Richard Shackleton Butterfield founded Butterfield & Swire in Shanghai and started out trading tea and silk, as well as cotton and wool imported from the UK. Butterfield & Swire has also been the China agent for a number of UK businesses, including major insurance and shipping companies, most notably Blue Funnel Line, for which Swire has been the Far East manager for more than 120 years. In keeping with Chinese tradition, he gave the company a Chinese name, Taikoo, which is still widely known in Asia, implying a large scale and a long history.










