William Jardine (1784–1843)

William Jardine (24 February 1784 – 27 February 1843) was a Scottish physician and merchant who co-founded the Hong Kong based conglomerate Jardine, Matheson and Company. Following his return to England from the Far East, between 1841 and 1843, he was Member of Parliament for Ashburton representing the Whig party.

Educated in medicine at the University of Edinburgh, in 1802 Jardine obtained a diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. In the same year he became a surgeon's mate aboard the Brunswick belonging to the East India Company, and set sail for India. Captured by the French and shipwrecked in 1805, he was repatriated and returned to the East India Company's service as a ship's surgeon. In May 1817, he abandoned medicine for commerce.

Jardine was a resident in China from 1820 to 1839. His early success in Canton as a commercial agent for opium merchants in India led to his admission in 1825 as a partner in Magniac & Co., and by 1826 he controlled that firm's Canton operations. James Matheson joined him shortly afterwards with Magniac & Co. reconstituted as Jardine, Matheson & Co in 1832. After Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu destroyed 20,000 cases of British-owned opium in 1839, Jardine arrived in London that September to press Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston for a forceful response.

Jardine, one of seven children, was born in 1784 on a small farm near Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. His father, Andrew Jardine (abt. 1750- d. 1793), died when he was nine, leaving the family in some economic difficulty. Though struggling to make ends meet, Jardine's older brother David (1776-1827) provided him with money to attend school. Jardine began to acquire credentials at the age of sixteen. In 1800 he entered the University of Edinburgh Medical School where he took classes in anatomy, medical practice, and obstetrics among others. While his schooling was in progress, Jardine was apprenticed to a surgeon who would provide housing, food, and the essential acquaintance with a hospital practice, with the money his older brother, David, provided. He graduated from the Edinburgh Medical School on 2 March 1802, and was presented a full diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He chose to join the service of the British East India Company and in 1802 at the age of 18 boarded the East Indiaman Brunswick. On 15 March, after satisfying the entry requirements, William Jardine, was paid two months advanced wages as a surgeon's mate in the East India Company’s Maritime Marine Service. One advantage of service with the East India Company was that employees were allowed to trade in goods on their own account. Each employee was allowed cargo space equivalent to two chests or about a hundred pounds of cargo. Jardine engaged in this trade with exceptional dexterity, even leasing the apportioned cargo space of other crew members who did not have interest in using the space, and was able to save quite an amount of money.

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