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Oei Tiong Ham, Majoor-titulair der Chinezen (; 1866–1924) was a
Chinese Indonesian Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have ...
tycoon and the son of Oei Tjie Sien, the founder of the Kian Gwan, a multinational trading company. Born in
Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...
,
Central Java Central Java ( id, Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in th ...
,
Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, whic ...
(now
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
), he became the wealthiest person in the Far East at the start of the twentieth century. Part of his wealth originated in his involvement in the
sugar industry The sugar industry subsumes the production, processing and marketing of sugars (mostly sucrose and fructose). Globally, most sugar is extracted from sugar cane (~80% predominantly in the tropics) and sugar beet (~ 20%, mostly in temperate climat ...
. He served as ''Luitenant der Chinezen'' in the Dutch colonial administration in Semarang, and was raised to the rank of titular ''Majoor'' upon retirement. In
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bo ...
, where Oei relocated to avoid Dutch inheritance law in his succession planning, a road is named after him. Oei Tiong Ham Park, near Holland Road, is also named in his honor. His nickname, "Man of 200 Million", originates from the passing of his 200 million guilder estate at the time of his death in 1924 in Singapore.


Early life

Oei Tiong Ham was born in
Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...
on 19 November 1866. His father, Oei Tjie Sien, was a Chinese-born, or ''totok'', migrant and a self-made, '
new money ''Nouveau riche'' (; ) is a term used, usually in a derogatory way, to describe those whose wealth has been acquired within their own generation, rather than by familial inheritance. The equivalent English term is the "new rich" or "new money" ( ...
' businessman with no kinship ties to the colonial Chinese establishment (the '
Cabang Atas The Cabang Atas (''Van Ophuijsen Spelling System'': Tjabang Atas) — literally 'highest branch' in Indonesian — was the traditional Chinese establishment or gentry of colonial Indonesia. They were the families and descendants of the Chinese ...
'). Oei's mother, Tjan Bien Nio, was an Indies-born woman from a middle-class
Peranakan Chinese The Peranakans () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, ...
family. Oei's significance relates to his role in expanding his father's trading house, Kian Gwan, into the Oei Tiong Ham Concern (OTHC), the largest conglomerate in Southeast Asia at the beginning of the twentieth century.


Career

The OTHC originally started with the trading firm of Kian Gwan, established in 1863 by Oei's father. In 1893, Oei took over the firm Kian Gwan from his father, and incorporated it as Handel Maatschappij Kian Gwan. Under Oei, the company diversified and grew into one of the largest firms in
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...
. At the time Oei took over the firm, Kian Gwan's main activity was trade, especially trade in rubber, kapok, gambir, tapioca and coffee. In addition, it was involved with pawnshops, postal services, logging and the highly lucrative
opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy '' Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, whic ...
trade. It has been estimated that between 1890 and 1904, Kian Gwan made a profit of some 18 million
guilders Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' "gold penny". This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Emp ...
in the opium trade alone, which provided the basis for his empire.


Rise

Oei's initial strategy was gradually to build up dominance in the highly lucrative opium market towards the end of the nineteenth century. This feat was all the more remarkable given the virtual control of the opium monopoly by more established, older concerns with close ties to the ''Cabang Atas''. The bankruptcy of one of these older concerns in 1889 prompted the colonial government to host an auction to select new opium farmers. This auction has gone down as one of the most competitive in history, described by the poet Boen Sing Hoo in his ''Boekoe Sair Binatang'' ("On Animals", published in 1895) as a real "peperangan diantara raja-raja" ("battle of kings"). It gave the young Oei and Kian Gwan an opportunity to establish themselves as a significant player. Boen's poem describes how the '' parvenu'' Oei, whom he calls ''Anak Sapi'' (the "Young Ox"), managed to outbid the established Batavia partnership led by Kapitein Loa Tiang Hoei (Boen's ''Boeaja Emas'' or "Gold Crocodile") and Kapitein Oey Hok Tjiang.


