Thomas Beale (c. 1775–1841) was a Scottish naturalist, opium speculator and general merchant operating in the Far East during the 19th century.
22-777: Thomas was the younger brother of Daniel Beale and the cousin of Thomas Chaye Beale . He is first mentioned as one of the five unofficial foreign residents in Canton in 1796 as secretary to his older brother who was the Prussian consul. Thomas later became consul in his own right and served from 1798 until at least 1814. Both brothers were partners in the trading firm of Magniac & Co. , which dealt in goods including opium, cotton and tea. The Prussian consulship eventually devolved upon Jardine, Matheson & Co. through Hollingworth Magniac . Known for his hospitality, Beale's mansion in Macao included
44-615: A Prussian ship arrived at Whampoa whereupon the East India Company 's agent at Canton informed the Committee of Supercargoes that Beale had shown him a letter signed by "Count Lusi, Envoy Extraordinaire to his Majesty the King of Prussia with the King of Great Britain and his Colonel of Infantry", announcing his appointment as his Prussian Majesty's Consul in China. Beale was also a member of
66-472: A garden with 2,500 potted plants and an aviary that became a must-see for Western visitors to Macau. The 40 by 20 feet (12.2 by 6.1 m) aviary contained hundreds of rare birds from China, Europe, Southeast Asia, and South America. George Vachell, chaplain to the East India Company described a visit during which he saw about six hundred birds to his friend John Stevens Henslow , Professor of Botany at Cambridge University and mentor to Charles Darwin . When
88-578: A licence to trade in Canton from the East India Company. Other partners in the firm quickly followed this example. In Hollingworth's case, he became Prussian Vice-Consul under his brother Charles, who was senior to him in the partnership. Charles was killed in Paris in 1824 during a trip to Europe. Becoming Magniac & Co. after the retirement of Thomas Beale in 1814, the firm under Charles grew into one of
110-555: A senior partner, Hollingworth settled on Jardine, whose business reputation was already well known throughout Asia. Magniac and Jardine also invited James Matheson to join the firm. Magniac returned to England in 1828 with the firm in the hands of two of the most talented traders in Asia. Contrary to the practice at the time of retiring partners removing their capital from the firm, Hollingworth left his capital in trust to Jardine and Matheson. The firm remained as Magniac and Co. until 1832, as
132-504: The bird-of-paradise . A splendid living specimen is in the possession of Mr. Beale almost domesticated. It feeds from the hand of its amiable owner without fear, and appears capable of being rendered perfectly tame and familiar. This is perhaps the only specimen at present existing in confinement." After offering opium futures as security for loans in a falling market and investing millions of dollars in illicit deals in Brazil, he ended up owing
154-604: The Associated Merchants Trading to the Northwest Coast of America, which owned the snow Iphigenia Nubiana , trading on this coast in 1788 and 1789. Other partners in the venture were John Meares , John Henry Cox , Richard C. Etches, John W. Etches, William Fitzhugh and Henry Land. Along with fellow Scotsman John Reid , Beale was also one of the owners of the Imperial Eagle , a vessel ostensibly belonging to
176-726: The British parliament's commons committee of Enquiry on the East India Company’s Affairs on 11 May 1815, Beale testified that he had been resident in Canton "from the latter end of 1787 to the middle of 1797" and acted as "agent for many of the mercantile houses in Bombay and Bengal ." John Henry Cox had been sent to Canton in 1782 by his father James to sell off an accumulated stock of clocks, watches and mechanical toys known in Pidgin English as "singsongs", which were popular with
198-642: The Chinese. Along with James Fox, the other major manufacturer of singsongs was Francis Magniac of Clerkenwell, London, whose sons Charles and Hollingworth would later become partners of Beale. Merchants operating in the Far East at this time formed a bewildering array of partnerships. As well as the Coxes, Beale was also at various times a partner of John Reid, Charles Magniac and his brother Hollingworth, as well as Alexander Shank and Robert Hamilton. On 15 February 1786,
220-548: The East India Company some 800,000 dollars . In 1816, Thomas was declared insolvent in the "most sensational bankruptcy of the period". Bankruptcy notwithstanding, Thomas' amiability made him Lady Elizabeth Napier's favourite among the Europeans in Macau in 1834 and he later subscribed 20 pounds sterling for a memorial to her husband the late William John, Lord Napier , first Chief Superintendent of Trade at Canton, so appointed following
242-406: The Far East mercantile centres of Bombay , Canton and Macau as well as at one time the Prussian consul in China. Daniel Beale was the purser of, successively, the East India Company ships Walpole and General Coote on voyages between London and Canton in 1783-1786: in 1783 he joined the Macao partnership of John Henry Cox and John Reid in their mercantile ventures. Giving evidence before
