The French Concession

Silas Aaron Hardoon

In The French Concession’s first blog post we want to introduce Silas Aaron Hardoon, an impressive personality that had significant influence in Shanghai’s architecture at the time.

Most people know Silas Hardoon as the Real Estate Tycoon, whose home the Hardoon Garden (now Shanghai’s International Exhibition Center) is as imposing now as it has been in his time.
Few know his rags to riches story that is worthy of Hollywood movie (merchant of shanghai) which is to be released soon!

Hardoon was also mentioned in the 1935 issue of Fortune Magazine estimating his wealth at a 150′000′000 US $ at the time making him one of the richest individuals in the world. 
Inflation adjusted, Silas was worth 21 Billion in today’s Dollars. 

Silas Aaron Hardoon was born 1851 (some sources I researched say 1949) Salih Harun into a poor jewish family in Baghdad. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire his family left for Mumbai (Bombay at the time) to a fresh start.
They found helping hands in the baghdadian Jewish community of bombay that was headed by David Sasson also a Bagdhad Jew (a historical figure that we will explore further in the future).

Hardoon attended a school funded by David Sassoon and would soon find himself employed by D. Sassoon’s & Co.

Hardoon Road, now Tongren Lu

Young Silas accomplishments were soon been recognised and he was sent to Hong Kong to get a better feel for the chinese market in 1868.
Due to reasons unknown he was dismissed just six years later and with no penny to his name made his way to Shanghai.

It’s quite important to know that the Bagdhadian Jewish Traders were ultimately linked to the british empire and operated under the aegis of the British empire.
They took on english names and spun a web of trading connections from London to Shanghai.

Again, a community of Bagdhadi Jews in the city helped him land a backbreaking job as rent collector at the local branch of D. Sassoons and Co.
Like before, Silas, now in his mid-twenties made a name for himself  once again and schrewd investments secured great profits for the company and himself.

Hardoon Statue in Hardoon Garden

He had the foresight of Shanghai’s foreign settlements potential.
Hardoon begun to invest his own money in plots of lands that provided a good yield for him to expand his soon to become empire.
Most notably, Hardoon had a hand in many of the buildings around Nanking road that shapes Shanghai even today.

In  1882 Hardoon switched his interests to the Cotton Market and left D. Sassoons & Co. 
Lucky for us, this change was shortlived and he continued his carreer in the property at Elias David Sassoons & Co (Elias David was David Sassons son) a property developer in the city. 

At E D Sassons & Co. Silas became a partner and was in Charge of property developement and opium trading.
(Opium was legal, tradable commodity at the time, thanks to the forceful hand of the british empire). 

It took a hard twist in history and lot’s of guts to make his mark in the world.
When the Chinese - French War broke out in 1884  many foreigners left the city, but Hardoon stayed, he saw a golden opportunity and seized it.
Leveraging himself to the neck and even disposing of his wife’s jewelry.
Though his wife was at first against it, he finally persuaded her and invested everything in Shanghai’s distressed Real Estate Market (as cause of the war).

His bet paid off, even though the chinese won the war the government soon signed the chinese-french contract and foreigners returned to the city.

Hardoons Wife Luo Jing

When Hardoon left the E. D. Sassoons Partnership in 1911 he owned most landmarks around downtown (which is now the nanjing road area).
And if you think the previous Real Estate Goldrush was anything notable, you will love this.
In a short time after the Sino-French Contract the city’s property index rose by nearly a thousand times.

Like all men in power, Hardoon also had a hand in the political endevours of the city and served as direct to the Shanghai International Settlement Commitee.
He was acknowledged later as a member to the exclusive Shanghai Club (a community of the british elite).

He loved gardening, and his local wife Luo Jing which he loved dearly had a lot of influence for him to become a devoted buddhist scholar.
He funded many of the temples and Buddhist projects in the area and adopted 9 orphans. 

Silas Aaron Hardoon died in 1931, but he lives on in the cities architecture and personality.
The Name Ha-tong (in chinese) is a term to most Shanghainese and he’s usually regarded as a good person and they connect him directly to the city’s Golden Era.

Shanghai Exhibition Center Former Home of Hardoon

Silas wasn’t perceived the same by all, and there is a lot of controversy surrounding him and Shanghai’s History.
See below.

Fortune magazine’s mini-biography:

“Silas Aaron Hardoon, who died in 1931, was Shanghai’s Julius Rosenwald-millionaire, philanthropist, cultured Jew. Born in Baghdad, educated in Bombay, he joined the firm of David Sassoon& Co., Ltd., switched to E. D. Sassoon & Co. and in 1911 launched into Shanghai real estate. He died worth $150,000,000, most of it representing properties on Shanghai’s Fifth Avenue, Nanking Road.”

An excerpt from Sin City, by Ralph Shaw, a British journalist in Shanghai from 1937 to 1949:

“Among those who had made immense fortunes by bringing in opium was the ‘Baghdad Jew’, Hardoon. Starting life as a watchman, he had risen like a phoenix from the ashes of the millions of pipefuls of the drug he had provided for the emaciated sots who were in its deadly grip. But, as if to atone for the misery his trading success had caused, he adopted a family of about nine orphaned children of many races who lived with him in a palatial mansion on Bubbling Well Road.” 

Sources:
Earnshaw  
Wikipedia

Chinese Ebao

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