Download or read book The Thistle and the Jade written by Maggie Keswick and published by White Lion Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jardine, Matheson & Co. was founded in Canton in 1832, and built up to become an international trading house with business interests throughout the world. The Thistle & The Jade assembles contributions from both leading historians, such as Professor John King Fairbank and Professor K.C. Lui, and old Jardine hands, including Alan Reid and Sir John Keswick, to tell the story of how this happened. The result is a fascinating miscellany of scholarship and anecdote that tells an exciting tale of merchant adventure, of how wealth and influence were accumulated in the early days of trading, and of the special relationship forged by 'the Princely Hong' with China and her people.