[
    {
        "id": 212478,
        "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-1991",
        "page_number": 32,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "12\n\nsupport my wife and family. In 6 year of Hum Foong (1856) being advanced in age, I handed over all my property to my eldest son Cheng Chuen to manage and sign my name Soong Ke in all business transactions, and he has already managed for several years. In consequence of my having to return home to my native place in the present year to build an ancestor's hall out of my own money, and consequently coming and going I took sick and a large carbuncle broke out on my thigh, getting worse day by day, being now about sixty years of age and my constitution is weak.\n\nHong Kong-Shanghai and Shanghai-Canton-Hong Kong Networks\n\nCantonese compradors were predominant in the nineteenth century. They occupied most of the compradorship in foreign mercantile establishments. They were influential in Hong Kong, enjoying a high status in the business community. Cantonese compradors filled the new posts by personal ties, extending their influence from one place to another. For example, Xu Run was introduced by his uncles Xu Yuting and Xu Rongcun who had been working as compradors to Dent & Co. in Shanghai for many years. Xu was first employed as an assistant comprador and later succeeded his family members as compradors: one of his sons to a German firm; one of his cousins as Dent's Kiukiang (Jiujiang) comprador; and another cousin as Shanghai comprador to Carlowitz & Co.\n\nLikewise, Zheng Guanying was also introduced by his relative in Shanghai to serve the compradorship in Butterfield, Swire & Co. Tang Tingshu was introduced by his Zhongshan colleague called Acum (Lin Qin) to James Whittall, the Jardine's Shanghai manager, then he became a comprador to Jardine, Matheson & Co. Tang later guaranteed his elder brother Tang Maozhi as the firm's Tianjin comprador and this brother later succeeded him as chief comprador in Shanghai when Tang Tingshu was relocated to work at the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co. in 1873. The post was held by the Tang family for several decades. The last was his grandson Tang Jichang. Those three compradors came from the same Zhongshan prefecture and had an inter-relationship. Zheng was a relative to Tang by marriage and also knew the Xu family for generations.\n\nZheng had guaranteed a Zhongshan townman named Yang Guixuan",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 212489,
        "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-1991",
        "page_number": 43,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "23\n\nCloth Mill in 1879. They were regarded as merchants willing to take risks in adventurous undertakings, however, some of them lost money from pouring capital in modern enterprises and some even went bankrupt by speculating.\n\nXu Run (1838-1911)\n\nXu was the earliest, before Tang and Zheng, to come to Shanghai for business and trade as a comprador. In 1852, at the age of 15 Xu left his hometown Zhongshan, trade as a comprador. In 1852, at the age of 15 Xu left his hometown Zhongshan, transited through Macau and Hong Kong to Shanghai where he lived with his uncle Xu Yuting who was working at the Dent & Company in Shanghai (the first Western firm to open a branch in Shanghai) as a comprador. Xu entered Dent & Co. through his uncle's connection. Four years later Xu was promoted from a trainee (as Xu himself stated, he first learnt the tea and silk trade when entering the Company) to an assistant comprador and finally in 1861, he succeeded his uncle as the comprador. His diligent performance was greatly admired by the manager of Dent & Co., E. Webb. From Xu's autobiography, we are able to assess the wealth of a Cantonese comprador in Shanghai accumulated during his compradorial years and also as an independent merchant in which his business investment included various modern enterprises. Furthermore, his autobiography also tells of his complicated relations with Sheng Xuanhuai and Yuan Shikai as well as a part of his personal family history.\n\n30\n\nIn 1868, Xu Run left Dent & Co. and started his own business. He opened the Baoyuanxiang Tea House. The name itself manifested a tea trade business. By 1883, Xu had accumulated a personal wealth of 3,409,423.3 taels.\n\nItem\n\nTable 4\n\nAssets Owned by Xu Run in 1883\n\n  \n    Item\n    Amount (taels)\n    %\n  \n  \n    Landed property in Shanghai\n    2,236,940.0\n    65.61\n  \n  \n    Miscellaneous stocks\n    426,912.0\n    12.52\n  \n  \n    Capital in pawnshops\n    348,571.3\n    10.22\n  \n  \n    Shares in custody\n    397,000.0\n    11.64\n  \n  \n    Total\n    3,409,423.3\n    99.90\n  \n\nSource: Ku Run, Qing Xu Yuzhi Kiansheng Run Zixu Nianpu, pp 67-8",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 212500,
        "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-1991",
        "page_number": 54,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "34\n\nChan Kin Tong 陳健堂 Cheang Hoong WA Chen Xuyuan 陳照元 Ding Richang TRS Guo Piao 郭標\n\nHo Kai 何啟\n\nHo Tung 何東\n\nHuang Huan'nan #\n\nJian Dongfu 簡東甫\n\nGlossary\n\nWu Jianzhang f Xu Rongcun 徐榮村 Xu Run 徐潤 Xu Yuting 徐鈺亭 Yuan Shikai 袁世凱 Zheng Guanying\n\nZheng Tingjiang\n\nBaoyuanxiang 寶源祥\n\nZuo Zongtang E\n\nLaw Pak Sheung\n\nA\n\nBendi 本地\n\nLaw Sai Nam 劉世南\n\nLee Chak 李澤\n\nguandu-shangban\n\nLeung Xiu 梁喬 Li Hing 李慶\n\nLi Hongzhang 李鴻章 Lo Hok Pang #09 Ng A Cheong AS\n\nO Kee Cheung 柯其祥 Sheng Xuanhuai 盛宣懷 Soong Xe 宋琪\n\nSung Chin Tseung\n\nTong Mow Chee #\n\nTong Ying Shu (Xing Sing)\n\n唐廷樞(景星)\n\nWei Kwong #*\n\nWei Yuk 韋玉\n\nDanjia 晉家 #\n\nGuang Yang Xing 廣陽興\n\nGuang Zhao Gongsuo 廣肇公所 Heshengxiang #\n\nhuashang fugu huodong HÆ!\n\nKejia 客家\n\nlianhao 聯號\n\nO Chin Sin Tong\n\nQing Xu Yuzhi Xiansheng Run\n\nZixu Nianpu\n\n清徐雨之先生潤自序年譜\n\nSanyi 三邑\n\nShiyi 四邑\n\ntongxiang hui 同鄉會\n\nZongban 總辦\n\nWong Kong 黄亞廣\n\nReferences\n\nCheng, T C. 1969 Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Councils\n\nin Hong Kong In Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 9: 1-30\n\nChoi, Chi-cheung 1991 Cong difangzhi kan Xiangshan xian difang shili de zhuanbian (The influence of migration in Xiangshan county as viewed from local gazetteers) In Zhongguo Shehui Jingjishi Yanjiu 1991/1: 60-8\n\n1993. Competition among Brothers: the Kun Tye Lung Company and its Associate Companies, Unpublished paper presented at the Workshop on Chinese Business Houses in Southeast Asia since 1870 School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
        "rank": 0
    }
]