The Global Merchants: The Enterprise and Extravagance of the Sassoon Dynasty

by Joseph Sassoon

The Sassoons were one of the great business dynasties of the nineteenth century, as eminent as traders as the Rothschilds were bankers. This book reveals the secrets behind the family's phenomenal how a handful of Jewish exiles from Ottoman Baghdad forged a mercantile juggernaut from their new home in colonial Bombay, the vast network of agents, informants and politicians they built, and the way they came to bridge East and West, culturally as well as commercially.Through the lives these ambitious figures built for themselves, the reader is drawn into a captivating world of politics and power, innovation and intrigue, high society and empire. The Global Merchants is thus at once a portrait of a single family and a panorama of the hundred and thirty years of their from the Opium Wars to the American Civil War, the establishment of the British Raj to India's independence. Together these give a fresh perspective on one of the defining forces of their age and the globalization. The Sassoons were variously its agents, advocates and casualties, and watching them moving through the world, we perceive the making of our own.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Business

448 pages, Paperback

Published February 29, 2024

About the author

Joseph Sassoon is Professor of History and Political Economy at Georgetown's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and holds the al-Sabah Chair in Politics and Political Economy of the Arab World. He is also a Senior Associate Member at St Antony’s College, Oxford, where he also completed his PhD. Professor Sassoon, whose research focuses on political economy, economic history, Iraq, Iraqi refugees, and authoritarianism, has published extensively and is the author of five books.

Reviews

[Rajesh Mohta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice,

[Akumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

As you reach the last few chapters of the book, you can't help but start comparing the Sassoon dynasty with the Tatas. Both of these houses started about at the same time by towering figures, David and Jamsetjee. Both earned their fortunes through opium trades and later on branched into cotton and textile mills. But that is where the similarities end. While the latter continue to flourish 175 years later with the family still in charge of the far flung empire, while hardly anyone knows of the Sassoons beyond, say Mumbai and Shanghai. Why did this happen despite Sassoons having much better second generation leadership and worldwide trading operations. And the answers are unwittingly in the pages of this decently written book. The Sassoons were recent immigrants to India from Baghdad and before they could assimilate in India, they decided to shift their residence to England while trying to manage their core businesses in India. On the other hand, Tatas had their home in India and they stuck with it.

Coming to the book itself, it is written by a historian, a Sassoon himself, though not from the protagonist's family but from a far off branch. So, while reading the book you are both struck and overwhelmed by the academic and research heavy tone of the book rather than exploring the context of the story. A professional historian carries the burden of representing accuracy rather than story telling. So the book lacks the imagination and liberty of story telling.

As a long term resident of Mumbai, I have been conscious of Sassoon name, as in a dock, a library, hospitals, synagogues etc but also puzzled by the absence of any such person around. In that sense, the book fills a void for me. Majority of Sassoons departed from India within 50 years of their arrival here. They tried to establish themselves in English society and were very successful at it too, being close friends even with the Kings and princes there. One of the descendants became a minister, another a famous poet, and so on. They intermarried with other famous Jewish families such as Rothschilds. But by and large, they remain forgotten in their adopted country.

Few nuggets from the book:
1) Opium was the biggest export from India for over half a century, averaging more than 15% of total exports. Much of it was controlled by Sassoons and Tatas. The book does not explore in depth how did it come to this. The answer lies in tea and silver. It is ironical to note that English tried to counter their own addiction for tea (and subsequent crippling trade deficit with China) by forcing opium addiction on hapless Chinese.
2) Sassoons' legacy lives on in not only hospitals and schools but also in institutions like HSBC where they were controlling directors for decades after its founding and served as main financiers for opium trade. Also in Oriental Insurance company, or in venerable BEST (Bombay Electricity Supply and Tramways).

Good book. Will recommend.

[Christine Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most interesting and exotic family ruined by social climbing

[Ale · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this, because I find family histories inherently interesting and fascinating. I read Empire of Pain last year, a history of the Sackler dynasty, and realistically nothing can compare to how interesting and well written that was. I should have expected less but I thought that Joseph Sassoon's connection would mean that he would go beyond the very base levels. Sadly, he did not.

