Hsin-Tai Building - Hankow - 1924
Cnr The Bund & Nerpin Sk, Russian Concession.
Research on modern Chinese language websites identifies this very attractive corner building in the former Russian Concession as being built for the Russian 'brick tea' manufacturers, Tokmakoff Molotkoff & Co, also known as the Sun Tai Company. Further digging around ("An Official Guide to Eastern Asia: China" (1915) by Teikoku Tetsudocho) identifies one of the three brick tea 'manufactories' in Hankow as the Hsin-tai Trading Company; given the use of the Wade-Giles romanisation at the time, surely this is the same as the Sun Tai Company.
It was common for Western trading companies in China to have Chinese trading names; Jardine, Matheson & Co were known as 'Ewo' whilst the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank were known as 'Wayfoong'. Two rival Russian brick tea traders/manufacturers in Hankow were SW Litvinoff & Co (known locally as Shun Fung) and Molchanoff, Pechanoff & Co (known as 'Fu Cheong'). Given the success of the Russians, in 1906 a group of Kwangtung and Fukien businessmen established the rival Hsin Sang Brick Tea Manufacturing Company in Hankow to compete with the Russians.
Being the centre of the Chinese black tea trade, Hankow first attracted Russian tea traders in the early 1860s. The Russians came to dominate the market for 'brick tea' - made from tea dust. In fact, three of the four brick tea factories in Hankow were owned by Russian businesses, like SW Litvinoff & Co (known locally as Shun Fung), Tokmakoff, Molotkoff & Co (known locally as Hsin-Tai) and Molchanoff, Pechanoff & Co (known as 'Fu Cheong'). Shipments from Hankow went by steamers directly to Odessa and St Petersburg or were transported overland on the Tea Road via Mongolia and Siberia to Moscow. Relations between the hard-drinking Russians and the more conservative British in Hankow were not always so cordial if too much had been drunk and the conversation veered from mere business to politics.
The building was erected after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution when Russian business interests in China took a dive; the premises look rather too grand and expensive for a post-1917 Communist tea agency. I do know that the architect was the local British firm Messrs Hemmings & Berkley. The initials 'HASCO' in relief can clearly be seen just above the main entrance. I have no idea what HASCO stands for. Can anyone help on this?
Hsin-Tai Building - Hankow - 1924
Cnr The Bund & Nerpin Sk, Russian Concession.
Research on modern Chinese language websites identifies this very attractive corner building in the former Russian Concession as being built for the Russian 'brick tea' manufacturers, Tokmakoff Molotkoff & Co, also known as the Sun Tai Company. Further digging around ("An Official Guide to Eastern Asia: China" (1915) by Teikoku Tetsudocho) identifies one of the three brick tea 'manufactories' in Hankow as the Hsin-tai Trading Company; given the use of the Wade-Giles romanisation at the time, surely this is the same as the Sun Tai Company.
It was common for Western trading companies in China to have Chinese trading names; Jardine, Matheson & Co were known as 'Ewo' whilst the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank were known as 'Wayfoong'. Two rival Russian brick tea traders/manufacturers in Hankow were SW Litvinoff & Co (known locally as Shun Fung) and Molchanoff, Pechanoff & Co (known as 'Fu Cheong'). Given the success of the Russians, in 1906 a group of Kwangtung and Fukien businessmen established the rival Hsin Sang Brick Tea Manufacturing Company in Hankow to compete with the Russians.
Being the centre of the Chinese black tea trade, Hankow first attracted Russian tea traders in the early 1860s. The Russians came to dominate the market for 'brick tea' - made from tea dust. In fact, three of the four brick tea factories in Hankow were owned by Russian businesses, like SW Litvinoff & Co (known locally as Shun Fung), Tokmakoff, Molotkoff & Co (known locally as Hsin-Tai) and Molchanoff, Pechanoff & Co (known as 'Fu Cheong'). Shipments from Hankow went by steamers directly to Odessa and St Petersburg or were transported overland on the Tea Road via Mongolia and Siberia to Moscow. Relations between the hard-drinking Russians and the more conservative British in Hankow were not always so cordial if too much had been drunk and the conversation veered from mere business to politics.
The building was erected after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution when Russian business interests in China took a dive; the premises look rather too grand and expensive for a post-1917 Communist tea agency. I do know that the architect was the local British firm Messrs Hemmings & Berkley. The initials 'HASCO' in relief can clearly be seen just above the main entrance. I have no idea what HASCO stands for. Can anyone help on this?