Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T10:44:11.009Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Jardine Matheson & Company: The Role of External Organization in a Nineteenth-Century Trading Firm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Carol Matheson Connell
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Jardine Matheson & Company, a Hong Kong conglomerate founded in 1832, has survived political upheaval and global and regional economic crises, transforming itself several times. From their beginnings in the commission business, William Jardine and James Matheson developed a reputation for sound financial management that furthered their trading relationships and supported their firm's expansion from agency house to managing agent to investment house between 1832 and 1885. Fundamental to Jardine Matheson's success was the strategic decision to eschew speculation and to concentrate on building a pattern of relationships within and outside the business that would foster the flow of information, the knowledge with which to interpret it, the ability to influence others, and a reputation for probity that would attract and retain trading partners.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , 01 March 2003 , pp. 99 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2003. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Books

Blake, Robert. Jardine Matheson: Traders of the Far East. London, 1999.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. Cambridge, Mass., 1990.Google Scholar
Chapman, Stanley D. Merchant Enterprise in Britain: From the Industrial Revolution to World War I. Cambridge, U.K., 1992.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Michael. British Trade and the Opening of China, 1800-42. Cambridge, U.K., 1951.Google Scholar
Gull, E. M. British Economic Interests in the Far East. New York, 1943.Google Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey. Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. New York, 2000.Google Scholar
Keswick, Maggie, ed. The Thistle and the Jade. Hong Kong, 1982.Google Scholar
King, Frank H. H. The History of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation: The Hongkong Bank in Late Imperial China, 1864-1902. New York, 1988.Google Scholar
Knight, Frank H. Risk, Uncertainty and Profit. Boston, 1921.Google Scholar
Lefevour, Edward. Western Enterprise in Late Ch’ing China. Cambridge, Mass., 1968.Google Scholar
Marshall, Alfred. Principles of Economics. London, 1920.Google Scholar
Matheson, James. Present Position and Prospects ofthe British Trade with China. London, 1836.Google Scholar
Penrose, Edith T. The Theory of the Growth of the Firm. 1959; 3d ed., New York, 1995.Google Scholar
Pitelis, Christos, ed. The Growth ofthe Firm: The Legacy ofEdith Penrose. New York, 2002.Google Scholar

Articles and Essays

Chapman, Stanley D. “British-Based Investment Groups before 1914.” Economic History Review 38 (May 1985): 230–51.Google Scholar
Chapman, Stanley D. “The International Houses: The Continental Contribution to British Commerce, 1800-1860.” Journal of European Economic History 6 (Spring 1977): 5–48.Google Scholar
D’Cruz, Joseph, and Rugman, Alan. “A Theory of Business Networks.” In Multinationals in North America, ed. Eden, Lorraine. Calgary, 1994.Google Scholar
Gomes-Casseres, Benjamin. “Group versus Group: How Alliance Networks Compete.” Harvard Business Review 72 (July-Aug. 1994): 4–11.Google Scholar
Gulati, Ranjay, Nohria, Nitin, and Zaheer, Akbar. “Strategic Networks.” Strategic Management Journal 21 (March 2000): 203–15.Google Scholar
Lazonick, William. “Innovative Enterprise and Historical Transformation.” Enterprise & Society 3 (Spring 2002): 3–47.Google Scholar
Loasby, Brian J. “Edith T. Penrose’s Place in the Filiation of Economic Ideas.” Oeconomia 29 (Aug. 1999): 103–21.Google Scholar
Loasby, Brian J.. “Market Institutions and Economic Evolution.” Journal of Evolutionary Economics 10, no. 3 (2000): 297–309.Google Scholar
Loasby, Brian J. “Marshall’s Economics of Progress.” Journal of Economics Studies 13, no. 5 (1986): 16–26.Google Scholar
Loasby, Brian J.. “The Significance of Penrose’s Theory for the Development of Economics.” Contributions to Political Economy 18 (1999): 31–45.Google Scholar
Nonaka, Ikujiro. “A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation.” Organizational Science 5, no. 1 (Feb. 1994): 14–37.Google Scholar
Penrose, Edith T. “The Growth of the Firm—A Case Study: The Hercules Powder Company.” Business History Review 34 (Spring 1960): 1–24.Google Scholar
Richardson, George B. “The Organisation of Industry.” The Economic Journal 82 (Sept. 1972): 883–96.Google Scholar
Wilkins, Mira. “The Free-Standing Company, 1870-1914: An Important Type of British Foreign Direct Investment.” Economic HistoryReview 41, no. 2 (1988): 259–82.Google Scholar

Unpublished Sources

Canton Register, 1827-1843. Microfilm, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
East India Company Archives, India Office Records. British Library Oriental and India Office Collection, London.Google Scholar
Jardine Matheson Archives. Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, U.K.Google Scholar
Loasby, Brian J. “The Evolution of Knowledge.” Paper presented to the DRUID (Danish Research Unit for Industrial Dynamics) Conference, Denmark, 11 May 2001.Google Scholar
Loasby, Brian J. “Organizations as Interpretive Systems.” Paper presented to the DRUID Conference, Denmark, 16 June 2000.Google Scholar

Online Sources

CIA. World Factbook 2002. “China.” URL: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ch.html.Google Scholar
CIA. World Factbook 2002. “Malaysia.” URL: http//www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/my.html.Google Scholar