within a short time of entering the partnership as the surviving partner advertised in April 1897 that the late Mr Hagen's interest in the company ended on 1 January 1897 and Mr. Stolterfoht would continue the business on his own account (GG 19 Apr. 1897). A year later Mr Stolterfoht transferred his business to the firm of Lautz, Wegener and Co.\n\nThe firm of Lautz and Haesloop was registered at the German Consulate at Swatow in 1892 (DP 25 Apr. 1892). The next year the firm of Lautz, Wegener and Co. was formed by Johann Theodore Lautz, Oscar Wegener and Franz Heinrich Luedes Haesloop (DP 3 Jan 1893). Lautz had been at one time an assistant in Melchers and Co. Mr. Wegener had been an assistant in the firm of Hesse and Co. and Stolterfoht and Hirst. He remained with the firm of Lautz, Wegener and Co. until his death by suicide in April 1902. He left a letter stating he took his life because of ill health (HKT 24 Apr. 1902)\n\nVogel, Hagedorn and Co opened a branch at Shanghai in 1871 under the management of Charles Vogel and Theodore Schneider (DP 1 Aug. 1871). About the year 1883 Vogel and Co ceased doing business in Hong Kong.\n\nHemrich Kuchhoff became a partner of Vogel, Hagedorn and Co. in 1868 and remained with the company when its name was changed to Vogel and Co. He was successively in Canton and Shanghai. After Vogel and Co. closed, he traded as a partner in the firm of Kirchhoff and Levogt at Shanghai, where he died in September 1883 (DP 3 Oct. 1883).",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]