The Rubber Stock Boom in Shanghai and the Kadoorie Enterprises, 1910–1949

Abstract

ABSTRACT Drawing on rarely used primary sources and grounded in a broad historical framework, this article reveals the dynamic history of the Rubber Trust Company Limited in Shanghai and examines how its founders, the Kadoories, used unique colonial spaces to tap and store wealth across political borders. The article thereby not only provides an alternative perspective to the history of the Baghdadi Jews and their extensive networks across Asian port cities, but also reveals how the cross-border Kadoorie enterprises and the colonial tools they used ensured the family’s survival in the face of Shanghai’s political and economic transformation. By filling crucial gaps in scholarly knowledge on the Kadoories and their investments through their Rubber Trust Company Limited, this article advances our understanding of the business world in Shanghai from the 1910s to the 1940s.