Commercial architecture of a British trading firm in the Far East, 1830s-1930s: building of Jardine Matheson & Co. offices and warehouses

ABSTRACT This paper’s exploration of the architecture of Jardine Matheson & Co. a British mercantile firm in nineteenth century China and Japan, contributes to the socio-spatial examination of western-style architecture in East Asia from the cross-national perspective. Based on an archival survey of the Jardine Matheson Archive and several contemporary sources, the architectural activities of this British colonial merchant that constructed its branches throughout nineteenth-century East Asia are examined with regard to the following points. First, making use of directories published in the nineteenth century, the opening and closure of their branches are summarized throughout East Asia. Second, the spatial composition and historical background of early buildings in Canton and Hong Kong are clarified. Third, with regard to the several branches established in the mid- to late nineteenth century, their historical backgrounds are clarified. Fourth, spatial compositions of several branch buildings are examined making use of architectural plans and pictures. Fifth, the development of modern office building in the early twentieth century is clarified. Finally, summarizing the above examination, the paper shows the changes in branch buildings related to their business model, and places their architecture in the merchant’s commercial network and the British colonial world in nineteenth century East Asia.


Introduction
The history of modern architecture in East Asia starts with the development of Western-style architecture in the nineteenth century.In Hong Kong, which was ceded to the British as its territory in 1842, solid stone buildings, paved streets, sewers and harbor facilities such as wharves and jetties were constructed on the northern shore of the island.Along the southern China coast, the Chinese government opened the treaty ports, where Westerners were granted foreign concessions for their residential and business districts with special administrative rules.In Japan, similarly to the above foreign concessions in China, the Japanese government granted Westerners foreign settlements in the treaty ports.Foreign concessions and settlements comprised the gateway to the introduction of Western-style architecture and, more broadly, to the architectural westernization and development of modern architecture in each country.
The predominant business among foreign concessions and settlements was international trade.Around the abolition of trading monopoly of British East India Company in the mid-nineteenth century, British private merchants started acting their business in East Asia.These merchants exported tea and silks and imported opium and cotton goods in Asian market.
Occasionally, merchants were also involved with speculative businesses such as the construction of railway lines and industrial facilities.Among them, Jardine Matheson & Co. was one of the foremost European mercantile firms active in nineteenth-century East Asia.In fact, Dent & Co., the business rival of Jardine Matheson, declared bankruptcy in 1867, and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, which spread its branches throughout East Asia following its establishment in 1865, was still a young firm at the time (Yip  1983).Established in Canton in 1832 by two Scottish merchants, William Jardine (born in 1784) and James Matheson (born in 1796), Jardine Matheson relocated its head office to Hong Kong, with a branch established in Shanghai three years later.The company established other branches in Yokohama in 1859, and in Hankow in 1862.Hence, it expanded its business network throughout East Asia.In later decades, Jardine Matheson became a conglomerate diversified across several industrial sectors.Although its registered main office is currently located in Bermuda, the company still maintains its headquarters in Hong Kong.Currently, their branch buildings still exist, though these are not used as their branches, in Shanghai  (1920) and Tientsin (1921)  (Fujimori and Wan 1996:  211, 239).
CONTACT Susumu Mizuta smizuta@hiroshima-u.ac.jpAssociate Professor at Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University, 1-4-1 Kagamiyama, Hiroshima, Higashi-hiroshima 739-8527, Japan Amoy, and biographies of British architects in Yokohama who emigrated from Shanghai.In contrast, although the author also examines the architectural styles and architects involved in the properties of Jardine Matheson, the main topic of this paper entails the clarification of the relationship between the layout and floor plans of offices and warehouses and corresponding business activities.
The second question is what negotiation existed among the merchants, architects and locals throughout the construction process under the international network.With reference to the correspondence of Jardine Matheson, the author came to understand not only the construction process of the branch buildings but also the intentions of merchants regarding the building costs, durability, utility and even aesthetics of their branch building projects.In nineteenth-century China and Japan, construction of Western-style architecture was a rarity.Therefore, merchants presumably faced difficulties in procuring professional architectural services and building materials to obtain durable and well-designed buildings.This paper aims to clarify the desire of British merchants and the process of realizing the Western-style architecture involving Western architects with Chinese or Japanese builders in East Asia, which was still a frontier for the merchants to conduct their commercial and architectural activities.
By means of answering these research questions, the author expects to reveal how the architecture of Jardine Matheson could be situated in the context of British colonial architecture in East Asia.Nineteenthcentury China and Japan were informally regarded as parts of the British empire (Marshall 1996, 11-12;  Porter 1999: 111, 148-149, 191).In fact, Westernstyle architecture in the region was possibly understood as a type of colonial architecture (Fujimori and  Wan 1996; Victoir and Zatsepine 2013.On the one hand, the author cannot deny that Western imperialism, with one-sided treaties such as the Treaty of Nanjing (1842), resulted in the construction of colonial architectures along the Bund in Shanghai.On the other hand, recent scholarly works of imperial and economic histories have revealed that the stereotype of British colonialism, as influential and invasive with notable power, should be reconsidered.These works have posited that the British were unexpectedly involved in political strife in several parts of the empire and, as a consequence, expanded their territory under political and economic cooperation with local societies (Cain and Hopkins 2016, 392-413).Jardine Matheson, conducting its business throughout nineteenth-century East Asia, operated under the British economic sphere connected with the informal British empire (Porter 1999) 111; (Bremner 2016, 2019).Moreover, the company continually faced negotiations with Chinese or Japanese merchants in order to carry out its business activities.
By highlighting their struggles in the construction of Western-style buildings first introduced at the British imperial frontier in the Far East, this paper also aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the British empire beyond the perception of Westernstyle architecture as a symbol of British power.
This paper comprises the following sections and conclusions.In section 2, as the source information of the following analysis, the distribution and establishments of Jardine Matheson branches are investigated to reveal the firm's branch network throughout East Asia.The following sections trace the development of architecture of Jardine Matheson over the century to address the research questions in each time period.In section 3, through the examination of Jardine Matheson buildings in Canton and Hong Kong constructed in the midnineteenth century, it is understood that the first buildings were constructed, with the help of British architects and Chinese contractors, as complexes of offices, warehouses and private residences.In section 4, the author addresses the various developments of company branches throughout East Asia during the late nineteenth century to clarify the details of branch buildings and negotiations among merchants, architects and locals.In section 5, with reference to the architectural plans of several branch buildings in the late nineteenth century, the spatial composition is analyzed in regard to the arrangement of floor plans, building layout in compounds, and their relationship with the firm's commercial activities.In section 6, the author addresses the emergence of office buildings in the early twentieth century.As the actual headquarters of the conglomerate, the firm's branch buildings developed into modern concrete buildings with the latest building technologies, although the layout of residential areas still evoked early mercantile buildings in the mid-nineteenth century.
In conclusion, the analysis is summarized considering the significance of Jardine Matheson buildings as British colonial architecture.

