J. G. Thirkell. Some Queer Stories of Benjamin David Benjamin and Messrs. E. D. Sasson & Co. Wealth, Fraud and Poverty

(CHINA)

The Celestial Empire Office

Shanghai

1888

A light and entertaining narrative chronicling the rise and fall of Benjamin David Benjamin, a Jewish financier. Born in Baghdad, Benjamin, along with many other Sephardic Jews, moved to the Free Port of Shanghai. There, he met success in share speculation, until a disastrous venture importing opium from India in partnership with the Sassoon Company, resulted in huge personal losses. Thereafter he died in poverty. Benjamin’s Jewishness is viewed with guarded respect, though a few telling remarks hint of the predjudices of the author “..though a Jew, he was a man with a large and liberal heart .” The author includes the transcript of a play which appeared in the Shanghai Mercury, in the form of a dialogue between God and Moses lampooning Benjamin’s business dealings, as well as a serial from The Cathay Post satirizing Benjamin’s fatal involment with the mighty Sassoon Company