The ''Ewo Hong'' () was a

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

'' hong'' established by ''Wǔ Guóyíng'' () in Canton (Guangzhou) in 1783 and later became the leader of the cohong of the

Thirteen Factories The Thirteen Factories, also known as the , was a neighbourhood along the Pearl River in southwestern Guangzhou (Canton) in the Qing Empire from to 1856 around modern day Xiguan, in Guangzhou's Liwan District. These warehouses and stores were t ...

under the stewardship of

Howqua Wu Bingjian (; 17694 September 1843), trading as "Houqua" and better known in the West as "Howqua" or "Howqua II", was a hong merchant in the Thirteen Factories, head of the '' E-wo hong'' and leader of the Canton Cohong. He was once the rich ...

, who took over in 1803. Ewo later became one of the most successful ''hongs'' and the largest creditor of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

, whilst Howqua's personal monetary worth reached more than 26 million Mexican dollars. As a result of the ''Ewo hong's'' upright and honest reputation, Jardine, Matheson & Co. later adopted "Ewo" as the Chinese name for their firm. p.12
Online version at Google books
/ref>

References

{{China-hist-stub History of Guangdong Companies established in 1783