Treaty ports and Jardine Matheson branches in China and Japan
Jardine Matheson was established in the Canton Thirteen Factories in 1832.After the relocation of its headquarters to Hong Kong four years later, the company spread its branches throughout East Asia, creating its business network of goods, information and capital (Figure 1).The branch establishments of Jardine Matheson were related to the increase in the number of foreign concessions and settlements, which were special administrative areas assigned as business and residential districts for Westerners in treaty ports.In these areas, plots of land, streets, drainage facilities and wharves were constructed under town planning schemes, where merchants such as Jardine Matheson built their own offices and warehouses.
Near the end of the century, imperialism advanced into North China.In 1896, in accordance with a secret treaty, Russia constructed a railway line in Manchuria connecting Harbin, Dairen (Dalian) and Port Arthur (Lüshunkou District) toward the southern end of the Liaodong Peninsula.In 1898, Weihaimei and Qingdao (Tsingtao) on the Shandong Peninsula were leased to Britain and Germany respectively.In these territories, Westerners constructed solid stone buildings, wide streets and sewage systems similar to those in Hong Kong and other foreign concessions.In 1905, according to the Portsmouth Treaty, Harbin, Dairen and Port Arthur were transferred to Imperial Japan.In these cities in North China, Jardine Matheson also established branches by the early twentieth century.In Korea, although Jardine Matheson did not establish branches, Wonsan and Incheon were designated treaty ports, where the Japanese developed settlements.
In Japan, according to the Ansei Treaties of 1858, five treaty ports, Hakodate, Niigata, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki, and two open markets, Tokyo and Osaka, were assigned for international trade.Among these ports and markets, foreign settlements were developed in Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki and Osaka.Similar to the foreign concessions in China, street pavements, sewage systems, jetties and public gardens were constructed under town planning schemes.In these settlements, offices, residences and other public buildings, decorated with European architectural ornaments and sometimes surrounded by verandahs, were established for the business activities and lives of Westerners.After the abolition of extraterritoriality in Japan in 1899, which ended the foreign settlement system, mixed residence for foreigners was permitted throughout Japan.In 1901, probably due to the increase in international business, the British consulate was established in Shimonoseki, the port city at the eastern edge of Honshu Island.
Jardine Matheson was a mercantile firm conducting international trade (Greenberg 1951; Cheong 1979;  Pichon 2006), supported by a branch network spreading throughout East Asia.At the early stage of business, the company profited by smuggling Indian opium to China and exporting Chinese tea to England.In particular, opium was the most traded commodity, and the amount imported exceeded 600 million dollars in the 1840s.Furthermore, by 1865, opium was sold in Chinese coastal ports, including Shanghai, Tientsin and Foochow.However, owing to the increase in Chinese-produced opium from the 1870s, trade in Indian opium decreased.After the opium trade was prohibited in East Asia, cotton goods became the most imported commodity.Nevertheless, the annual value of cotton imports was notably lower than that of opium (Ishii 1998, 66-132).Tea was one of the most exported commodities of East Asia.It was exported to Britain and later to the American market.Tea leaves produced in the interior of China and Japan were collected by Chinese or Japanese merchants and re-fired, flavored and packed in workshops managed by Western merchants in foreign settlements.The tea leaves processed for export were usually inspected in Shanghai for direct export to Britain or America from Foochow and Nagasaki.However, the tea leaves collected from the interior were frequently rejected as unsatisfactory, and Western merchants therefore struggled to maintain their quality standards (Gardella 1994, 55-56).Thus, import and export business activities stagnated around the late nineteenth century (Ishii 1984), while Jardine Matheson, with financial support from Matheson & Co., the brother company in London, diversified its operations, including acting as an agency for shipping and insurance companies in treaty ports.Additionally, relying on its branch network, Jardine Matheson occasionally dealt in armaments, vessels, and machinery.In Hong Kong, the company invested in a sugar refinery project in 1868, and in Shanghai, it operated a silk filature and cotton mill in the late nineteenth century (Keswick 2008, 303-304).In accordance with the change in the company business model from a trading business to multiple operations, the spatial composition of offices, warehouses and residential blocks was, the author expects, accordingly transformed over the centuries.The author summarized the opening and closure of Jardine Matheson branches in East Asia by searching foreign directories, in which, similar to telephone books, firms and professional services for Westerners were alphabetically listed by city and year (Figure 2).Between 1859 and 1940, the company branches were dispersed across 35 port cities.Among these branches, several branches were managed by company staff dispatched directly from its headquarters, while other branches were managed by agents conducting locally business activities.However, in the case of the Nagasaki branch consigned to Glover & Co., Jardine Matheson owned the properties and buildings, thereby paying land taxes and covering costs to maintain the buildings. 1n the mid-nineteenth century, Jardine Matheson branches were located in treaty ports along the coasts of China and Japan including Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tientsin and Yokohama.Most were established a few years after the opening of treaty ports, with a few exceptions in several branches.For instance, Swatow was opened for international trade in 1860, and Jardine Matheson established its branch 24 years later, while, in Foochow, the company established its branch before the opening as a treaty port in 1861.From the 1890s, the company branches were further dispersed into the interior and Northeast China.Notably, such as Samsui and Dairen, several branches were closed five or ten years after their establishment.
Among the 35 branches of Jardine Matheson, blank operation periods were perceived in several branches.In Hankow and Takao, repeated openings and closures occurred over a few years, which were probably related to changes in agents, but in Nagasaki and Amoy, the branches were re-established 10 or 30 years after closure.The difference in opening year between the company branches and treaty ports and the blank periods of branch operations, as mentioned above, were possibly related to their economic importance for the firm's business.
This paper could not clarify the architectural details of all the above 35 branch buildings.Several branches established in the early twentieth century were perhaps housed in a corner of a rented floor.Referring to several of the most significant branches, the following sections describe their architectural details and the intentions of British merchants regarding the construction of offices, warehouses and residential blocks.

