Wee Bin

Wee Bin born in China in 1823, was a far-sighted and enterprising Chinaman of the mid nineteenth century who, in his time, founded,One Hundred Years' History of the Chinese in Singapore by Ong Siang Song, 1923] Singapore's largest Chinese shipping firm.Family and State: The Formation of a Sino-Thai Tin-mining Dynasty, 1797-1932 By Jennifer Wayne Cushman, Craig J. Reynolds Contributor Craig J. Reynolds Published by Oxford University Press, 1991; ISBN 0195889665, 9780195889666; p. 63, 67, 172] [Records and Recollections (1889-1934): Chinese Women, Prostitution & a Welfare Organisation By Neil Jin Keong Khor, Keat Siew Khoo, Izrin Muaz Md. Adnan Published by Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2004; ISBN 9679948323, 9789679948325; p. 58] Wee Bin was founder of Wee Bin & Co. chop Hong Guan, in Market Street, a firm that was rapidly becoming prominent in Singapore in the 1860s'. Wee Bin through his firm, carried on business as Merchants and Shipowners. He incorporated Western practices in his business. Wee Bin at first began business relations with various houses in Bali in the Dutch Indies, and eventually became the greatest importer of products from that port. He also traded in all kinds of earthenware, and later on built up a fleet of over twenty vessels for the Chinese and Dutch Indies trade. With increasing interest in the tin mining industry and the need for more and more people to work the mines, Wee Bin was also responsible for carrying migrant workers from China to work in the Straits Settlements. [An Official Guide to Eastern Asia, Trans-continental Connections Between Europe and Asia ... By Japan Dept. of Railways, Japan Tetsudōin, Japan Teikoku Tetsudōchō Published by s.n., 1915 Item notes: v.4; p. 32] Wee Bin married the daughter of Kiong Kong Tuan and died in 1868 at the age of 45, leaving an only son, Wee Boon Teck, and an only daughter who became the wife of Lim Ho Puah who would later take over his firm before passing it on to Wee Bin's ultimate heir, Lim Peng Siang, one of the greatest Chinese entrepreneurs and capitalists of his time.

References