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Encouraged by the prospect of economic expansion in Sarawak, Borneo, Robert MacEwan and Robert Henderson, Glasgow merchants with well-established interests in the South China seas, and John Charles Templer, a lifelong friend of Rajah Brooke of Sarawak, combined to launch the Borneo Company in 1856. The firm's foreign headquarters were in Singapore, and, in addition to Sarawak, it soon traded in general commodities all over the Far East: in Calcutta, the Dutch East Indies (Java and Sumatra), Hong Kong, Malaya [Malaysia] and Siam [Thailand]. Of these, the operations in Sarawak and Siam were probably the most significant.
SARAWAK: Under a royalty agreement concluded with the Sarawak treasury in the mid 1850s, the company was authorised to exploit all the country's mineral deposits. Initially, operations concentrated on the extraction of antimony ore, but, from the 1870s, company prospectors added cinnabar, coal and, most lucratively, gold to the range of minerals mined. In addition, the company developed a banking and agency business, ran a mint for the Rajah, and experimented with miscellaneous crops such as sago, indigo, tobacco, pepper and rubber. Close contact with the first and successive rajahs allowed for great diversification of interests and the operation of a commercial monopoly in the company's favour until the Second World War.
SIAM [Thailand]: A branch opened in Bangkok in 1856 following introductions made to King Mongkuk by the Danish explorer Ludwig Verner Helms. Activity included rice milling and trading; the export of sugar, salt and tin and import of calico, metals, marine stores and opium; wharfage work; and agency business. The value of these miscellaneous trades was however small in comparison with the profit derived from the extraction of teak in the northern districts. Upcountry branches at Chiengmai and Raheng directed forest operations from the 1880s onwards under the terms of successive teak leases. By 1914, the company had its own sawmill in Bangkok, and was exporting steadily to Europe, India and the Far East. Trade in teak continued relatively undisturbed until the Second World War.
The firm became a limited company in 1890. From 1922, the company was quoted on the London Stock Exchange. Increasing emphasis on the distribution of motor vehicles led in 1925 to the formation in Singapore of the subsidiary Borneo Motors Limited. The firm took over motor distribution in Singapore, Malaya, Sarawak and Brunei.
After the Second World War, during which many Far Eastern staff were incarcerated by the Japanese, the company continued to expand into Brunei, North Borneo and Canada.
In 1966, the firm became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Inchcape Group of trading companies.
The Borneo Company had offices at 25 Mincing Lane, 1856-9; 7 Mincing Lane, 1859-74; 28 Fenchurch Street, 1874-[1932]; 143-149 Fenchurch Street, [1932]-1955; 62-63 Mark Lane, 1956-1967; 40 St Mary Axe, 1967-1988.