I believe that friends of Shantou will more or less hear from the older generation that during the prosperous development stage of Shantou’s commercial port, many foreign investors came to Shantou to open foreign banks. The old people at that time would call them “capitals”. , including "Deji Matheson", which is used to name the place "Dejiqian", the old British-owned "Yihe Matheson" and "Taikoo Matheson". Today we will talk about the Deji of "Dejiqian" The story of foreign companies and Shantou.
Taken in 1900 by Deji Foreign Trade Co., Ltd.
I believe people in Shantou have more or less heard of a place name called "Dejiqian". Where exactly "Dejiqian" is located, everyone's opinions are mixed. Moreover, in many local historical records, encyclopedias and other books, the term "Dejiqian" is not found, especially in Xie Xueying's "Guide to Shantou", which has detailed records of many places in Shantou.
Finally found the "Deji Qian" entry in the "Shantou City Place Names" compiled in 1996. The content is quite simple: "At No. 6-14 Haigan Nei Street, Anping District, Shantou City today.
Why is this address called What about "In front of Deji"? Because after Shantou opened as a port, according to "Shantou City Place Names", Englishman James Tait (Deji) founded Deji Yangxing Company here in 1862, so the beach and Fangpeng House in front of the company were called "Deji Qian" is still used today, but in fact there was not only one "Deji Foreign Trade" at that time.
The specific scope of "Deji Qian" is: from the east to the end of Ping Road, to the west of Zhenbang Road in the west. Starting from the north side of Xidi in the south to the south side of Haigannei Street in the north, it covers an area of about 45,000 square meters. "
Before the completion of Xiaoyuan Nansheng Department Store in 1932, the area around Deji Qian and Zhenbang Road was the commercial center of Shantou Port. The most prosperous place is densely populated with foreign department stores, cotton and satin and other retail stores. Nansheng Company was first founded here. It was not until the 1930s that the commercial center of Shantou Port was transferred from here to Siyong Yishengping with a small park as the center.
Tak Kee Wharf on the map of Shantou
In Shantou in the 1860s, there were actually two "Tak Kee" companies. One was Tait & Co. from Xiamen . It was called Tak Kee Matheson Co., Ltd. (commonly known as: "Daji" Deji Selling Shop") was founded by British businessman James Tait (Deji). It was founded in Xiamen in 1845 and belonged to the British East India Company. He did not arrive in Shantou until 1862, and was mainly engaged in the bad business of human labor trafficking, which we call "selling piglets". "Piglets" is the name of the indentured Chinese laborers who were deceived and abducted to the West in the coastal areas of China. .
Xiamen Deji
And another Deji is Bradley & Co., which was founded in 1860 by American Chas William Bradley (Badlie) and British Thomas William Richardson (Li Zixun), is called: Badji, What is more interesting is that the British Li Zhixun was still serving in Xiamen Deji in 1857, while the American Badde was the first U.S. vice consul in Xiamen from 1849 to 1853. In January 1860, he was the first U.S. vice consul in Xiamen. Deputy Consul in Shantou.
Bader is the main investor of Bader, so Bader is actually an American-owned foreign company, while Xiamen Deji is a British-owned foreign company.
American Consulate in Xiamen
In 1861, when Badelet and others were just beginning to prepare for business activities in Shantou, they sent Chen Yujia (a native of Tong'an, Quanzhou Prefecture, Fujian), the then internal translator of (Ba) Deji Foreign Trade Co., to buy land and build houses off the coast of Shantou. There were many factors that led to Badre's preference for Chen Yujia as a translator. Chen Yujia had been conducting business activities in Shantou for a long time in the early years of Xianfeng. She was familiar with Shantou and knew English. Therefore, she quickly helped foreign companies find suitable real estate, and through China The people bought a section of the tidal flat in the name of Wang Zhou, the official of the Chenghai County Government. It was located at the "Xinshi Street intersection of Shantou Nanshe" (the junction of today's De'an Street and Dexing Road). The deed listed "30 long Six feet, thirty feet wide, extending to the guild hall public land on the left and Lu Linxing land on the right." In the first year of Tongzhi (1862), through Wang Zhou's relationship, Chen Yujia went to Chenghai County to verify the contract and pay the deed tax. Therefore, Deji Foreign Company had a red deed in the Chenghai County Yamen.
