Abstract

"The Global Merchants of the 19th Century: A Case Study"

Joseph Sassoon, Georgetown University (js824@georgetown.edu)

The Sassoons, a Baghdadi-Jewish trading family, built a global trading enterprise by taking advantage of major historical developments during the nineteenth century. Their story is not just one of a family that settled in India, traded in China, and aspired to be British. It also presents an extraordinary vista into the world in which they lived and prospered economically, politically, and socially. The hundred and fifty-year globalization of which they were a part was all-encompassing: they traded with members of every religion and sect around the globe; they traveled extensively for business and leisure; and they felt at home wherever they settled, whether in India or Britain or China, in spite of being in a tiny minority everywhere (both in terms of religion and ethnicity). The Global Merchants is not only about their rise, but also about their decline: why it happened, how political and economic changes after the First World War adversely affected them, and finally, how realizing their aspirations to reach the upper echelons of British society led to their disengagement from business and prevented them from adapting to the new economic and political world order.

The talk will focus on what made the Sassoons successful but also what factors led to the demise of the dynasty. Given the topic of the conference, the talk will focus on how global families made business decisions in the mid to late nineteenth century to enter new markets or trade new products. Examples of how the Sassoons researched the pearl market before entering it; and how tea and silk specialists were hired to enhance the trade will be discussed.