Shanghai Municipal Council (July 11, 1854 - 1943) was an organization of businessmen leaders in Shanghai active from middle part of the 19th century to the early 20th century. The organization was formed on July 11, 1854 by a group of influential western businessmen who argued that Shanghai suffered under a lack of proper municipal governance. It laid down land regulations and began to assist in the construction of new roads, established refuse collection, and even initiated taxation. By the late-1860s Shanghai's official governing body had been practically transferred from the individual concessions to the Shanghai Municipal Council (工部局). The British Consul was the de jure authority in the Settlement, but he had no actual power unless the ratepayers (who voted for the council) agreed. Instead, he and the other consulates deferred to the Council, which was made of 9 figures, 5 from the British Settlement, 2 form the American Settlement, and 2 from the Japanese Settlement. No Chinese were permitted to serve on the council until 1928. By the 1880s the council acquired a virtual monopoly over city utilities, controlling gas-suppliers, electricity producers and water-companies. Later, in the early 20th century, they also took control of rickshaws, tramways, and regulated opium sales and prostitution. The council maintained its own police force, fire service, and military reserve, the Shanghai Volunteer Corps (萬國商團). The Municipal Council was disbanded in 1943, in World War II, when the Japanese closed all foreign concessions (except the French). More by this mapmaker...

The North-China Daily News (August 3, 1850 - March 31, 1951) was a Shanghai-based English-language newspaper active from about 1850 until 1951. The newspaper was founded as the North-China Herald by the British auctioneer Henry Shearman (June 7, 1813 - March 22, 1856). They added a daily publication in 1864, the North-China Daily News. The Herald gained prominence as the official record of the British Supreme Court for China and Japan and the British Consulate. Following Shearman's death, the newspaper was run by a series of competent editors who maintained and increased its position of prominence, such that it became the most influential foreign-language newspaper in China. The newspaper was acquired by Henry E. Morriss in 1901 and in 1924 established a prominent new location, the North China Daily News Building, at Number 17, the Bund. In 1941, during World War II, the newspaper suspected publication. They Herald was never published again, but the Daily continued to be published until ordered to stop in March of 1951 by the Chinese Communist Party. Their offices at the North China Daily News Building were seized by the Shanghai Municipal Government of the People's Republic of China. Learn More...

Waterlow and Sons (1810 - 1961) was a British engraving and printing concern active in London specializing in currency, postage stamps, bond certificates, and occasionally maps. The firm was founded by James Waterlow (1790 - 1876) in 1810 on Birchin Lane, London, as a legal document printer and copyist. By 1852, they had expanded into stamps and his sons, Albert, Alfred, Sydney, and Walter joined the business. One year after James Waterlow's death, in 1877, infighting among the sons led Alfred Waterlow to split off, forming Waterlow Brothers and Layton. The rift was settled by 1920, and the two firms once again merged under the Waterlow and Sons imprint. They were involved in the Portuguese Bank Note Affair of 1925, wherein the Portuguese fraudster Artur Virgílio Alves Reis convinced the firm to print 200,000 banknotes of 500 Portuguese Escudos each, amounting to roughly 88% of Portugal's GDP. The affair was settled in court with a ruling against Waterlow. In 1928, Waterlow lost its most lucrative contract, printing English banknotes, and began to fall into decline. In 1961, they were acquired by Purnell and Sons who, shortly afterwards, sold the firm to De La Rue. Ironically, De La Rue acquired the contract to print Bank of England banknotes again in 2003 – 75 years after Waterlow lost it! Learn More...