Chapter 01

Summary

• Brock is a merchant waiting on the beach for a ceremony to begin
• Brock believes that Hong Kong is a worthless island and that the future of trade with China lies in established ports on the Chinese coast
• Cooper, an American merchant, and Tillman, a merchant from Alabama, disagree and argue that the natural harbor on Hong Kong is valuable
• Brock becomes angry when Cooper insults the British Empire
• Struan arrives and diffuses the tension with a speech about the importance of trade and the potential for Hong Kong to thrive
• The ceremony to raise the British flag on Hong Kong begins
• Cooper and Tillman have a secret deal with Struan to sell him tea from China through their connections in the Philippines
• The tea was shipped to England through Struan's clipper ships and paid for with opium, which was secretly delivered to China
• The deal was made possible because the United States was not at war with China and was able to bypass the British blockade of Chinese ports
• Struan's actions during the war with China have made him very wealthy and he is able to buy a controlling interest in the Royal Bank of Scotland
• Brock plans to expose the secret deal and ruin Struan's reputation and financial standing
• Struan's plan is to undermine the monopoly of the East India Company and establish free trade with China
• Brock plans to sabotage Struan's plan by exposing the secret deal to the Parliament and the East India Company
• The ceremony to raise the British flag on Hong Kong ends and Struan and Brock shake hands, but Brock secretly plots against Struan