By 1909 the growing popularity of the motorcar, including the Model T Ford, was creating significant demand for tyres, which rubber planters in Southeast Asia were keen to exploit, but credit was still difficult to obtain.

They established The Straits Mortgage and Trust Company Limited to lend money to the planters, secured on the rubber estates.

[1] Within a couple of years, however, the credit crisis was over and rubber planters no longer required finance from Straits Mortgage on the scale anticipated.

In recognition of this, the Board decided to change its name to “The Scottish Mortgage and Trust Limited”; this change of name received official approval on 31 May 1913.”[3] Early investments reflected the rapid global industrialisation that characterised the period, including shares in oil and railway companies and loans to the Argentine, Indian, Chinese and Imperial Ottoman governments.

The exasperation of the chairman comes through in his 1975 statement: "The fact is that this country has got itself into a really dreadful mess... We continue to have more confidence in investment prospects overseas than in the UK".

Investments continue to reflect the global-nature of the Trust with holdings in fast-growing economies such as China and Brazil.

In 1942 the chairman wrote with masterly understatement of "some important adverse influences... Our revenue has suffered from the almost complete stoppage of dividends from the invaded areas".