Edward Isaac Ezra

Edward Isaac Ezra
Born3 January 1883
Shanghai, China
Died15 December 1921(1921-12-15) (aged 38)
Baikal Road Jewish Cemetery
Occupation(s)Businessman
philanthropist

Edward Isaac Ezra (3 January 1883 – 15 December 1921)[1] was a wealthy Jewish businessman,[2] who was the first member of the Shanghai Municipal Council who was actually born in China,[3] and who was at one time "one of the wealthiest foreigners in Shanghai".[4] According to one report, Ezra amassed a vast fortune estimated at from twenty to thirty million dollars primarily through the importation of opium,[5] and successful real estate investment and management in early twentieth century Shanghai.[6] Ezra was the largest stockholder[7] and the managing director of Shanghai Hotels Ltd., and its major financier,[8] and controlled such hotels as the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai.

  1. ^ "Sudden Death of Mr. Edward Ezra", North-China Herald (17 December 1921):27 (767); Les Fleurs de L'Orient; Farhi.org
  2. ^ Ezra was "a Jew by birth, a British subject by naturalization, and an opium trader by profession." See Kathryn Meyer and Terry Parssinen, Webs of Smoke: Smugglers, Warlords and the History of the International Drug Trade (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002):40. However, "at various times [he] professed citizenships of Turkey, Persia, Spain and the United States, in an attempt to avoid prosecution. See Teemu Ruskola, "Law's Empire: The Legal Construction of 'America' in the 'District of China'"; Papers.ssrn.com
  3. ^ Robert Bickers and Christian Henriot, New Frontiers: Imperialism's New Communities in East Asia, 1842–1953 (Manchester University Press ND, 2000):45.
  4. ^ Tahirih V. Lee, Contract, Guanxi, and Dispute Resolution in China ( ):110.
  5. ^ G. E. Miller, Shanghai: The Paradise of Adventurers (Orsay Publishing House Inc., 1937):153.
  6. ^ Kathryn Meyer and Terry Parssinen, Webs of Smoke: Smugglers, Warlords and the History of the International Drug Trade (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002):40.
  7. ^ Hotel Monthly 28 (1920):53.
  8. ^ Hibbard, 4.