ReviewThe Last Kings of Shanghai is a history of the Sassoons and Kadoories, two powerful Jewish families who helped shape China
- Both the Sassoon and Kadoorie families were hugely successful in business, first in India, then in Shanghai and Hong Kong, as Jonathan Kaufman vividly recounts
- While Elly Kadoorie invested smartly in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Sassoon money reshaped the latter’s skyline. As war loomed, only one family made the right call
The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China
by Jonathan Kaufman
Viking
3.5/5
Jonathan Kaufman’s The Last Kings of Shanghai is at its best when it explains those smart moves, and the occasional not-so-smart one, to illuminate the fates of the two clans.
Moving to Bombay in the 1830s, David Sassoon heard of a new invention called the steamship, capable of drastically reducing travel times. He realised more ships would be arriving and so bought additional dock space. Consequently, Sassoon got the pick of goods arriving and the first chance to fill the holds of ships departing.
From India, China beckoned and a big decision had to be made over opium. Sassoon began shipping opium from India. The family backed the British in the first opium war and, by 1850, Sassoon’s second son, Elias, was buying land in Shanghai; later, he installed one of the first telegraph systems to get a jump on the price of opium. The Sassoons had arrived on the banks of the Huangpu River.