Dodwell & Co.

Dodwell & Co. (Chinese: 天祥洋行) 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.

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, Foochow and Hankow. 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.

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