Canton Thirteen Factories and east point in Hong Kong
As mentioned, Jardine Matheson was established as a partnership firm by two merchants: William Jardine and James Matheson.Jardine, a former ship surgeon of The Canton Thirteen Factories, where Magniac & Co. maintained its office, was a special administrative district for Western merchants established along the north shore of the Pearl River (Figure 3).Narrow threestory buildings decorated with Western-style façades were aligned along the east-west axis.In particular, the British Factory (East India Company New Factory) and Dutch Factory were both significant buildings with terraces projecting from their fronts (Hong Kong Museum of Art 1996).Each factory comprised a compound of several buildings with courtyards aligned along the north-south axis.Their architectural style followed that of traditional local buildings around Canton (Farris 2007).The buildings were situated 100 meters away from the river shore, thus reserving the open area in the south front of factories for loading goods from the water.Thirteen Factories Street ran along the north side of these factories.Between the factories, three small streets, Pwantig Qua Street, New China Street and Old China Street, and an alley, Hog Lane, connected Thirteen Factories Street and the open areas at the south front.The extremely narrow streets and alley between the factories were thronged with people (Downs 2014, 29-31).
Each factory was a complex of offices, warehouses and residential blocks for merchants.A godown (warehouse), counting room, comprador office and treasury occupied the ground floor, and sitting rooms, dining rooms and bed rooms occupied the upper floor.Contemporary texts describe that, from the dining room, merchants observed the Pearl River through the front terrace (Hunter 1882, 21-25).The main recreation activities for merchants were the regatta races held on the river in front of the factories (Downs 2014, 48).
The Great Canton Fire of 1822 destroyed the Thirteen Factories entirely, and as a result, several merchants abandoned their premises (Grace 2014,  93).The factories were again destroyed by attacks during the Opium War.After destruction, although several buildings were reconstructed, the factories lost much of their former economic importance and prosperity.
After the Nanjing Treaty, Hong Kong became a new British colonial territory.In July 1841, the colonial government carried out the first land auction (Eitel 1895, 173-174), although, prior to this, Jardine Matheson had already started building a warehouse in East Point in Hong Kong, with Matheson writing in January 1841: ". . .no objection to our stowing opium there, and as soon as New Year holidays over, I shall set about building. ..."3 Here, we perceive the merchant's foresight in procuring this prospective business location.At the same time, however, he was cautious in regard to the rapid expansion of their business in Hong Kong: ". . .we have not yet been able to commence any trade but opium in Hong Kong. ..") 4 Despite the above discussion of the prospects, the company started constructing its business location in Hong Kong.In 1841, Jardine Matheson had already constructed a warehouse for materials transferred from Macau (Keswick 2008 33, 302; Evans 1968).Furthermore, as expected headquarters in Hong Kong, the company purchased sea front land with a width of 300 feet at the first public auction (Grace 2014, 279-280; Brake 1999, 112), where a large building was eventually constructed with materials imported from New South Wales and obtained locally.However, this building was handed over to the colonial government for use as a naval yard (Evans 1968), and as a consequence, Jardine Matheson decided to locate its headquarters in East Point.
East Point, where Jardine Matheson situated its headquarters, is a peninsula at the eastern edge of Victoria City that was developed on the northern side of Hong Kong Island.Reclaiming the shore, the company constructed jetties, wharves and a slipway for ships repair.In this reclaimed area, the company built its office and warehouse.In approximately 1844, by employing a builder from Canton, the company constructed a three-story office with assistants' residential quarters on the top floor (Keswick 2008): 217).Additionally, further construction works of offices and warehouses and extension of reclaimed land followed intermittently with the design delivered by Western architects and the construction conducted by Chinese builders. 5In addition to these business premises, two large bungalows for the company partners, with verandahs lined by Tuscan columns, were located on East Point hill.Thus, Jardine Matheson successfully developed its headquarters at East Point.
Behind the successful development at East Point, the construction of the company buildings sometimes caused friction between Western merchants and Chinese builders regarding their performance.For instance, during the construction of the Jardine Matheson Ice House Building designed by a British architect, T.L. Walker, regardless of the contract stating that more than two months were necessary to complete the project, there were complaints regarding a delay in construction work by Chinese carpenters before the date.Walker struggled to resolve the issue by both explaining the Chinese labor environment and considering the firm's opinion. 6he first building at East Point was a two-story complex containing a warehouse and residential block (Figures 4 and 5, respectively).Following its completion in 1843, it remained for several decades even given the demolition and renewal of surrounding buildings (Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd. ed.1947, 44).Its front façade, directly facing the water, was probably designed for goods loading.The ground floor comprised opium godowns on both sides of the central corridor, Manila guard room, comprador office, and treasury.The upper floor was used as a residential block comprising dining rooms and bedrooms, but most of the upper floor constituted a roof-top garden.The building was of a colonial architectural style, and the spatial composition of the ground floor for warehouse use and of the upper floor for private use was the same as that of the Canton Thirteen Factories where Jardine Matheson commenced its mercantile business.

