James Wilson was from a wealthy family background. His brother established a manufacturing factory, which they dissolved in 1831. Wilson continued in the same line of business and reached a pinnacle of success.
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was being established with paid-in capital of 3 million pounds. The first branches opened in April 1858 in Bombay and Calcutta. Shanghai followed that summer and the Singapore and Hong Kong branches in 1859.
The Chartered Bank had arrived in Burma in 1862, just nine years after it formation in London by merchants and shipping interest with a view to financing the trade between Asia and Australia.
The bank’s traditional business was in cotton from Bombay, Indigo and tea for Calcutta, rice form Burma, sugar from Java, tobacco for Sumatra, and silk from Yokohama.
In 1969, Chartered Bank finally merged with Standard Bank of South Africa to form Standard Chartered.
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China
