Robert Bickers - China Bound: John Swire & Sons and Its World, 1816 – 1980

No one writes the history of the British presence in China like Robert Bickers. In China Bound he tells the remarkable story, spread across two tumultuous centuries, of a family-owned company from Liverpool that made itself part of Asia. This is a tale of family, of empire, and of networks.

John M. Carroll, Professor of History, The University of Hong Kong, and author of Edge of Empires: Chinese Elites and British Colonials in Hong Kong

This is the story of one of the major British companies in Asia. But it is so much more than that it is a sweeping tale of how empire was formed, operated at its height, and then had to reinvent itself. Robert Bickers uses a wide range of materials, many of them never before seen by scholars, to tell a story of how Swire created new trade routes and connections in Asia, and how Asia in turn was shaped by the commerce of empire, before having to deal with war and the impact of the Chinese Communist revolution in 1949. Told with the style and verve that would suit the most buccaneering Taipan, this is a powerful and important history that will make its mark at a time when Britains relationship with Asia is taking new and unpredictable turns.

Rana Mitter, author of Chinas War with Japan, 19371945: The Struggle for Survival

How does a Western family business and a family of businesses survive and thrive for over two centuries in Asia? How does a pioneering private enterprise navigate the wars, revolutions, and re-openings of modern China? This is the story of John Swire & Sons, narrated so brilliantly by Robert Bickers. This book is many things: It is a magisterial business history that reads like a novel. It is a drama of empires in conflict and competition. It is the story of how commerce created our modern world and its institutions. And it is a captivating history of China and Hong Kong, seen through the lens of business. This is a book for all who study modern China and its foreign relations and for anyone doing business in China today. This past has many lessons for our present.

William C. Kirby, T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies, Harvard University

With unprecedented access to Swires archives, Robert Bickers has crafted a riveting story of the firms survival through two tumultuous centuries of modern Chinese history. Nations rise and empires fall, and through the storms sail the ships of John Swire & Sons. This is a brilliant work by the leading historian of Britain and China.

Stephen R. Platt, Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and author of Imperial Twilight

For Bob and Joan

Contents

This history began with an invitation. I am grateful to the directors of John Swire & Sons, who invited me to consider writing this book, who gave me a free hand to shape it as I thought most effective, and agreed without hesitation to respect my interpretation of the course of the firms history. I wish to thank then Chairman, the late James Hughes-Hallett, his successor Barnaby Swire, Swire Pacific Chairman Merlin Swire and Sam Swire, for their enthusiastic endorsement of the project when its outline was presented to them. I regret very much that James, along with Sir John and Sir Adrian Swire, who likewise strongly supported this project, passed away before the manuscript was completed. When we met to talk about it, Sir Adrians irrepressible enthusiasm for news of what I might have found in the archive, fair, foul or middling, was unfailingly heartening.

The project has been overseen at John Swire & Sons by Group Archivist Rob Jennings, who has been extremely patient and generous (and who has never before had to mind a writer). I could not have been better or more affably supported in the preparation of a book. I really am very grateful to him for his support and guidance. I would like to thank also Bonnie Sze and the Group Archives team in Hong Kong, Matthew Edmondson, and Angharad McCarrick; and in London Kathryn Boit and Julie Makinson at the School of Oriental and African Studies. I am especially grateful to Charlotte Bleasdale for her strong support of my various forays into the companys history over the past 30 years. As former Group Archivist, Charlotte knows a thing or two about this history. Dr Sabrina Fairchild and Dr Kaori Abe patiently secured a great deal of material from the archives for me, and I would not have been able to complete this in any . Drafts of part or the whole of the manuscript were read by Andrew Hillier, Tim Cole, Peter Kwok-Fai Law, Su Lin Lewis, James Thompson, Charlotte Bleasdale and Rob Jennings. I am grateful to them for their time and their thoughts and queries. I alone am responsible, of course, for the text you have in your hands. Sir Adrian Swire, Paul C. Aranha, James Hughes-Hallett and Catherine Boylan, all spared time in person or by email to answer questions from me for which I would like to thank them. The late David Miller oversaw the first phase of discussion about this commission, but my agent Bill Hamilton helped the book get underway and I am grateful to both for their support. Ian Hallsworth at Bloomsbury has been very patient, and I am grateful too to Allie Collins and Richard Collins, and to Cecilia Mackay for her work on the illustrations.

As I researched some of the episodes and personalities discussed here, I swopped queries and leads, as I have done for three decades now, with my doctoral mentor, collaborator and friend Gary Tiedemann, who knew a thing or two about the Meadows family, and about the Endicotts, and about many, many others. To the great sadness of those who knew him, Rolf Gerhard Tiedemann died unexpectedly as this volume went into production. Unobtrusive contributions from Gary, in matters of detail, of method, and in spirit, can be found throughout this book, as they could be found in all my work to date, and I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to him here.

At the University of Bristol, I am particularly grateful to Mike Basker, and to Simon Potter for supporting me in finding time to work on the book, and to all my colleagues in the Department of History for making it such a stimulating and pleasant place in which to work. The Swire book has been a prominent feature of family life for rather too long, and Kate, Lily and Arthur have been extraordinarily patient, as ever. Now its done.

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