This book provides a pretty surface level history of the merchant Sassoon branch, which left Baghdad for Mumbai and built out an empire based on opium trading. It's also about the decline of the family, as they became closer to the seat of imperial power in London and further from the daily running of the business. But all of this just feels sterile, as we're treated to names and scenes that feel repetitive and stale. I found it hard to maintain my interest in the book, particularly in the latter stages. I can't tell whether it's because Sassoon doesn't have a lot of material to go through, or whether this is just a very amateur effort, but it feels like threads are picked up and abruptly dropped. We spent page after page talking about how Siegfried was most likely a homosexual, comparing him with Victor and his many sexual conquests. Does this have anything to do with the history and decline of the family? Who knows, but Joseph sure wants you to have the ~scandalous~ details.

I don't regret reading this, but I do regret spending this much time on it and not dropping it earlier. I could have ended with Flora, who absolutely deserved better than she got both from her family while she was alive and from Joseph Sassoon after her death.

[Anand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific story of a dynasty that traded across continents and cultures. I was particularly interested in the Indian stories, having grown up there and spent time in Bombay.

I only wish there was more context - too much detail is devoted to relatively trivial but juicy details like titles, parties, and extravagant spending.

Also, I’m always frustrated by history books that feature poor currency conversions. This book has hundreds of references to the past and current values of various trades and deals, but fails to set them in context. For example. An early chapter describes how the East India Company had an opium trade worth almost £750m in today’s money, then talks about how the EIC persuaded the British Navy to defend its commercial interests. Could anyone see any country going to war over less than a billion dollars today? Currency values are only one factor in putting a trade in context.

[Stephen King · Rating 4 out of 5]

This account of the rise and fall of a Jewish immigrant business family, the Sassoons. They migrated from Baghdad to Bombay (Mumbai) and became leaders in the opium trade between India and China in the 19th century. Some of the detailed family trees were difficult to follow (and frankly not that interesting) but the story got better as we entered the modern age and followed the fortunes of Victor Sassoon as he dominated the real estate business in 1930’s Shanghai only to lose his considerable fortune in WW2 and the takeover by the communists. This is a classic tale of first and second generation entrepreneurial spirit and a tightly knit immigrant community whose riches were squandered by later generations.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed group biography of the fabled Sassoon family, from their roots in Baghdad to the higher echelons of British society, passing India, China and many other places en route, a family dynasty that spread across the globe gaining – and sometimes losing – untold wealth. An enormous amount of research has gone into the book, for which the author is to be applauded, but the detail about their business and trading activities and the amount of information about money matters makes for some tedious reading at times – unless you like that sort of thing. Personally I was more interested in the personalities and their personal lives so I did find myself skipping bits on occasion. Nevertheless, this is a wonderful book overall and brings to life a family I knew relatively little about.

[Nefeli Georgiou · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good way to learn more about the Sassoon family from their origins until the downfall of their dynasty. At the same time, there are good insights in the business of trading of the 19th- early 20th century. I like the fact that the book takes us around the world talking about, Ottoman Baghdad, Colonial Shanghai and Opium times, India's independence movement, Victorian England and more. There could have been more done with the book, but its length was good enough to give a taste of the family, the industry, the global stage.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written family history of an cautiously entrepreneurial family at an interesting time. I stopped reading half way as the tale started to feature less of the history of a merchant family spreading across the orient in British colonial times, and more of the nastiness inherent in the death of family elders, including the denigration of a key woman leader. More historical context would have been an improvement but this is, after all, a family history.

[Charit · Rating 4 out of 5]

To read history through a revisionist lens is tempting but what a story of the dramatic rise and weak extinguishing of a great family trading house and name.
So many things will stay with me from this accounting including the scale of opium trade back in the day - late 19th century - of at its peak of 5 million tons being shipped from India - per year.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating history of global trade in the 19th and 20th centuries as seen through the eyes of the Sassoon family.

[Wolfgang Kasper · Rating 3 out of 5]

From rags to riches to nobility

This is a rich and complex epic of three or four generations. The story is not always easy to follow, given the many strands of the Sassoon tribe, the reappearance of the same names in different generations and many changes from Hebrew-Arab to Anglo names in mid-life. Prices and values keep changing, and not all were also converted to present-day money. This book is also a hard read, because the author reports numerous details, not all of which had consequences. But what really makes reading this book worthwhile is the importance of trust and reputation in commercial success, even in monopolistic trade with such commodities as opium. We see a procession of interesting characters walk past, from the hard-working, engaged first and second generations to the playboys and art lovers who wanted to know nothing of creating wealth, but a lot about spending it.

[Andy Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I know all about the Sassoons.