Development of Jardine Matheson branches in East Asia
Following the development of East Point, Jardine Matheson expanded its branch networks throughout East Asia.With reference to the old pictures, paintings and correspondence exchanged between the merchants, this section analyzes the details of the company branch establishments according to their construction year.
In 1864, Jardine Matheson moved the main office from East Point to the Central District in Hong Kong.The three-story "engineer classical" building stood on the corner of Praya, the wide street along the harbor, and Pedder Street, which was the short street extending straight from the wharf with a clock tower at its end (Keswick 2008, 220-221, 303).When viewed from the wharf, an impressive scene appeared with the head office of the two leading mercantile businesses in Hong Kong on opposite sides of Pedder Street, namely, Jardine Matheson & Co. on the right side and Dent & Co. on the left side (Figure 6).
In 1843, Jardine Matheson obtained a plot of land for its new branch building in Shanghai (Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd. ed.1947, 49).The company was one of the first merchants who settled in the Shanghai concession.The town plan, prepared in approximately 1857, depicts the main house and several warehouses behind it situated on the property next to the British consulate. 7The main house was a two-story building of the colonial architecture style surrounded by verandahs and covered with a roof of Chinese pantiles  allegedly imported from Canton (Roskam 2019, 43).According to a contemporary oil painting, several mercantile houses and warehouses stood along the Bund (a wide street along a river or sea usually recognized in foreign concessions or settlements in East Asia) (Figure 7).At the river in front of the Bund, a large audience of Westerners and Chinese gathered to watch a regatta race, with a crowd on the verandah of Jardine Matheson's house as well.
A mixture of local construction techniques can also be recognized in the first building of the Yokohama branch.Dispatching William Keswick in 1859, Jardine Matheson purchased lot No.1 facing the harbor and lots No. 21 and 22 at the rear (Keswick 2008): 176-177).The main house, a two-story, white-plastered building covered with a large hipped-gabled pantile roof, was depicted in a woodcut painting dated around 1861 (Figure 8).Based on the fact that the company employed Japanese carpenters for house repairs and godown construction in 1862, 8 the first building of the Yokohama branch was probably constructed by Japanese carpenters.
The second main building of the Shanghai branch was completed in 1849 after the demolition of the first branch building.Omitting verandahs, still in common use in foreign concessions and settlements in the midnineteenth century, the building exhibited a rather sophisticated appearance (Figure 9).The one-story portion projecting from the front was the extension constructed in 1890. 9According to the experience of architects having practiced in Shanghai, the plans of this building originated from "the south", 10 designed by a person who was accustomed to a hot climate. 11In those days, "the taipan lived on the premise -not such a long time ago -and the days when from the square tower on the roof ships could be seen passing in and out by Woosung. ..". 12 The warehouses located on the ground floor under the residential area, which was significant in early buildings at East Point and the Thirteen Factories in Canton, had already disappeared.However, the spatial arrangement -the connectedness to the water and the living portion of the upper floor -resembled that of the Canton and East Point buildings during the early decades.The second main building of the Yokohama branch also appeared without verandahs (Figure 10) 13 After the destruction of the first building by the Great Yokohama Fire of 1866, H.P. Austin, then an agent of the Yokohama branch, corresponded with the Hong Kong headquarters for rebuilding plans of the branch office (Mizuta 2010b).Austin asked Whitfield & Dawson, a European architectural firm in Yokohama, to prepare plans and estimates for the new branch building.The cost for the building was estimated $ 15000 to 16,000.14However, this amount was considered to be too high for the company's partner, and another plan  for the new branch building was prepared and forwarded from Hong Kong.Keswick, then the company's partner in Hong Kong, admitted the necessity of building the house in Yokohama, but expressed anxiety about its building cost: 15