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#1732869117716264-468: The abolition of the East India Company's monopoly on Far Eastern trade. The body of Thomas was found washed ashore at Casilha Bay, near Macau in January 1841, after he allegedly committed suicide. Thomas Beale is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of East Asian turtle, Sacalia bealei . Daniel Beale Daniel Beale (1759–1842) was a Scottish merchant and fur trader active in
286-725: The biggest of the country traders, dealing with clients in Bombay, Calcutta and London, in Indian cotton, sandalwood, tin, pepper Chinese tea and silk as well as opium. His firm Beale & Co. seems to have been active in the opium trade between 1783–1793. In 1797 Daniel Beale left China to join Magniac & Co. in London and in 1800 the sole British firm in Canton is recorded as Reid, Beale & Co., formerly Hamilton & Reid, and in 1804 to become Beale & Magniac. Beale died in England in 1842. In
308-454: The daughter of Paul Barbot of London. She died in 1830. They had a son, also named Daniel, who was born about 1798 and died on 4 January 1827 aged 29, as well as a younger brother, Thomas Beale , he had a daughter called Susanna Preston Beale (1806-1843) who married Charles Gonne, Lisbon wine merchant, and was Maud Gonnes grandmother, and a cousin, Thomas Chaye Beale . Hollingworth Magniac Hollingworth Magniac (1786–1867)
330-599: The fictitious Austrian East India Company, which sailed under the flag of Austria. This allowed her to circumvent the trade monopoly then held by the East India Company. Beale was by this time the Prussian agent in Canton following his earlier appointment as consul. Beale organized the voyage of the Imperial Eagle when he returned to London from Canton on the HCS General Coote in August 1786. By 1797, Beale & Co. had become
352-446: The gallery of St Pancras New Church , London, there is a memorial to Thomas Beale of Fitzroy Square and of Millfield House Edmonton , Middlesex. formerly of Canton and Macao, "a most zealous promoter of the building of this Church and one of the original trustees." He was immortalised by the artist Jacques-Laurent Agasse in his painting Daniel Beale at his Farm at Edmonton with his Favourite Horse . In 1791 he married Elizabeth,
374-662: The largest and most prominent of all the China trading houses . After Charles' death in 1824, the firm was taken over by his brother Daniel who was subsequently forced to resign after he married his Chinese mistress and brought the family into disrepute. That left Hollingworth in charge but the firm was in disarray. Wishing to leave Asia, Hollingworth went in search of competent partners to join his firm. Previously, Scottish merchant William Jardine had helped Daniel Magniac by sending his young son Daniel Francis, his child by his Chinese wife, to Scotland for schooling. After an extensive search for
396-462: The missionary cum naturalist George Bennett stopped in Macau during his Pacific voyage, Beale's garden and aviary made such an impression that he devoted forty-five pages of his travelogue to describing their contents. The house was described by a contemporary as "one of the finest of the old Portuguese houses ... on a narrow street known as Beale's Lane". Of Beale's aviary, contemporary visitor William Wightman Wood wrote: in particular I may mention
418-595: The name was still formidable throughout China and India. The partnership was then restructured to become Jardine, Matheson & Co. which would go on to become the largest trading company in Asia and later a Fortune 500 listed company. Magniac married Helen Sampson, daughter of Peter Sampson, in 1827. After his return to England, in 1835 Magniac became a partner in the merchant banking firm of Magniac, Smith & Co. along with partners John Abel Smith and Oswald Smith at 3 Lombard Street , London. Jardine agreed to make them agents for Jardine, Matheson & Co. with
440-486: The proviso "At no time shall it be expedient that we should give up the option of carrying on transactions with other London houses". In 1841 the bank was renamed Magniac, Jardine & Co. when William Jardine became a partner on his return to England. Magniac died on 31 March 1867 at age 80 in London, England. He is buried in the Magniac mausoleum in Sharnbrook , Bedfordshire. There is a memorial to Magniac and his wife in
462-555: The removal of the East India Company 's monopoly on British trade with India and the Far East in 1834, the Scots-born seaman John Reid, a partner in Cox & Beale, discovered a way to circumvent the East India Company's jurisdiction. He took out Austrian citizenship and gained an appointment as Chinese Consul from the Emperor of Austria. As he now had diplomatic residence rights he no longer needed
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#1732869117716484-819: Was a merchant and connoisseur of medieval art. He briefly ran the free trading firm of Magniac & Co. which was later to become Jardine, Matheson & Co. , one of the largest trading houses in Asia during the 19th century. Magniac was born on 15 April 1786 in Colworth House , Bedfordshire, the son of Colonel Francis Magniac (1751-1823) and Frances Attwood. His father was a French Huguenot (tracing back only to Charles Lewis Magniac b. 1725-??) goldsmith who exported clocks and watches to China. In order to keep an eye on his business interests there, he dispatched his son Charles to Canton where he went into partnership with Daniel Beale , an experienced China merchant, forming Beale, Magniac & Co. sometime before 1814. Before
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