The Kadoorie (Khaḍḍūrī) family has long played a major role in the economy of the southeastern China coast and of Hong Kong, which partly thanks to their contributions grew in the course of a century from a small provincial colony to a world financial center. In Baghdad, where the family originated, the Kadoories were “merchant farmers” in an era when livestock was an important medium of exchange. Members of the family were among the Baghdadi commercial pioneers who founded Jewish enclaves in trading ports in the Far East in the mid-nineteenth century.

Ellis (1865–1922), later Sir Ell…