Dodwell & Co. () or Dodwell's, was one of the leading British merchant firms, or hongs, active in China and Japan during the 19th and 20th century. It was a direct rival to Jardine, Matheson & Co.
History
W.R. Adamson and Company – The forerunner of Dodwell & Co.
The forerunner of Dodwell & Co., W.R. Adamson and Company, was founded as a result of the efforts of a group of Cheshire weavers who needed to increase supplies of raw silk for their mills. On their behalf, William R. Adamson arrived in Shanghai in 1852. In 1858 he set up his own firm, W.R. Adamson and Company, in London, with its head office in Shanghai and branches in Hong Kong, Fuzhou and Hankou. It was the first of the British merchant firms to venture into Japan, opening a branch in Yokohama in the early 1860s. W.R. Adamson and Company built up an export business in tea and silk, and also a general import business, and began to acquire shipping agencies. The name changed in 1867 to Adamson, Bell and Company, when Frederick Hayley Bell joined the company.
In 1872, the firm appointed a shipping clerk in its Shanghai office named George Benjamin Dodwell (1851–1925). He was 20 years old, born in Derby and quickly rose to prominence in the company, playing an important part in its expansion throughout the Far East. By 1876 Adamson Bell and Company's tea shipments were only marginally behind those of Jardine, Matheson & Co and Butterfield and Swire. Dodwell also secured in 1887 the agency for chartering and managing ships on behalf of the Canadian Pacific Railway between Hong Kong and Vancouver (Canada), thus establishing the first regular steamship line across the Pacific.
The formation of Dodwell & Co. and its expansion till the Second World War
When in 1886 Adamson decided to retire and return to England he also withdrew his capital and Bell was left in control. Because of the lack of the former cash resources and the practical experience of Adamson the company soon ran into severe financial difficulties and faced bankruptcy from March 1890. Dodwell, together with A.J.H. Carlill, saw their chance to take over the business activities of their moribund employer and formed Dodwell, Carlill and Company on 1 May 1891. The head office of the new company was set up in London.
By this stage the firm had branches in China and Japan, the Pacific coast of Canada and the United States and from 1912 New York City. Shipping agency and tea trading were major concerns. Having lost again the Canadian Pacific contract in 1892, Dodwell secured another trans-Pacific contract with an American railroad company, the Northern Pacific Railway, and by the turn of the century could claim to be the largest shipping firm on the Pacific coast. Dodwell was a large exporter of China and Japanese teas, which they sold especially to Britain, the United States and from 1901 to Russia. When demand began to shift towards Indian teas, Dodwell opened a branch in Colombo in Ceylon (today Sri Lanka) in 1897 to purchase and sell Ceylon teas.
In 1898 George Benjamin Dodwell and his partners decided to transform the business into a Private Limited Liability Company. From 1 January 1899 the company began to operate as Dodwell & Company Limited with a capital of £500,000. By its articles Dodwell was elected Chairman for life. The same year he retired from the East and returned to London. There George Benjamin Dodwell not just oversaw the further development of Dodwell & Co. but diversified his business activities and was chairman of the Malacca Rubber Plantation Company.
From the turn of the century on to the First World War, tea sales declined and general merchandising and the shipping agencies became more important. Branches initially opened for shipping agency or tea trading often developed other activities. The Vancouver branch invested in salmon canneries, developing a business exporting canned salmon to Britain and elsewhere. In the United States the Tacoma branch exported lumber and together with the Seattle branch helped develop a local flour milling industry. The Colombo branch diversified from tea trading to the export of coconuts. It established a desiccating mill in 1910 and acquired a number of tea and coconut plantations.