RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM

IN THE SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL

SETTLEMENT

J. H. HAAN*

In this article I shall examine the special governmental structure which came into being in the Shanghai International Settlement,1 and which was virtually unique among colonial or semi-colonial territories.

Put succinctly, the Settlement had the following characteristics:

1. It was a territory which had explicitly been set aside by the Chinese authorities (in 1845 on the basis of the 1842 Nanking Treaty) in order that foreigners might live in it and conduct their trade from it. For the rest it was surrounded by Chinese territory, different from, say, Calcutta, Bombay, Colombo or Batavia, which all lay in foreign-dominated areas, if not originally then eventually.

2. It was never the possession of any one single Western power. In this it was distinct from, e.g., Hong Kong, Singapore or Macau. In practice, this meant that no single foreign country was ever able to convert the city into a colony of that country, or to claim sovereignty over it.

In the crown colonies, government was conducted by a Governor who was appointed by the home country, and he was assisted by an Executive Council, equally appointed by the authorities; furthermore, there was a Legislative Council which consisted partly of official, ex officio, members and partly of non-official

* Mr. Haan is a student of the University of Amsterdam.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x
154

Abdullah Sassoon (Member Bombay Legislative Council, 1818-1896)

David Sassoon and His Family

2 daughters

Sir Albert Abdullah

2 daughters

Sir Jacob

Sir Edward

Sir Victor

Joseph

Hannah Moise (d. 1870)

Sir Elias David (1843-1884)

Meyei

Leah Gubbay

David (d. 1879)

Hannah Joseph (d. 1826)

David Sassoon 1792-1864 (First Jewish trader in Shanghai)

Flora Hyeen (d. 1886)

3 daughters

David Sassoon 1832-1867 || Flora Reuben

David Reuben

Arthur Abraham David

1840-1912 || Eugenie Louise Jadilk Perugia

David Aaron

1841-1894 || Flora Abraham

Frederick David

David Sassoon's elder brother, Abdullah Sassoon, who had supervised the family's business in Bombay, was a member of the Bombay Legislative Council. David Sassoon and Company, incorporated in London to buy and sell raw cotton, began to carry opium in the early 1830s. After the Opium War ended in 1842, David Sassoon and Company moved into Hong Kong, and, as soon as British authorities were
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