I have a good deal of [ ] begin building at present at Yokohama with so much uncertainty hanging over our relation with Japan, but I suppose it is absolutely necessary to have a house put on lot
No. 1 and therefore send you a plan which I trust will be found useful by your builder.I do not think you will be able to adhere accurately to these specifications and the plan, but you will please carry them out as fully as possible, and as may appear to you judicious.I am not aware what the cost of such building will be, but under no circumstance do I wish $10,000 to be exceeded and I trust you will get it strongly and desirably erected for less.
However, to proceed in accordance with the plan forwarded from Hong Kong, it turned out to be difficult to reduce the building cost.Consequently, with an estimation of $13,000, Austin constructed the building without the verandahs and bow-windows originally contained in the plan sent from Hong Kong. 16 At the same time, Austin asked Keswick to arrange to get the mantel pieces for the new building from England.Although Keswick preferred to obtain them locally at a reasonable cost, Austin confessed the difficulty of obtaining them in Yokohama and asked for them to be forwarded from Hong Kong. 17 According to Austin, it was certainly cheaper and more satisfactory to obtain furniture and glass for the new office forwarded from England or Hong Kong than buying in Yokohama. 18E. Whittall, Austin's successor at the Yokohama branch, finally moved into the new house on 9 February 1869. 19egotiations with other branches regarding the construction of new buildings were recognized in the building projects of the Hankow and Foochow branches as well.Since 1862, Jardine Matheson had located its staff in the foreign concession in Hankow, the second largest treaty port along the Yangtze River after Shanghai.In January 1863, H. Magnic of the company's Hankow branch corresponded with James Whittall in Shanghai to recommend Thomas William Kingsmill, British architect in Shanghai, as the architect for the new building of the Hankow branch. 20Kingsmill also designed the design of the new office of Fletcher & Co. in Hankow, which was already under construction at the time.However, Whittall, who was reluctant to ask Kingsmill for the reason regarding the architect's commission, had consulted to realize the building works by Chinese carpenters, while Magnic insisted on employing Kingsmill, as follows: 21   As a consequence, Kingsmill was commissioned to design Jardine Matheson's new office in Hankow.In October 1863, Robert Watmore of the Hankow branch submitted Kingsmill's new plan to Shanghai to arrange furniture and ornamental parts from England. 22In November, timber for the new office arrived from Shanghai. 23The building works were assumedly completed before the summer of 1864, when Kingsmill designed the gate, gate-keeper lodge, and extension of the back verandahs and windows of the main house. 24The completed main office in Hankow was a threestory building surrounded with arcades on every floor, with the gate and gate-keeper lodge in front of the building.The staff supposedly resided on the upper floor (Keswick 2008): 194-195).
Foochow, a prominent port city since the Ming Dynasty, is located at the mouth of the Min River.Jardine Matheson had already dispatched its agent in 1859.Its property book of 1872 described the main house, warehouse-keeper lodge, and three warehouses on the property along the river. 25The construction works for the new office of the Foochow branch commenced around April 1863.Upon inspection of the site, Kingsmill reported weakness of the ground and suggested the employment of European overseers to finish the works by that Christmas. 26Nevertheless, the construction works were carried out by Chinese carpenters.Kingsmill complained about the performance of Chinese laborers. 27Moreover, during construction, several cracks were found in the arches supporting the upper brick verandahs. 28George Whitfield, a partner of Kingsmill, reported that the cracks were caused by the loads exerted by the upper parts and suggested the construction of stone pillars, instead of brick pillars, to support the twentyone arches in the upper portion. 29Alexander Percival in Hong Kong, who considered the reason for these cracks to be the foundation, disagreed with the building cost and required a more detailed explanation. 30On 18 January of the next year, Whitfiled occurred in Amoy to inspect bricks for the Foochow branch building.He ordered 45,000 bricks for the supporting pillars of the upper floor. 31Returning to Foochow, Whitfield's report on the progress of the construction works included that a large number of stone blocks had arrived and been processed to construct the pillars of the verandahs. 32The building works were finally completed in early 1865. 33The author found neither plans nor old pictures of the Foochow branch buildings.However, considering the twenty-one arches of the verandahs, a building artistically surrounded with arcades on both the upper and lower floors was realized.