then began to transport sand and gravel to fill the foundation, which was about 20 feet wide. The remaining tidal flats were more than 10 feet long. Because they had been soaked by seawater for a long time, there was no landfill for the time being. It was just at the newly filled Xinshi Street. A total of more than a dozen bungalows were built. Li Apan, a native of Shawei Township (Cash Sha Township), led dozens of people to continue building houses and reclamation, and demolished some pavilion houses without permission for the employees of Baraleli. Later, Guo Alen (comprador of another foreign company, Guangfu Foreign Company) at that time ( A native of Macao, Xiangshan County, Guangdong Province) "suddenly used many small boats to transport sand and gravel, and forcibly filled up the unclaimed land in the barracks, and they continued to prevent it." Moreover, Guo Aalun and his gang detained workers employed by Deji Matheson. Zhuang Shangyuan and Huang Afu raised the real estate dispute issue with Chenghai County. Later, the matter once escalated to the consular interests between Britain and the United States. The matter was later settled with the mediation of Ruilin, the then Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.
In the fifth year of Tongzhi, Ruilin, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, reported the archives of Deji Foreign Company to the Prime Minister's Yamen.
In 1867, Badel retired and the company was taken over by partner Li Zhixun. Li Zixun has dual nationality, being both British and Dutch, so he concurrently serves as the consul of the Netherlands in Shantou, and at the same time, he changes Shantou's corporate name to a British business company.
At that time, (Ba) Tak Kee Company had its own dock and office building. The business scope includes owning Shantou Ice Factory, freighter company, import and export of various commodities, and most importantly, it also operates insurance as an agent. (Ba) Deji Foreign Company changed its nature after was taken over by partner Li Zhixun. It was initially protected by the US Consulate so it developed smoothly and rapidly. After it was taken over by Li Zhixun, it also began to be protected by the British and With the protection of the Dutch,
was transformed into a British business-controlled Deji Foreign Company, which took a fancy to the business advantages of Chaozhou Prefecture. Therefore, in the sixth year of Tongzhi (1867), Wu Yinglong, a comprador with poor quality of Deji's foreign goods, let him Cai Yaxue, a native of Chenghai, rented a shop house in Chaozhou Fucheng for business. Ye Baojin, who lived in the east gate of Chaozhou Fucheng, decided to rent it to Cai. However, Cai Yaxue's actions angered Qiu Buqiong, a public gentry merchant and others in Chaozhou Prefecture at that time.
Qiu Buqiong was a patriot, so he firmly refused the British to set up a consulate, open a port, or engage in business in Chaozhou. Qiu Buxiong also asked the Qing government to write a report and wait in Guangzhou, asking the Qing government to investigate and deal with it seriously. However, he did not wait for a response from the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, but sent a letter on his own. Brother Sheng, a native of Chaozhou Fucheng, and others smashed the offices of Deji Foreign Company in Chaozhou, captured Cai Yaxue, the comprador of Deji Foreign Company, and sent him to Chaozhou Prefecture for imprisonment.
Deji Foreign Company immediately reported it to the Governor-General's Office of Guangdong and Guangxi through the British Consul in Guangzhou. The Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi sent Alternate Hua Tingjie as a special committee member, jointly with Chaozhou Town General Soldier , Hui Chaojia Military Preparation Station, Chaozhou Prefecture An integrated investigation was carried out, and mediation was carried out with the local business group in Chaozhou. Ye Baojin compensated Deji Foreign Company. However, Chaozhou businessmen were still resistant to leasing to Deji Foreign Company.
After learning about this, the British immediately dispatched warships to Shantou to express strong protest. In June 1867, the British warships sent three warships into the Shantou river on the pretext of going to the Chaozhou inland river to detect the depth of the waterway. The other two sailed into Wumei and Xidun (about today's Shantou) on the 28th. Parked near Yuemeiwu in Zhongshan Park. Because the water was shallow at low tide, we could not drive in, so we had to return to Shantou Haikou. Then, the smallest British warship set off from Deji Pier in Shantou again and sailed directly to Dajiao (now Dajiao Village next to the embankment road), which was then a county in Jieyang, to detect water channels. This place was only a few meters away from Chaozhou Prefecture. Thirty miles away.
In the end, under the power of Zhou Xichou, the alternate county commissioner of the Chaozhou Li Bureau, the Chaozhou gentry and merchants were allowed to compensate Deji Foreign Company for the loss of 150 yuan in foreign currency from the purchase of the house. However, by persuading the British consul Gu Weilin, Deji was allowed to Ji Yang Company did not want to set up a branch in Chaozhou City for the time being, and Deji Yang Company had no choice but to accept it. But after this incident, Deji Foreign Company became famous in Shantou. With the support of British consul and military power, other foreign companies would also be somewhat afraid of Deji Foreign Company.
