CHINA NAVIGATION COMPANY

The records listed below are primarily Twentieth Century series (from 1922-1981) and are very full. The accounts and legal papers go back as far as the formation of the Company and the accounts are particularly good, although incomplete.

Archive & Special Collections JSS/3 Open

Date(s) of creation: 1871-1987
Level: Sub-collection
Format: Archive           

collection SOAS Archive
id JSS.3
recordtype archive
scb_item_location Archive & Special Collections
item_location Archive & Special Collections
scb_loan_type Reference only
callnumber JSS/3
callnumber_txt JSS/3
callnumber-sort JSS/3
scb_alt_ref_no JSSIII
prefix_number 3
title CHINA NAVIGATION COMPANY
scb_date_creation 1871-1987
scb_level Sub-collection
level_sort 7/Collection/Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Sub-Collection/Series/Sub-Series/Sub-Sub-Series/File
scb_extent 355 boxes; 6 volumes
format Archive
scb_admin_history By the early 1870s John Samuel Swire was convinced that there was an opening for increased steam shipping on the Yangtze River and as he was unable to interest Holt's in undertaking this expansion themselves he decided to establish a new company for this. The China Navigation Company was formed in London in 1872 with a capital of £360,000 chiefly put up by John Samuel Swire and William Hudson Swire with Holt's, Rathbones, Y H Ismay, R N Dale, John Scott, T Barlow and Mssrs. Imrie and Harrison supplying additional money. JSS initially ordered three ships to be built for the Lower Yangtze trade and in 1873 purchased the Union Steam Navigation Company giving the China Navigation Company [CNCo] two ships and the leases on property in Shanghai and at other river ports. By the mid-1870s CNCo interests had spread to the Canton River trade and by the late 1870s to the Shanghai to Ningpo [Ningbo] and Shanghai to Tientsin [Tianjin] routes, despite periods of intense competition and rates wars as well as pool agreements with the other shipping companies on these routes. In 1883 the Coast Boats Ownery [CBO], which had been formed to handle local coastal trade was fused with the CNCo and in the 1880s and 1890s the CNCo expanded its fleet and the ports of call so that by 1894 it consisted of twenty-nine ships calling at ports along the Yangtze, down the South China coast, in the Philippines, S E Asia, Australia, Japan, Russia and the North China coast. Despite problems in Far Eastern trade and affairs during the Twentieth Century, including increased nationalist sentiment and anti-foreign campaigns, boycotts, piracy, staff and salary discontent, and disrupted trade routes due to China's internal civil disturbances, the CNCo fleet continued to operate up to the Second World War and in 1940 was requisitioned by the British Government for the duration of the conflict. In the autumn of 1945 CNCo returned to Hong Kong and Shanghai and gradually requisitioned shipping and property seized by the Japanese was restored and normal working resumed. Butterfield & Swire [B&S] were appointed from the formation of CNCo as Eastern Managers, all correspondence with John Swire & Sons [JS&S], the London Managers being conducted by the offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai. While Shanghai was responsible for the CNCo business on the Yangtze River and the North China Coast (from Ningpo [Ningbo] north), Hong Kong handled the south coast and Canton trade and all the South East Asian, Australian and Philippines routes. In many ports the B&S agent acted for CNCo although in some places a separate CNCo office might be established and in the Philippines, Australia and S E Asia, where there were no B&S offices, independent agents were employed. After World War II, CNCo began to pioneer ‘new’ trading routes from Australia to Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands - a region that is now the focus for CNCo’s owned and managed trades. In the 1960s, the company introduced a revolutionary new method of cargo carrying to these Pacific trades: "unitisation" involved palletised cargo carried in specially adapted ships fitted with side ports and worked with forklift trucks carried on board, and was ideally suited to island ports where shore facilities were minimal. In the late 1970s, CNCo repeated the trick by upgrading these services to full containerisation, using self-geared vessels fitted with mobile gantry cranes – an innovative approach at that time. The 1960s and 70s also saw China Navigation diversifying its scope of activities in two other very different directions. In the 1960s CNCo developed a passenger cruising business creating a niche market operating seminar cruises out of Japan and successfully dominated this market for almost 20 years. The early 1970s also saw CNCo beginning to invest seriously in the dry bulk carrier market – a move that marked the company’s first departure from a traditional owner/operator role to that of ship manager, with a succession of vessels, ranging from Handymax to Capesize, chartered into some of the world’s leading bulk pools. The mid-1980s saw another new departure for CNCo, and the beginning of a highly successful, decade-long involvement in the Very Large Crude Carrier [VLCC] market, with two owned and managed vessels traded on long-term charter to oil majors, helping the company to further diversify its expertise. During the 1990s, China Navigation’s liner trades expanded rapidly, but the focus of management activity moved away from its head office in Hong Kong. Asia Australia Express [AAE] merged with Australia Japan Container Line [AJCL], and thereafter Crusader Swire Container Service [CSCS] merged with New Zealand Unit Express [NZUE] coming under the aegis of a common P&O Swire Containers office in Sydney from 1991. Management of New Guinea Pacific Line [NGPL] moved from Hong Kong- via a three-year joint venture with Bank Line and Columbus Line in Singapore – to be consolidated with that of Chief Container Service [CCS] in the Swire Shipping Offices in Sydney in1993. With the initiation of a trans-Tasman service in 1999, Swire in Sydney became a natural focus for management of this trade too. Meanwhile, CNCo’s interests in the New Zealand markets hinged on its shareholding in first, Tasman Asia and, later, Tasman Orient Line – both headquartered in Auckland. In 2009, CNCo relocated its headquarters to Singapore and established The China Navigation Company Pte Limited, as a subsidiary of The China Navigation Company Limited (UK registered parent company). The company has evolved from operating niche trades on the Yangtze River and along the China coast to establish a position as the leading provider of multipurpose liner shipping services with a specific focus on Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and the island nations of the Pacific Ocean
description The records listed below are primarily Twentieth Century series (from 1922-1981) and are very full. The accounts and legal papers go back as far as the formation of the Company and the accounts are particularly good, although incomplete.
scb_related_name_code GB/SOASNAF/P1254
GB/SOASNAF/P553
GB/NNAF/C109117
GB/SOASNAF/P554
GB/NNAF/C215949
GB/SOASNAF/P847
GB/SOASNAF/C312
GB/SOASNAF/P1022
GB/SOASNAF/P1265
GB/SOASNAF/P1266
GB/SOASNAF/P1267
GB/SOASNAF/P1270
GB/SOASNAF/P1271
GB/SOASNAF/P1272
GB/SOASNAF/P1278
GB/SOASNAF/P1276
GB/SOASNAF/P1280
GB/SOASNAF/P1281
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scb_place_code 1861060
2205218
11494804
2186224
1643084
1880251
2077456
1819730
1814991
2088628
1269750
2643743
6255149
105343
scb_access_status Open
scb_copyright Copyright is owned by John Swire & Sons, Ltd, 59 Buckingham Gate, London, SW1E 6AJ
scb_use_restrictions Copying for personal research purposes is permitted. Please contact the archivist for all publication requests.
language English
language_search English
scb_finding_aids Paper handlist available
scb_related_material For the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century CNCo affairs are covered in the JS&S records (JSSII and 2) and the B&S agents outport letters (JSSII I) for the 1890s and early 1900s also concerned CNCo business. Many of the sections of JS&S records (JSSI) and of B&S series (JSSII) also have material relating to CNCo interests throughout the period.
hierarchy_top_id_raw JSS
hierarchy_sequence JSS.003

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