William Jardine

William Jardine was a Scottish surgeon who became a leading merchant in Canton and co-founded the firm Jardine, Matheson & Company. His fortune was closely tied to the opium trade, and he lobbied the British government for military action against Qing restrictions on commerce. After returning to Britain he entered Parliament, while the firm he created became a major imperial trading house.

Jardine and merchants modelled on his world are relevant to Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy, which explores the opium economy linking India, China and British imperial power. Although the novels use many fictional characters, their commercial networks and political pressures closely resemble those in which Jardine operated.

Amitav Ghosh’s River of Smoke is set in September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis. A ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured laborers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. Amitav Ghosh’s Flood of Fire places William Jardine within a narrative shaped by exploration, travel and cultural encounter, military command and battlefield decision-making, and empire, conquest and resistance.

In non-fiction, William Jardine is discussed in Stephen R. Platt’s Imperial Twilight. Stephen R. Platt’s Imperial Twilight approaches the subject through empire, conquest and resistance, exploration, travel and cultural encounter, and political ambition and government.