HISTORY MATTERS
香江史料
WHEN COMMERICAL LEADERS RULED
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富商管治香港時代
A wealthy merchant on a mission, nicknamed The Rupert of Debate, was possibly the only honest taipan Hong Kong ever saw, writes Arthur Hacker 亞瑟．克赫告訴大家，一個綽號為「善辯的魯柏」的有錢商人，他可能是有史以來香港所見 過最誠實的「大班」。
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n Victorian times, it was the fabulously wealthy taipans who really ruled Hong Kong. These merchant princes had been largely responsible for starting the Opium War, that resulted in Hong Kong becoming a British possession. Soon after the British took control of the colony they established the Legislative Council to run the place. The taipans lobbied the British parliament to appoint "two gentlemen of the commercial body" as unofficial council members. ln 1850, Joseph Edger and David Jardine — the taipan of the leading hong (company) Jardine, Matheson & Company — were appointed. However, Jardine soon "ceased to attend meetings because his time was too valuable to waste on trivialities". ln 1855, the number of unofficial members increased to five. The new members included John Dent, the taipan of Dent & Company, which was the second largest hong, and the bitter rival of Jardine, Matheson. Unlike David Jardine, John Dent was extremely active. He blatantly misused his position to promote his company's
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www.hkcitylife.com | OCTOBER 2020
interests and to block any piece of legislation that affected the value of his property. Hong Kong's first well-meaning experiment in democracy was in trouble. Sir Richard Graves Macdonnell became the fifth governor of Hong Kong in 1866. A hard man, he resisted attempts by the taipans to manipulate him. He despised them and made no secret of it. When Dent & Company went bankrupt in 1867, Macdonnell replaced John Dent with a Scotsman called Phineas Ryrie, who was probabIy the only scrupulously honest taipan in Hong Kong, The Hongkong Telegraph stated that unlike other taipans, Ryrie "occupied the unique position of being almost the only director of a public company who had not soiled [his] hands with share gambIing". Parliaments and assemblies tend to contain from time to time, a member who opposes everything proposed by the government as a matter of principle, no matter how trivial. These well-meaning, nit-picking, super-critics are a
維 多利亞時代，香港是一個由極其有錢的 商人管制的地方。這些商人王子對發
起鴉片戰爭有相當責任，導致香港成為英國的屬 地。又在英國控制了香港不久之後，成立了立法 局去做管理工作。 「大班」們向政府遊說委任兩名商界人仕出 任非官守議員。在一八五零年， Joseph Edgar 及 Daid Jardine 大公司「怡和洋行」的大班被委 任了。但不久之後 Jardine 便沒有出席會議！原 因是「他的時間很寶貴，不能浪費在這些瑣碎的 事務上。」 一八五五年，非官守議員的數目增加至五 人。新增加的議員當中，有 John Dent，是 Dent & Company 的大班 該公司是第二大用權力去推 廣公司的利益，而且更阻止通過一些影響他旗下 財產的法例。香港初期那用意良好的民主實驗有 了困難。跟 David Jardine 不一樣，John Dent 非常活躍。他明目張膽地濫用權力去推廣公司的 利益，而且更阻止通過一些影響他旗下財產的法 例。香港初期那用意良好的民主有了困難。 麥當勞爵士在一八六六年成為第五任港督。 他是一個硬漢子，抗拒大班們的操縱，明擺着看 不起他們。
