The American Trading Company of Borneo was a chartered company formed by Joseph William Torrey, Thomas Bradley Harris and several Chinese investors shortly after the acquisition over a parcel of land in northern Borneo from the Sultanate of Brunei. The first American settlement in the area soon was named "Ellena", although it was abandoned later due to financial difficulties, diseases and riots among the workers.
History
In 1850, the United States and Brunei signed a commercial treaty, which was activated in 1865. Out of this agreement, C.L. Moses, the US First Consul to the sultanate, secured a lease of a large territorial concession in North Borneo. The grant was made in an effort by the Sultan –who still had to address internal power struggle– to solve the problems of rebellion and piracy in North Borneo. Moses concessions were immediately sold to Torrey, a Hong Kong merchant. Together with his associates, Torrey founded the American Trading Company in their attempt to develop plantation agriculture at Kimanis in 1865. This group then sold the lease to Gustav Overbeck in Hong Kong.
References
- K. G. Tregonning (November 1954). "American Activity in North Borneo, 1865-1881". Pacific Historical Review. 23 (4): 357–372. doi:10.2307/3634654. JSTOR 3634654.
- Richard Ker (August 26, 2012). "Ellena – America's Lost Colony in Kimanis of North Borneo". North Borneo Historical Society. Archived from the original on May 21, 2017. Retrieved May 21, 2017.
- James W. Gould (1969). The United States and Malaysia. Harvard University Press. pp. 63–. ISBN 978-0-674-92615-8.
- ^ Singh, D. S. Ranjit (2019). The Indonesia-Malaysia Dispute Concerning Sovereignty over Sipadan and Ligitan Islands: Historical Antecedents and the International Court of Justice Judgment. Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. p. 32. ISBN 978-981-4843-64-5.
- Fitzgerald, Robert (2015). The Rise of the Global Company: Multinationals and the Making of the Modern World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-521-84974-6.
- ^ Ciravegna, Luciano; Fitzgerald, Robert; Kundu, Sumit (August 29, 2013). Operating in Emerging Markets: A Guide to Management and Strategy in the New International Economy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-13-298338-9.
External links
Media related to Colony Ellena at Wikimedia Commons
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- American companies established in 1865
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