William Jardine (merchant)

The China trade. Jardine, a Scottish ship's surgeon turned merchant, co-founded Jardine, Matheson and Co. in Canton in 1832 with James Matheson, trading tea and silk out of China and, crucially, smuggling Indian opium in. He lobbied the British government towards the First Opium War, which opened Chinese ports and led to the founding of Hong Kong. The firm became a great Asian trading house, built on a trade that devastated millions.