In 1906, the British Minister reported to the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi a list of conflicts between the Shantou Service Bureau and Deji Foreign Company
(Ba) In addition to developing shipping business and hotel leasing business in Shantou, Deji Foreign Company was also interested in the trading of kerosene. The number of stops at Shantou port gradually increased, and Deji Foreign Company considered setting up a kerosene store in Shantou. In 1894, (Ba) Deji Foreign Company applied to Huichao Jiabingdao through the British Consul, Customs and Taxation Department to establish an iron house oil pool in Queshi, Shantou, to store kerosene.
Another Deji, Xiamen Deji excludes goods other than freight and mainly engages in illegal activities of selling Chinese labor in Shantou. The most ironic thing is that in 1863, Badlie (also the founder of Badde), who was the U.S. consul at the time, The report to the United States mentioned: "The coolie trade in Shantou is growing barbarically. This is a world where people cannibalize people. The reason why this place became a coolie trade center is because if you don't work as a coolie, you will starve to death."
The U.S. Embassy in Shantou Consulate
Xiamen Deji Foreign Company often used the Emigrant ship as a receiving station to lure and deceive Chinese laborers to board the ship and keep them there, waiting for the coolie ships to be transferred abroad to transport them to the British territories around the world at that time to make up for the shortage of colonial labor force. Chinese workers are treated in an inhumane manner, and their behavior is deeply disgusting. They even open so-called "labor recruitment offices" in Shantou, Xiamen, Shanghai and other places openly.
The profits from selling Chinese laborers were also quite astonishing. For example, in a report in the New York Herald Sun on June 19, 1859, an American businessman purchased a ship for 14,000 yuan, and then used Hong Kong and Shanghai to transport coolies to Cuba. , you can get a harvest of 45,000 yuan.
During the war, Xiamen Deji returned to its base in Anping Port, Tainan, Taiwan, and developed other branches in Taiwan. After Taiwan was ceded to Japan by the Qing government, it was taken over by Japan.
The Shantou (Ba) Deji Foreign Company was a very influential foreign company in Shantou, Chaozhou and even Guangdong during the late Qing Dynasty. Deji Foreign Company took the lead in establishing Shantou by competing with Guangfu Foreign Company for the property rights of Shantou Xinshijiekou Wharf. Business activities such as the Queshi Kerosene Store, the rapid expansion of De'an Street and Dexing City, and the construction of new houses and warehouses quickly established a huge commercial organization in Shantou during the late Qing Dynasty.
However, with the combination and rapid rise of other trading houses, Deji Trading Company also declined. The reasons are as follows:
1. Although Deji Trading Company also became a British business firm six years after Tongzhi, it was an American company after all. The foreign companies established by the merchants Baddeli and British businessmen received less support than British merchants such as Jardine Matheson and Swire & Co.;
2. Swire & Matheson, Jardine & Matheson, rose rapidly in the shipping industry, and gradually grew. In the late Qing Dynasty, foreign companies purchased a large number of the former old Deji Foreign Company's warehouses before Deji;
3. More foreign companies entered Shantou Port, such as Asia Foreign Company, Meishang Yisheng Mobil Foreign Company, Sanda Foreign Company, etc.;
4. Local commercial banks or overseas Chinese The rise of commercial banks had a huge impact on foreign-funded commercial banks;
Therefore, Deji Foreign Bank was gradually submerged in the tide of the times. However, as one of the first foreign banks to witness the opening of Shantou, Deji Foreign Bank left a legacy in the old urban area of Shantou. Place names, numerous road names starting with the word "德", and the Shantou place name "Dejiqian" are still passed down.
Transition diagram design of this article: EDC
Source of information and some pictures of this article:
- "Shantou Guide". Modern. Xie Xueying
- http://cstc.lib.stu.edu.cn/node/12945
- https://www.sohu.com /a/280938230_768383
- "Trendy Magazine" (2002.4.) Shao Jiansheng.
- " Shantou Special Economic Zone Evening News " (2017.12.20) Xu Bifeng
- "Shantou Special Economic Zone Evening News" (2017.12.20) 017.12.13) Unknown
