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Edward Boustead (1800–1888) was an English businessman and philanthropist, who founded Boustead & Co and played an active role in the development of Singapore as a business and trading centre. Boustead was born in Yorkshire, England. He was the great-grandfather of actor David Niven. ==Beginnings of Boustead & Co== In 1828, Boustead arrived in Singapore on board the British ship ''Hindustan''. In the same year, he established a trading company, Boustead & Co.〔Chew, Melanie (2008). "Boustead 1828", pp. 6 – 7. ISBN 978-981-08-0810-5〕 Boustead & Co specialised in import and export, offering goods such as banca tin, spices, saps, rattan, medicinal herbs, silk and tea widely available in South East Asia in exchange for Western products like cloth, oil and machinery. Boustead commissioned Irish civil architect, George Drumgoole Coleman to design his company's headquarters alongside the Singapore River. The warehouse was known as "the house of seven and twenty pillars", located around the corner from High Street. In 1834, Boustead partnered with German-born merchant, Gustav Christian Schwabe in the Singapore company. Schwabe and his cousin established Sykes Schwabe & Co in Liverpool. The Liverpool partner would export products like textiles, biscuits, brandies and steel to the East, while the Singapore partner would trade with Eastern produce such as coffee and spices. The freedom of port made Singapore an ideal market for trading among imported manufacturers. Import of Western commodities such as textiles and machinery had to be balanced with exports of Eastern produce such as copra, coconut, pepper and tapioca. Boustead & Co had a "Balance of Trade", where demand for goods from the East had to be balanced with demand for goods from the West. Singapore merchant, Tan Kim Seng, was a middleman in Boustead's trading activities.〔Maclean Roderick. "A Pattern of Change – The Singapore International Chamber of Commerce from 1837". ''The Chamber and its Founding Fathers'', pp. 17 – 27.〕 He was also a good friend of Boustead. Tan amassed small shipments of produce from local traders for Boustead, who would then ship the produce to the West. With a wide trading network, trade credit and finance became increasingly important to banks, merchants, manufacturers and traders. Edward Boustead actively contributed to the Singapore's trading activities and economy. Boustead & Co was the first agent for Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in Singapore, offering banking facilities to businesses. Brokers and sellers could draw a specific percentage of advances against the value of their goods stored in the Boustead warehouse. Such financing was called "trust receipts", where the merchant would hold the goods in trust for the banks. In 1850, Boustead also set up a London office, Edward Boustead & Co, to oversee the other offices in Hong Kong, Manila, Shanghai and Singapore. During the late 1880s, Boustead & Co took advantage of the introduction of the rubber tree to Malaysia and eventually became a leading rubber plantation manager and owner of 49 rubber plantations with a total planted area of 141,629 acres. In 1892 Boustead & Co handled the first shipment of bulk oil to Penang and shortly after this the Shell Transport and Trading Company was formed with Isaac Henderson acting as one of its original directors. Boustead represented and operated on Shell’s behalf in Penang until 1920 when Shell opened its own branch. By 1899, Singapore had become the world’s main exporter of tin. Boustead & Co played a leading role as promoter and investor in the tin smelting facility on Pulau Brani, constructed by the Straits Trading Company. From that point forward, Straits Tin became one of the leading businesses of Boustead & Co. Over the decades, the excellent reputation of Boustead & Co allowed it to attract some of the world’s most famous brands to give it agency rights in Singapore and around the region. Some of the famous brand names that became synonymous with Boustead were Cadbury’s, Nestle, Del Monte, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, Johnnie Walker, Hennessy, Moet & Chandon, Nissan, Suzuki and Thomas Cook. After his death in 1888, Boustead's associates took over the business. Boustead Plc (formerly known as Taiping Rubber Plantations Limited) was founded in 1910 and eventually listed as Boustead Plc on the London Stock Exchange. Having survived World War I, Boustead & Co played a significant role in the rise of Singapore as the world’s largest port, with a booming business in cargo, freight handling, insurance and ship services. Boustead & Co represented over 20 major shipping lines and numerous insurance agencies including the renowned Lloyd’s, which Boustead represented for more than one century. After World War II, Malaysia declared independence from the British in August 1957 and Singapore declared independence from Malaysia in 1965. This saw Boustead & Co split into three entities, Boustead plc in London, Boustead Holdings Berhad in Malaysia and Boustead Singapore Limited which listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange on 17 October 1975. Boustead Limited formed out of Boustead plc and was renamed later Boustead & Co Limited, which is the holding company for financial services, including corporate finance, principal investing and asset management. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Edward Boustead」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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