Professor Elizabeth Sinn (Honorary Professor, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, HKU)

Though the On Tai was a landmark as the first Chinese-owned and operated insurance company in Hong Kong (and one of the very first in China), and the first to be incorporated as a limited joint-stock company under the Company Ordinance, it is unknown to historians today. Even the Registry of Companies, established in 1865, has no record of its existence. Yet, its share price was quoted in the newspapers alongside other corporations such as The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. Its scale of operation was vast, with agents in many ports along the Chinese coast, in southeast Asia, Japan, California, Australia and even Saghalien in Russia. San Francisco was its key sources of income, where it not only insured goods to China and Hong Kong, but also to Mexico and South America. It is time to recover On Tai’s history for a better understanding of Hong Kong's economic and business environment in the 19th century, and of the extraordinary men who made things happen.