Walsh brothers

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Not to be confused with The Walsh Brothers.
the Walsh and Hall Company in Kobe Foreign Settlement in 1872.

The Walsh brothers, Thomas Walsh (1827 - 1900), John Greer Walsh, (1829 - 1897), Richard James Walsh (1831 - 1881), and Robert George Walsh (1841 - 1886), were supposed American merchants seen in Japanese bibliography as the founders of the Walsh, Hall and the company.

After Tokugawa shogunate Japan opened up the port to the foreign trade, the brothers established the Walsh and Company (later Walsh, Hall and Company) in Nagasaki, which became the first and most successful American trading and insurance company during the Last days of the shogunate and Meiji Restoration. They also introduced Western engineers and intellectuals to Japan under the Meiji Emperor.

Early period[edit]

Most English bibliographies indicate that Walsh, Hall and Co, America's leading trading house in 19th century Japan[1] was founded by Francis Hall, contrary to the opinions below, which are based on Japanese bibliographies.

The brothers were born into a respectable immigrant family from Ireland to the US, lived in Yonkers in the state of New York and went into business in Shanghai under the Qing Dynasty. [2] [a]

In Japan (1855 - 1897)[edit]

Around 1855, the brothers moved to Nagasaki, Japan, to run a trading business after the Japanese government established the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement in 1854.

In 1859, together with George Rogers Hall, a graduate doctor of Harvard Medical School,[4][5] the brothers founded Walsh, Hall and Company in Yokohama when the port of Yokohama opened to foreign ships under the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, and the company began trading in gold, silk, tea and camphor at the Yokohama Trading Post. [b] In the same year, John was appointed to the US Consulate in Nagasaki by the Consulate General Townsend Harris. [6] and served until 1865.

After the Meiji Restoration and Boshin War, the company established the Kobe Trading Post in the Kobe Foreign Settlement and the brothers also moved again to Kobe around 1871.

In 1875, two younger brothers went back to the US to learn the paper industry, and the following year, together with former British minister and advisor Rutherford Alcock, Thomas and John established the Kobe Paper Mill, using the machines made in US. [c]

But the company prospered by selling arms and warships to the Japanese government, while the government was in the process of building its modernised army, signing the First Geneva Convention and opening the first Japanese Red Cross hospital. Also, the company was one of the agents for the British company, Yangtze Insurance Association in Shanghai.[7]

After First Sino-Japanese War, John's sudden death in 1897 shocked Thomas and the family. [d] Thomas lost his passion for business and sold the paper mill to the former Japanese president of the Mitsubishi group, Hisaya Iwasaki [ja], and then moved to Switzerland.

The company was taken over by the next American president, Arthur Otis, and he transferred the head office to the Yokohama Trading Post in 1899.[8][9] Later The building of Kobe Trading Post sold to the British bank The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Family[edit]

Like other traders, John married a Japanese woman, Rin Yamaguchi around 1862, then he had a daughter Aiko. [6]

Others[edit]

See also: List of Westerners who visited Japan before 1868 and Foreign government advisors in Meiji Japan
  • It is known in Japan that Walsh, Hall and Co was one of the companies that sold warships to Japan's historical figure Ryoma Sakamoto, who intended to develop Ezo (Hokkaido), although it was mainly developed by the US engineers and intellectuals after Sakamoto was assassinated in Kyoto.[e]
  • In 1871, the company was sued at the Yokohama consular court by Japanese investor Hachibei Ito [ja], the step-father of Eiichi Shibusawa, for window dressing, and the court dismissed the case.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Other British printer Walsh & Company was also in Shanghai.[3]
  2. ^ The port of Yokohama was unofficially opened to foreign trade in 1858.
  3. ^ Around the time, Japanese government began to print their banknote Meiji Tsuho by themselves, which has been printed in Frankfurt before.
  4. ^ The cause of his death was yet not known.
  5. ^ See also the Ohmiya incidents [ja].

References[edit]

  1. ^ Ernest Satow, Records of a Diplomat, Tokyo: Oxford University Press, 1968, p. 27. Satow wrote that it was the "leading American firm" in Yokohama when he arrived in 1862. See also M. Paske Smith, Western Barbarians in Japan and Formosa in Tokugawa Days, 1863-1868 (Kobe: J.L.Thompson & Co. 1930),p. 266. Harold S. Williams writes: "Walsh, Hall & Co. was doing an enormous business; the partners were looked upon as merchant princes, and everyone recognized it as ranking among the No. 1 American firms.: See Foreigners in Mikadoland (Rutland, Vt.: Charles E Tuttle & Co., 1963, p.204
  2. ^ Tetsuo Kamiki, Masahiro Sakiyama 1993.
  3. ^ Kelly & Walsh, Meiji-portrait.
  4. ^ HALL, George Rogers, Meiji-Portraits
  5. ^ Yuki Allyson Honjo 2013.
  6. ^ a b Ennals 2013.
  7. ^ Dainihon Shoninroku sha (1881) "Dainihon Shoninroku: Yokohama no Bu (Japan merchant list: Yokohama)."
  8. ^ National Printing Bureau, "Government gazette, 24 July 1899."
  9. ^ Walsh, Hall and Company, Meiji-Portraits.

Further reading[edit]

  • Ennals, Peter (2013). Opening a Window to the West: The Foreign Concession at Kobe, Japan, 1868-1899. University of Toronto Press. p. 216. ISBN 9781442664227.
  • Tetsuo Kamiki, Masahiro Sakiyama (1993). Kobe kyoryuchi no 3/4 seiki: High-collared na machi no ruhtsu (The three quarters of a century of Kobe foreign settlement: the roots of fashionable city). Kobe Shimbun Shuppan Sogo Center. ISBN 4-87521-476-6.
  • Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan. Visiting Historic Buildings in The former Nagasaki foreign settlement.
  • Toshikazu Taniguchi (1986). Shitotachi yo nemure: Kobe gaikokujin bochi monogatari (Apostles rest in peace: The stories of Kobe foreign cemetery). Kobe Shimbun Sogo Shuppan Center. ISBN 4-87521-447-2.
  • Yuki Allyson Honjo (2013). Japan's Early Experience of Contract Management in the Treaty Ports. Routledge. ISBN 9781134279814.
  • Nojigiku Bunko, ed. (1967). Hyogoken jinbutu jiten 2/3 (The biographical dictionary of Hyogo prefecture). Nojigiku Bunko.
  • Mitsubishi Group (2004). "Mitsubishi jinbutsuden: Walsh brothers(Mitsubishi biographical note: Walsh brothers)". Monthly Mitsubishi. 2004 (10). Mitsubishi Public Relations Committee.
  • Burke-Gaffney, Brian (2003). Starcrossed: A Biography of Madame Butterfly. Norwalk, Connecticut: EastBridge. ISBN 978-1-891936-47-0; OCLC 261376334
  • Spence, Alan (2006). The Pure Land. Edinburgh: Canongate Books. ISBN 978-1-84195-855-2; OCLC 225266369
  • Gardiner, Michael (2007). At the Edge of Empire: The Life of Thomas B. Glover. Edinburgh: Birlinn. ISBN 978-1-84158-544-4; OCLC 137313475
  • Jonathan Goldstein (1998). The Jews of China M.E. Sharpe.
  • Kinsaku Yokoyama (1871) Yokohama Shonin Roku(Yokohama merchants list). Yokohama Shonin Rokusha.
  • Swiss Re "A History of Insurance in China."

See also[edit]

Members of the company
Others

External links[edit]

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