‘The Last Kings of Shanghai’ Review: Bund Traders
- Jun 19, 2020
- 1 min read
Shanghai in the 1920s and ’30s was one of the world’s most modern, vibrant cities. And the city’s richest man was Victor Sassoon, a Jazz Age Richard Branson who gave costume parties in the ballroom of his swanky Cathay Hotel. Another local tycoon, Elly Kadoorie, built himself a palace modeled on Versailles, and his family moved around in a fleet of Rolls-Royces.
The opulence of the Sassoons and Kadoories is all the more remarkable considering the two Jewish families left Baghdad in the 19th century virtually penniless. How did they amass such wealth? The answer depends on one’s politics. According to the Communists who confiscated both families’ assets after the 1949 revolution, they were imperialists who exploited the Chinese people. An alternate view is that they were capable entrepreneurs who pioneered globalization. They were able to build the economies of Bombay, Hong Kong and Shanghai because these cities practiced laissez-faire economic policies, were open to immigration and capital, and boasted relatively clean and competent governments.
