“No one was quite sure when it happened, but eventually some ingenious trader discovered that the English did possess a commodity that the Chinese wanted. It was opium. The merchants had no qualms about peddling opium to wealthy Chinese, and it soon became the most valuable resource in that part of the world at the time. China was quick to ban the substance, but the British managed to find a way to smuggle it in anyway.”
“And the opium trade became big business,” Bond said.
“Correct. In 1836, James Thackeray began trading opium and quickly developed a small clientele which provided him with more money than he had ever dreamed of. Thackeray’s best customer was an extremely wealthy Chinese warlord and government official residing in Guangzhou. His name was Li Wei Tam.” Li paused again, then added, “He was my great-great-grandfather.”
Bond sat up straighter. This story was getting interesting.
“My honourable ancestor was a warlord who was ten years older than Thackeray. He had tremendous influence in Guangzhou and the area around the Pearl River Delta. Although the Ch’ing Dynasty was in power, Li’s loyalties were with the Mings, who had been overthrown in the seventeenth century. Of course, he would never have admitted this publicly. If he had done so, he would have been arrested and most likely put to death. Li Wei Tam was part of a secret society that had pledged to overthrow the Ch’ing Dynasty.
“It was pure luck, really, that James Thackeray had an audience with the warlord and was able to establish a relationship with him. In fact, the two men grew to respect each other. Although they probably wouldn’t have admitted it to other members of their respective races, they became friends. This was due in part, no doubt, to Li Wei Tam’s physical dependence on the drug that James Thackeray so happily supplied.” This last was said with a certain amount of venom.
Li went on: “In 1839, things started to change. The emperor decided to end the opium trade once and for all. The governor of Hunan Province was ordered to confiscate all of Guangzhou’s foreign traders’ opium, thus igniting the First Opium War. For the next three years, James Thackeray found it extremely difficult to get his opium into China and to his favoured customer. Likewise, Li Wei Tam had to go through unpleasant stretches of withdrawal from the drug. Finally, my great-great-grandfather used his influence in his secret society to establish an illegal pipeline from Thackeray to Guangzhou. In one of the first, albeit unethical, cooperative efforts between a British citizen and a Chinese warlord, James Thackeray was allowed to continue his lucrative opium trade and Li Wei Tam was able to perpetuate his comfortable, horizontal life on an opium bed. I suppose you know what happened in 1842?”
Bond answered, “The war had ended, and Hong Kong Island was ceded to the British.”
“Yes. The ban on opium still existed, however. The Chinese government, as a result of what they viewed as an unfair and unequal Treaty, made trade an even more challenging endeavour despite the fact that the Treaty had guaranteed Britain’s right to trade openly and freely.”
Bond added, “In China’s view, the ceding of Hong Kong Island was a humiliating experience and was never wholly forgotten nor forgiven.”
“You are an intelligent man, Mr. Bond,” Li said. “I can almost forget you are a gweilo. Shall I continue?”
“Please do.”
“While companies like Jardine Matheson were allowed to build headquarters on Hong Kong Island, James Thackeray still found himself dealing independently and without any established, legal structure from which to conduct business. He, too, needed a legitimate enterprise that he could call his own. Even though he had made what some men might call a fortune over the last few years, Thackeray needed more capital. It was Li Wei Tam who came to his rescue. One night in 1850, over an exquisite meal, a tremendous amount of rice wine, and quite a bit of opium smoke, a deal was struck that would have repercussions for both men’s descendants. My honourable ancestor offered to “loan” Thackeray the much-needed capital to start his own trading company. Thackeray, who was basically an honest man, was flabbergasted. He said he would accept the money only on condition that they made a provision by which Li could be repaid.
“My great-great-grandfather was drunk and high from the amount of wine and drugs consumed that night, and thought whimsically about Thackeray’s request. For the sake of xinyong, a term that means ‘trust’ in our language, Li Wei Tam attempted to think of a ridiculous demand, which Thackeray could never fulfil, as a gesture of his own generosity. After all, his primary motivation was the continuing supply of opium. James Thackeray was his friend, and Li Wei Tam hadn’t many friends—Chinese or otherwise.
“The ceding of Hong Kong happened to be a much-discussed and extremely controversial topic in southern China at the time. The Treaty signed at Nanking had provided that Hong Kong be handed over to the British in ‘perpetuity.’ ”
Bond added, “There were even British citizens who thought the Treaty was absurd.”
“Yes. At that time, no one could predict that it would one day be the Manhattan of the Far East. Therefore, with a sly grin, my great-great-grandfather told his friend, “Mr. Thackeray, you may have the money for your company on one condition. You must sign an agreement with me. Should Hong Kong ever come under Chinese rule again, then your assets in the company shall be handed over to me. It would then become my company.”
“Thackeray, who believed that Hong Kong would never leave British rule, laughed and agreed. The two men drew up official legal documents. James Thackeray signed them, and Li Wei Tam applied his chop, our official family seal, alongside the signature. It was maijiang of the highest order. Thus, EurAsia Enterprises was born.”
My God, Bond thought, the roots of this whole mess went back a century and a half!
Li continued. “Opium was legalized in 1856 as the Second Opium War began, and during the following years James Thackeray became one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest men. EurAsia Enterprises flourished, and even London recognized his and the company’s importance. The Kowloon peninsula was ceded to Britain in 1860, and finally, in 1898, the New Territories was leased to Britain for ninety-nine years. Little did anyone know at the time that this last Treaty, signed at the Second Convention of Peking, would have a direct effect on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon as well.”
“What happened to Thackeray and your great-great-grandfather?” Bond asked.
“James Thackeray died in 1871. His son Richard took over EurAsia Enterprises and continued to trade opium to Li Wei Tam, who had reached a ripe old age. The company expanded, opening branches all over the world. My great-great-grandfather finally succumbed to the gods in 1877, and the partnership between the Thackeray family and the Li family ended. My great-grandfather, Li’s only son, never approved of his father’s addiction to opium, nor of the gweilo who sold it to him. He did, however, make sure that the agreement signed by the elder Thackeray and his father remained intact and safe. Perhaps someday it would come in useful.”
Li stood and refilled Bond’s glass, then resumed his place in the leather armchair to continue the story. “Now the tale gets a little complicated,” he said with a smile. “To cut a long story short, in 1911 civil war broke out in China. You may know that an ambitious, Western-educated revolutionary named Dr. Sun Yat-sen initiated a rebellion dedicated to establishing a republican government in China. He succeeded; by 1912, the Ch’ing Dynasty was no more.”