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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
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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.

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