Spatial composition of Jardine Matheson branch buildings
This section refers to architectural plans and old pictures related to the company branch buildings according to the construction year to analyze the spatial composition, including the building layout of the compound and floor plan of each building.
The Canton branch was established in the foreign concession on Shamian Island.The company's property book of 1872 notes a house and a plot of ground on the island. 34The sketch plan dated March 1863 describes a two-story building comprising offices and residential areas, although it was assumedly not constructed (Figure 11). 35The ground floor contained two entrances, namely, an office entrance on the right side and a private entrance on the left side, both divided by a screen placed around the center of the hallway.The right side of the ground floor was dedicated to business facilities: office, tea inspecting room, treasury, and several rooms for the comprador, tea boys (Chinese workers who deal with tea trading business) and shorffs (workers who inspect coins).In contrast, the left side of the ground floor and the whole area of the upper floor were dedicated to private facilities: dining room, staircase leading to the upper floor, pantry and storage room connected to servant quarters.Notably, the building was a complex of the firm's branch office and staff residences, both of which were clearly divided in the floor plan.
Based on the sketch plan dated 12 October 1867 drawn by a foreign architectural office in the Yokohama settlement, the author understood the proposed rebuilding plan of the second main house of the Yokohama branch (Figure 12). 36The ground floor comprised a dining room, drawing room, office, and master and servant rooms, placed on both sides of a central corridor.The upper floor comprised four bedrooms and four bathrooms.Although the floor plans were not as clearly divided as the sketch plan of Canton, the building was regarded as a complex of office and residential areas.
In addition to the rebuilding of the main house of the Yokohama branch, the company constructed warehouses in accordance with the expansion of its business (Mizuta  2010a).Before the completion of the main house, a stone warehouse was constructed on lot No.1 in January 1868. 37oreover, Austin suggested the construction of other warehouses on lots No.21 and 22 for the property business: 38 I should be glad to know whether you would feel inclined to erect one or two godowns on either of your back lots here, such buildings would cost from $3 or 5000 39 and would I should think be let readily at from $60 or $100 p. month.
Regarding lot No.1, Austin expected further developments: 40 . ..Should too I receive any consignments of sugar I have nowhere to store such matter as it could scarcely be put in a piece goods godown.I have therefore to suggest that you would allow me to erect another godown on lot No.1, one end of which might be two stories to be used for inspecting silk, with the remainder to contain half with a floor of planks & half with stone floored.I enclose a plan of such a building with the estimated cost roughly calculated thereon & amounting to about $3400.
As a result, the warehouse discussed above was completed; an old picture shows a two-story stone warehouse for silk inspection with windows (Figure 10).The construction of other warehouses for rental was also carried out as a property business.Edward Whittall, Austin's successor, corresponded that Chinese merchants required warehouses to deposit their goods. 41onsequently, two two-story warehouses measuring 50 ft.wide and 80 ft.deep were realized around in April 1869. 42As already observed in the rebuilding project of the main house, the building project of the Yokohama branch started from the reconstruction after the fire disaster.However, the merchants here enthusiastically expanded their business through the construction of warehouses beyond fire disaster reconstruction.
Jardine Matheson established its Kobe branch in 1889, and a three-story brick building was located on lot No. 83 in the settlement (Sakamoto 1965).In contrast to the main houses of the Shanghai and Yokohama branches, the house was not a detached building, but the brick walls directly faced streets.The diagrammatic plan of the building layout copied in 1933 depicts the two warehouses measuring 48 ft.wide and 88 ft.deep on lot No. 85 (Figure 13). 43The warehouse on the south side was a fourstory brick building. 44