A conglomerate

Having gained control over the opium market of central Java, Kian Gwan went on to corner the sugar market. Unlike many of his Chinese contemporaries, Oei relied heavily on written contracts in conducting his business. This did not make him popular in Chinese circles but it provided him with a legal basis to acquire the collateral for the loans he extended. Among his main debtors were often owners of sugar factories in
East Java East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern and sou ...
. When these factories were unable to repay the loans due to the long-lasting effects of the sugar crisis of the 1880s, he used his rights as a creditor. In this way, he acquired five sugar factories. Sugar now became the backbone of the company and would remain so for the next several decades. Kian Gwan gradually integrated its plantations, mills, shipping lines, banks and complementary enterprises. This fully integrated chain, as James R. Rush points out, differs from the earlier opium empires and older Chinese concerns, for Oei's main competitors were not other Chinese, but the large European trading companies. Oei's company was also groundbreaking in employing professional personnel, instead of relying completely on family members in the old Chinese way. Only ownership of Kian Gwan rested with the family. In the period between the 1890s and the 1920s, the OTHC grew and diversified rapidly. It started branches in London, Amsterdam, Singapore, Bangkok and New York, created a bank, a steamship business and had a large wholesale business. Of all the ethnic Chinese business conglomerates in pre-war Asia, the OTHC was by far the largest. The company was even larger than the well-known "Big Five" Dutch trading companies that supposedly dominated the foreign trade of the Indies. The OTHC was strong in foreign trade, particularly in China. The basic strategy of the company was to take advantage of the opportunities on the world market for commodities produced in Indonesia. In 1912, Kian Gwan, the trading branch of the conglomerate was capitalised at fifteen million guilders, double the amount of the largest Dutch firm Internatio. During the post-war boom of 1918-1920, the worldwide demand for Java sugar was high, creating many opportunities for sugar-mill owners and sugar brokers, but fortunes gained were easily lost in a couple of days. Oei followed a cautious policy during these boom years. He did not speculate too heavily and took steps to improve its financial administration. Oei recruited talented accountants to set up a modern accounting system for the sugar factories. Due to the cautious and independent strategy, the company survived the subsequent sugar crisis while many other Chinese firms perished. Besides making use of written agreements and a modern accounting system, Oei also diverted from yet another Chinese business practice of the time. Instead of relying solely on family members in running his wide ranging business enterprises, he deliberately chose capable outsiders, such as Dutch directors, managers, and engineers to manage his companies.


Singapore

In 1912, Oei bought The Heap Eng Moh Steamship Company Limited, known as the "Red Funnel" Line. One of the employees in Singapore is Lee Hoon Leong, grandfather of the first
Prime Minister of Singapore The prime minister of Singapore is the head of government of the Republic of Singapore. The president appoints the prime minister, a Member of Parliament (MP) who in their opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of the majority of M ...
Lee Kuan Yew Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), born Harry Lee Kuan Yew, often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean lawyer and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990, and Secretary-General o ...
. Oei also had controlling interests in the Semarang Steamship Navigation Company. In 1920, Oei left
Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...
and settled in Singapore to escape Dutch colonial succession law and tax regime. Having eight wives and twenty-six official children, inheritance became important issues. He decided to hand his daughters and some of his sons cash, and make eight of his sons his rightful heirs, dividing among them an inheritance worth two hundred million guilders. Since only two of them, Oei Tjong Swan and Oei Tjong Hauw, had reached maturity, immediate succession did not seem to give too many problems. In 1961, the Indonesian OTHC came to an end, when the Indonesian government's Pengadilan Ekonomi (the court for economic crimes) seized and nationalised all of OTHC's Indonesian assets including its strategic sugar plantations and factories. In 1964, the government formed a holding company named PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia to run them, which is still a prominent corporation up to this day. However, many of the Kian Gwan offices abroad managed to survive and became independent companies on its own, each operated by one of Oei's sons.


Death

In 1924, Oei died in Singapore. His body was returned to Semarang. Oei Hui-lan (later Madame Wellington Koo due to her marriage to V.K. Wellington Koo), Oei's second daughter from his first wife, believed that her father was poisoned to death by Lucy Ho, his mistress at the time of death. Oei's body was shipped to Semarang for burial in his father's tomb.


Personal life

According to ''No Feast Lasts Forever'', the autobiography of Oei Tiong Ham's daughter Oei Hui-lan (who married V.K. Wellington Koo), Goei Bing Nio () was selected by Oei Tiong Ham's mother to be his wife and was married to him at the age of 15. She had two daughters with him, Tjong-lan and Hui-lan. Oei Tiong Ham also had 18 acknowledged concubines. One of Goei Bing-nio's sisters was unable to have children so she adopted two girls from her husband's brother. These girls both became Oei Tiong Ham's concubines. The younger of the two sisters, Lucy Ho (or Hoo Kiem Hoa), moved to Singapore with Oei Tiong Ham and lived with him until his death. One of Oei Tiong Ham's sons with Lucy Ho later married Oei Tiong Ham's granddaughter (the daughter of Oei Tjong-swan, one of Oei Tiong Ham's sons not born to Lucy Ho). Oei Tiong Ham Park, a road in Singapore’s Bukit Timah District, is named after him.


Family


References

*K. Yoshihara, ''The Rise of Ersatz Capitalism in South East Asia'', (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1988)


External links


Oei Tiong Ham, the man of 200 million
- Look under section 'people'.
Claudine Salmon, "A Critical View of the Opium Farmers as Reflected in a 'Syair' by Boen Sing Hoo (Semarang,1889)"; in 'Indonesia', Special Issue (July 1991), pp.34,37,50,51 (PDF file, pp.10,13,26,27)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oei, Tiong Ham 1866 births Family of Majoor Oei Tiong Ham People from Semarang Indonesian people of Chinese descent Indonesian businesspeople Singaporean people of Chinese descent Singaporean businesspeople Cabang Atas Kapitan Cina Pachters 1924 deaths