This book is at least six months old, and is difficult to track down even in Hong Kong bookshops.
So why am I reviewing it?
The person that put me onto this book happens to manage a lot of money for a very rich individual, so I decided there must be something in it. And there is.
It is the history of an individual called Noel Croucher, a stockbroker who lived in Hong Kong and who was reckoned at one time to be the richest man east of Suez. It is also a history of corporate Hong Kong that focuses less on the Jardines and Swires than the smaller, mostly forgotten companies.
Croucher died in 1980 just as his era was passing. But for a man who came from nothing, and who was brought to Hong Kong as a poor child, received no education, and started out working in a hotel in Macau, it is no strange thing to find that he later bailed out the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club from its financial difficulties after the Second World War – with a personal cheque.
It is truly a rags to riches story. But it is also a story of a man who never really achieved the fulfilment he sought – a dynasty. He died, leaving all his money in a trust to send Hong Kong Chinese students to British universities.
His life is intimately wound up with the history of 20th century Hong Kong. He got his lucky break when the scion of Hong Kong, Sir Paul Chater, walked into the stockbroking office that he was working at. Chater wanted to buy some shares, but Croucher advised him against the particular stock. The next day the stock in question tanked, and Chater returned and sought Croucher’s advice. From that point on, Croucher became one of the great man’s trusted confidantes.
As an investor, Croucher was a man of sound sense, and for all the talk of the new religion of shareholder value, this book proves it was alive and well in the 1930s in the breasts of men like Croucher.
One exemplary piece of advice he gives a company at an AGM is: “You have to prepare in the good times for the times that are bad because the bad times always do come – they follow rapidly after the good times.”
This is a sentiment we often forget during this, the longest bull run in recorded history.
At an AGM for the Douglas Steamship Company the indefatigable Croucher tells the management: “The steamers stand in the books at twice their market value when in fact they are all over 30 years old and need to be replaced.”
After a haranguing on several such scores, the company chairman, AH White, is recorded as reverting to saying “Yes, it will be looked into” to all of Croucher’s charges, like a schoolboy being ticked off by a housemaster.
In between offering sage accounting advice to errant managements, the book offers a feel for the times. In the 30s, everything in Hong Kong would close at 11pm – such that one visitor from Shanghai called it “the best illuminated cemetery in the world” – and an American banker cursed his luck when he was transferred from Manila. The favoured drinkery was Gripps and inhabitants were keen on a cocktail called Black Velvet, a heady mixture of champagne and Guinness.
Then came the war…
Croucher came out of the war and the Japanese occupation a very rich man. The Japanese had not sought to crack open the safe in his office. This was fortunate since it contained bars of gold and shares in companies like Wharf and Hongkong Bank.
The stockbroking company he set up would take many companies public, including Swire. These were boom times, and by the 1950s Noel was very affluent indeed, and became the chairman of the Stock Exchange. Hong Kong was developing fast, but unlike today, the natural environment was still healthy. Author Vaudine England maintains that people would often “dive into the harbour for a dip in Central Hong Kong” at lunchtime. Anyone doing that today would simultaneously be dragged off to a mental ward and casualty.
However, some things absolutely never change. The only major investments Croucher ever made that really went awry were in the Philippines. Plus ta change.
In sum, this is a quirky book. It aims to put in perspective a very rich man who lived in Hong Kong his entire life, but who has been quite forgotten. It has some very good moments – such as the description of a chap being sued for insider trading (or rather, a corner), sipping champagne as he testifies and with his attorney periodically refilling his glass.
It is not a must read. But if you’re into understanding the past…
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Steven Irvine
