|
| |
No 6 THE RUSSELL BUILDING - SHANGHAI
No.6 The Russell & Co. Building
Although the opening of Dolce & Gabbana�s flagship store in July 2006 at No. 6,
or 6 Bund as it is now known, marked a new chapter in the building�s history,
its past still remains shrouded in a lacy veil of mystery. Acknowledged as one
of the oldest buildings on the Bund, it is generally documented as being built
in 1897 as premises for either the Imperial Bank of China or the Commercial Bank
of China. It is actually the case that the Imperial Bank of China, which was
later to become the Commercial Bank of China, opened its doors there in May
1897. However, the building itself was completed many years earlier than is
generally realised as the new premises for Russell & Co., one of the most
illustrious American companies to operate in China in the
19th century. Photographic
evidence shows that the building, which was described as new, was there in 1886;
whilst the American scholar Eric Politzer dates the building back to 1881.
Indeed, it was in that year that the company first appeared as occupying No. 6
The Bund in a locally published Shanghai directory.
Russell Ez Co. was established in Cuangzhou by Samuel Russell in 1824 and its
early importance to the civil and commercial life of Shanghai was witnessed by
the fact that one of its agents, Henry C. Wolcott, was appointed as the first
Acting US Consul in Shanghai in 1845. Another Russell man, Edward Cunningham,
became American Vice Consul soon after and was a key figure in the establishment
of the first Shanghai Council in 1854. Diplomatic associations continued through
the 1870s until 1882 when the Consulate of Sweden and Norway was housed within
the Russell compound. Their Consul Ceneral, K. B. Forbes, was also a partner in
the company. In terms of firsts, Russell & Co. laid the first successful
telegraph line in Shanghai in 1866 and established the Shanghai Steam Navigation
Company�whose fleet was the first to fly the American flag on the Yangtsze River
in 1867.
It was not long after, however, that competition came from the Chinese
themselves with the founding of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company in
1872 on the initiative of one of China�s most important statesmen, Li Hongzhang.
Their first steamer, the Aden, purchased from the P & 0 Company, was the
earliest merchant vessel to fly the Chinese flag out of Shanghai. The beginning
of a short but eventful relationship, bound up in twists and turns, between
China Merchants and their American competitors started in 1877 when the Chinese
company purchased the entire fleet of 17 steamships from the Shanghai Steam
Navigation Company. The company�s substantial property holdings, including land
on the French Bund, were also transferred to the China Merchants. And, as the
North China Daily News reported, the company added �steadily if not
rapidly� to its property portfolio in the early 1880s.
In the first major turn of events prompted by Sino-French hostilities in
Indo-China, China Merchants sold their steamships and property back to Russell &
Co. in July 1884. Although there were those who claimed that this was a
practical business decision, the real motives became evident as the ships and
properties were transferred back into the hands of China Merchants just a year
later. As soon as the steamers arrived back in port in August 1885 they were
stripped of their Stars and Stripes banners to be yet again replaced by those of
the Chinese Dragon. In the same month, Russell & Co. announced themselves as
commercial agents for the Viceroy of Chihili, Li Hongzhang�s official title, as
well as general agents of the China Merchants Steamship Navigation Company for a
period of three years.
he China Merchants Steam Navigation Company was reinvigorated after the return
of its fleet and Li Hongzhang set about diffusing the cumbersome influence of
Government officialdom by appointing two new directors to manage the company.
The imposing figure of Sheng Xuanhuai, who also held the post as general manager
of the Imperial Telegraphs, was appointed director general. He was not afraid of
bringing foreigners into the business and Mr. Osborne Middleton, who had
previously worked as general manager for Russell�s, went on to spend 25 years in
the service of China Merchants before his retirement in 1908. During the
disquiet of the Boxer uprising in 1900 the company transferred all their
property, goods, and several of its ships into his name.
The events of 1884 and 1885 had not only provided China Merchants protection
under the American flag, but had also given them an opportunity to shed their
bureaucratic shackles and maintain business relations with Russell�s. The events
also allowed China Merchants to acquire a Bund address in 1885. The company
moved from its original premises just off the Bond on Hankou Road in August 1885
and took up residence at No. 9 The Bund shortly after.
The next astonishing chain of events began in the middle of 1891 when, like a
shot out of the blue, the formerly omnipotent Russell & Co. was forced into
liquidation, and W. S. Jackson was appointed as the underwriter. Jackson was
acting secretary of the Yangtsze Insurance Association, to which Russell & Co.
had been secretary before their collapse. The building, known as the �Red Brick
House,� was subsequently occupied by a number of companies, including the
Shanghai Waterworks Company and the Sun and Standard Insurance Company, as well
as being used as a private residence.
Soon after the roof of the building had been destroyed by an intense fire on the
morning of 7h April 1893, the property
was transferred into the hands of China Merchants. It was registered, rather
unusually, at both the American and British Consulates in October 1893. The
North China Daily News reported that it was, in fact, purchased by Viceroy
Li as an investment for his son. Russell�s were already in debt to Li Hongzhang
to the tune of 100,000 silver taels and he secured the grand building for an
extra, very modest, sum of 310,000 silver taels. And this is where another fable
begins. It is generally documented that China Merchants were the first Chinese
company to have a presence on the Bond from that date on. In fact, they had
already had their headquarters on the Bund for the last eight years at No. 9 the
Bund .
Li Hongzhang had other plans for No. 6. The building�s first new occupant, under
the new regime in 1893, was the China Land & Finance Company�a company formerly
operated by Russell & Co. themselves. Their agent in the building,
Mr. C. H. Wheeler, had been a signatory for Russell from 1882 until its
collapse, and he was also director of the Yangtsze Insurance Association.
Sheng Xuanhuai, the director general of China Merchants, was behind the
foundation of the Imperial Bank of China, which took over the premises in 1897.
The bank, which is regarded as China�s first modern Chinese banking institution,
had been set up to finance the building of the Beijing to Hanlrou railway.
Around one-third of the registered capital was in the name of China Merchants
and, in keeping with their modernist tradition, the bank was organised as a
merchant undertaking endowed with government protection. Like China Merchants,
the bank employed foreign staff and its first manager, Mr. A. Maitland, was
formerly an employee of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. Despite its foreign
manners, the bank was hindered by over- interfering Qing officials, but matters
improved following their downfall in the 1911 Revolution when the bank�s English
name was changed to the Commercial Bank of China. Following the relocation of
the telegraph companies from No. 7, next door, the bank took over their
premises in 1922.
Another financial institution, the P & 0 Banking Corporation, occupied the
building for most of the 1920s and 1930s. They temporarily vacated their
premises in 1936 and 1937 to allow extensive renovation work to take place on
the building�inside and out. As part of the scheme, its red brick face,
which had become unfashionable in a period of Art Deco inspired modernism, was
smothered with a plain coating. Today, no interior trace is left of
its Victorian heritage or of its 1930s makeover and the building�s
exterior has a brand-new icing cake finish. At today�s 6 Bund, the upper three
floors
of the building are devoted to fine cuisine and high living. Text
Copyright 2008 to Peter Hibbard from
"The Bund - Shanghai China Faces West"
|
