Hugh Matheson (industrialist)

Hugh Matheson
Matheson by James Coutts Michie

Hugh Matheson (c. 1820 – 1898) was a 19th-century Scottish industrialist. In 1873, he assembled a group of financiers to purchase the Rio Tinto mine from the government of Spain, establishing the mining company that is today the Rio Tinto Group. Matheson served as the company's first president.[1][2] Under Matheson, Rio Tinto became the largest copper producer in the world.[2]

His original capital came from his share profits from Jardine and Matheson, a family business involved in the China trade, including opium.[3][4]

References

  1. ↑ "The Gulliver RTZ Dossier". Archived from the original on 17 February 2011.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kutney, Gerald (2007). Sulfur: history, technology, applications & industry. Toronto: ChemTec Publishing. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-895198-37-9.
  3. ↑ Newsinger, John (1997). "Britain’s opium wars – fact and myth about the opium trade in the East". Monthly Review 49 (5): 35–42.(subscription required)
  4. ↑ Ward Fay, Peter (1976). The Opium War, 1840–1842: Barbarians in the Celestial Kingdom in the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century and the War by Which They Forced Her Gates Ajar. New York: Norton. p. 160. ISBN 0-8078-4714-3.