in China and Japan, the Pacific coast of Canada and the United States and from 1912 New York City. Shipping agency and tea trading were major concerns. Having lost again the Canadian Pacific contract in 1892, Dodwell secured another trans-Pacific contract with an American railroad company, the Northern Pacific Railway, and by the turn of the century could claim to be the largest shipping firm on the Pacific coast. Dodwell was a large exporter of China and Japanese teas, which they sold especially to Britain, the United States and from 1901 to Russia. When demand began to shift towards Indian teas, Dodwell opened a branch in Colombo in Ceylon (today Sri Lanka) in 1897 to purchase and sell Cylon teas. In 1898 George Benjamin Dodwell and his partners decided to transform the business into a Private Limited Liability Company. From 1 January 1899 the company began to operate as Dodwell & Company Limited with a capital of £500,000. By its articles Dodwell was elected Chairman for life. The same year he retired from the East and returned to London. There George Benjamin Dodwell not just oversaw the further development of Dodwell & Co. but diversified his business activities and was chairman of the Malacca Rubber Plantation Company. From the turn of the century on to the First World War, tea sales declined and general merchandising and the shipping agencies became more important. Branches initially opened for shipping agency or tea trading often developed other activities. The Vancouver branch invested in salmon canneries, developing a business exporting canned salmon to Britain and elsewhere. In the United States the Tacoma branch exported lumber and together with the Seattle branch helped develop a local flour milling industry. The Colombo branch diversified from tea trading to the export of coconuts. It established a desiccating mill in 1910 and acquired a number of tea and coconut plantations. Japan also became more important to the company. Dodwell & Co. acted as the exclusive agent for the chartering of ships by the Japanese government during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. Its Japanese trading business expanded further through the export of coal to Singapore and Shanghai, and the shipment of Japanese straw braid from Kobe for Europe. Dodwell & Co. also helped with opening of the new port of Yokkaichi to further its export of Japanese porcelain. During the First World War Dodwell's shipping business boomed with the