Emergence of Jardine Matheson office buildings
In the early twentieth century, the company branch buildings were transformed in accordance with the change in their business models.The nineteenthcentury mercantile houses were demolished and renewed as office buildings of the conglomerate.Focusing on several branches, this section analyzes their architectural details.Jardine Matheson's Peking branch was in the Legation Quarter, a special administrative area in the city of Peking where the legations of European countries and branches of enterprises were clustered similar to foreign concessions.The Jardine Matheson branch building was completed in 1911 (Cameron and  Feldwick 1917, 245).The architectural plan dated 1909, contained in the collection of the Jardine Matheson Archive, shows a two-story office building along the street, although the building described here was not constructed (Figure 14).) 45 Both the ground and upper floors were occupied by offices -there are no recognizable rooms for residential use, such as bedrooms or bathrooms.It is possible that the "existing bungalow" was designated as the staff residence, which was located on the south side of the property across the yard.The project of the Peking branch was possibly regarded as entailing not a complex of offices and residences but as a purpose-built office building.
At the Hong Kong headquarters, Jardine Matheson constructed a new office building after the demolition of the former building in the Central District (Wright  and Cartwright 1908, 211).The former headquarters of "engineer classical" building faced the harbor across Praya, which was later renamed and widened as Des Vaux Road after the reclamation works occurring in the 1880s (Yu 2016, 60-61).As a result, the new office lost its water frontage, as seen above.The new office in 1907 was a four-story building with a tower at the corner -designed by a Hong Kong architectural firm, Palmer and Turner (Keswick 2008, 220-221).
In the Shanghai branch, after the demolition of the second building in 1919, the third branch building was constructed at the same location (Figure 15).A contemporary newspaper article reports a detailed description: 46 the architects of the third branch The building, a five-story one of reinforced concrete faced with granite, is designed to permit of an extra story being added at some future date. . .To avoid undue dislocation of business when this addition is made the water tanks, lift-gear rooms, boys-quarters, etc., have been placed at the level required for a sixstory building.
Other than the architectural arrangement for the above future extension, notable points included the latest building technologies and equipment, namely, "reinforced concrete, granite, steel windows, ample fire-  escape staircases, and the very latest fire-fighting appliances being installed with special pumping plant and tanks. .." and "the installing of an inter-departmental telephone system" were provided throughout.The implemented technologies were perhaps remarkable at the time, e.g., a decade later, the Mitsui main building, the headquarters of a conglomerate in 1929 in Tokyo was equipped with a fire-alarming and fire-fighting apparatus (Architectural Institute of Japan ed. 1972, 1519-1521), which was evaluated as the latest technology upon completion (Suzuki and Ishida 1989,  230-234).
In accordance with the development of company business, the Shanghai branch building housed various departments: machinery and mills on the ground floor, shipping and imports on the first floor, insurance, property, cotton and tea on the third floor, and private offices and a board room on the second floor.The fourth floor comprised suites of offices and "a five-roomed flat consisting of a dining room, living room, 3 bedrooms and bathrooms, halls and the usual kitchen offices and boy's quarters".At the rear of the building, garages were placed "with quarters over them for 32 hong coolies, including bath accommodation".
The architecture of the Jardine Matheson Shanghai branch, consisting of various departments with a reinforced concrete structure and various building technologies, was a typical twentieth-century office building, but the mixture of residential areas,47 with a private residential area on the top floor and coolies' quarters in the compound, evoked the spatial composition of the Canton Thirteen Factories.In contrast to the office along the Bund, which housed the administrative section, large warehouses, in addition to the cotton mills and silk filatures operated by the company in the suburbs, were located in the water-front areas of Soochow Creek and Hongkew Wharf (Cameron and Feldwick 1917, 392-393).Although the development of cargo handling has dramatically changed since the mid-nineteenth century, the importance of the water-frontage area is still observed on company business premises.
The Jardine Matheson Shanghai branch was the company's actual headquarters at that time (Brake  1999, 231-232).Its design, structure, and building technology suited its purpose as the headquarters of a conglomerate operating multiple businesses.However, social conditions in Shanghai worsened in the 1930s.Consequently, the company returned its headquarters to Hong Kong.

