[1] Together with Gouw Kang Soei, Tan Ling, Khouw Siong Bo and Tan Kong Boen, Lauw was also part of the Ngo Ho Tjiang partnership or kongsi, which dominated the opium pacht – the most lucrative of all the revenue farms.
[2] The proceeds from revenue farming made Lauw one of the wealthiest tycoons in the Dutch East Indies.
[2] Despite his vast wealth, Lauw's application for an honorary appointment as Luitenant-titulair der Chinezen did not succeed, probably because, as a newly-rich man, he did not come from an established family of Chinese officers.
[1] The Chinese officership was a very prestigious and senior civil government post in the Dutch colonial bureaucracy: appointments tended to be doled out on a near-hereditary basis to a small number of interrelated families - the so-called Cabang Atas gentry.
[1] Lauw did, however, serve in the bureaucracy in a lesser capacity as Wijkmeester, or ward master, of Meester Cornelis.