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Lord Palmerston, Britain's Foreign Secretary at the time was not impressed by the acquisition of Hong Kong (translated as Fragrant Harbor) and wrote Plenipotentiary Charles Elliot disapprovingly "You have obtained the Cession of Hong Kong, a barren island with hardly a House upon it." However, important merchants and traders such as Dent & Co. and Jardine, Matheson & Co. … |
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(both involved in opium smuggling at the time) saw the advantage of the new British base and immediately began to purchase lots to build businesses and warehouses. Chinese immigrants, laborers and small businesses followed, and with an initial population count of some 6,000 residents in 1841, the establishment of the City of Victoria in Hong Kong was well underway. |