Conclusion
The narratives of the Jardine Matheson branch buildings from the Canton Thirteen Factories to the rein-forced concrete office building in Shanghai reflected the architectural activities of a British colonial merchant in East Asia.The main findings of this paper can be summarized as the following two points.
First, the spatial compositions of Jardine Matheson branch buildings were closely related to the company's commercial activities.There were two types of buildings related to the firm's business activities: office buildings that were used for business correspondence and accounting and warehouses that were reserved for the storage of import and export goods.In addition to spaces reserved for mercantile activities, private residential areas were integrated into the company buildings.The spatial arrangement of these two different areas, i.e., business and private areas, evolved over time.The author considers that the socio-spatial relationship and its evolution over the century could be revealed by this examination.
Second, the architecture of Jardine Matheson branch buildings were realized through the company's commercial network and the merchants' negotiation.The buildings of Jardines' branch offices and warehouses were of the Western-style architecture, constructed of bricks and stone, surrounded by verandahs, provided with glass windows, and equipped with fireplaces and chimneys.Throughout nineteenth-century East Asia, where constructions of Western-style architecture were still rare, it was necessary for Westerners to seek relevant materials and architects in other places to execute such building works.In those days, the construction was performed by Chinese workers, although misunderstandings regarding their performance caused friction between the merchants and the architects.In regard to the construction of the branch buildings and warehouses, a discussion of the building costs, expected performance of workers, and durability of the buildings occurred between the headquarters in Hong Kong and local branches.Moreover, both merchant cautiousness and persistence were occasionally observed.Through these examinations, it is considered that the construction of western-style architecture could be placed in the international network in nineteenth century East Asia.
The Jardine Matheson branch buildings throughout East Asia were the earliest buildings reflecting Western-style architecture in each country.Simultaneously, as the architecture of British merchants, the spatial arrangements detailed in the floor plans and building layouts revealed similarities in accordance with business transformation effort.Jardine Matheson was established and flourished under the expansion of the British empire in the nineteenth century.The company branch buildings in East Asia were, therefore, possibly regarded as symbols of the empire.However, during the construction of these branch buildings, the connectedness of the Jardine Matheson branch network was indispensable, and negotiations between headquarters and branches and between Western merchants and locals were unavoidable.The Jardine Matheson branch buildings in East Asia were, therefore, not realized under unilateral control by Hong Kong.The author considers that the narratives of the architectural activities of Jardine Matheson in East Asia are meaningful as an architectural history of the British empire and as a history of modern architecture in East Asia.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Jardine Matheson branch locations and periods of agency.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Plan of the Thirteen Canton Factories (The Fan Kwae at Canton).

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. First building at East Point, ground and upper floor plans, c. 1843 (the Thistle and the Jade).

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. First building at East Point, section and front elevation, c. 1843 (the Thistle and the Jade).

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.View from pedder's wharf, Jardine Matheson head office in central Hong Kong (right) (Hong Kong Museum of History).

Figure 7 .
Figure 7.View of the first branch building in Shanghai Concession (far right) (HSBC Archive).

Figure 8 .
Figure 8. Aerial view of the first branch building in Yokohama, c.1861 (bottom left) (Waseda University Library).

Figure 9 .
Figure 9.View of the second branch building in the Shanghai Concession (Jardine Matheson Archive).
. . .I should certainly recommend Mr. K.(Kingsmill) to do it.With Hankow men to deal with I could not be responsible for the building, they require constant watching and the heat of the approaching [] would effectually prevent me from being thus regularly the distance from my present house the concession, the simplest & cheapest way in the end will be I am sure to employ Mr.Kingsmill. . .

Figure 10 .
Figure 10.View of the second building in Yokohama, 1874 (far right) (Yokohama Archives of History).

Figure 11 .
Figure 11.Proposed sketch plan of the Canton branch, ground and upper floors, 1863 (Jardine Matheson archive).

Figure 12 .
Figure 12.Proposed sketch plan of the dwelling house of the Yokohama branch, 1867 (Jardine Matheson archive).

Figure 13 .
Figure 13.Copy of the site plan of the Kobe branch, 1933 (Jardine Matheson Archive).

Figure 15 .
Figure 15.Perspective drawing of the third branch building in Shanghai, 1919 (Jardine Matheson Archive).