In varying combinations, the brothers established themselves as one of the leading nineteenth century East India merchants, trading in cotton, tea, coffee and other commodities.
The rise of independent governments after World War II meant the progressive loss of the family's Eastern assets and the redeployment of capital back to London.
In a general sense, the brothers were the six sons, born between 1818 and 1836, of Edinburgh architect and builder Lewis Alexander Wallace.
It was William alone who developed the Burma business, largely financed by Wallace Co; this was later capitalised as The Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation.
[1] The impetus for the brothers becoming East India traders was Lewis senior's provision of capital to J G Frith, a merchant well established in the Bombay trade.
Although he operated as a sole trader, the finance came from Wallace & Co and the extent of loans began to put pressure on the relationship between the five brothers in Bombay and William in Rangoon.
In the following year, William transferred all the assets for a cash sum and retired to London, taking no further interest in the family businesses.
William retired in 1864, George followed suit two years later and Robert had moved to Manchester to oversee that end of the cotton trade.
Family control of Wallace & Co and Bombay Burmah now resided in London and after the death of Richard in 1885 it was Lewis and Alexander who carried the business through to the next century.
[1] Rice was another important market, the trade being run from London by a new company, Arracan, which had a mill in Rangoon and chartered the shipping.
[3] Competition for teak supplies was coming from Siam (now Thailand), and Bombay Burmah opened an office in Bangkok in 1884.
A tanning company was formed in 1902 to supply the U.S. market; an oil concession in Sumatra lost money and closed after ten years, while there were also investments in rubber plantations in Java and Johore.
and take over the business of the six partners; these consisted of Alexander as Chairman and largest shareholder, four other family members, and Reginald Macaulay, destined to become a leading figure in the Wallace story.
The year after war ended, an investment was made in the Indian firm of Chrestian & Co, one of the world's largest producers of mica.
However, after the entry of Japan into the War in December 1941, the Wallace assets east of India were rapidly lost to the Group and were not easily restored after 1945.
The investment in North Borneo was successful as were its tea plantations in India and in the 1960s the firm also moved into cocoa and oil palms.
Trading houses owned by non-nationals were falling out of favour and in 1958 the agencies of the two cotton mills were relinquished and the shares sold.
An investment was made in Kenya in 1950, providing a springboard for several ventures – cattle ranching, pyrethrum, coffee and tea.
There were short term property investments in Canada; an unsuccessful venture into rubber plantations in Java; and fish farming in Peru.
[1] Much of the early withdrawal from the East was involuntary but there was an increasing realisation that the future lay nearer to home; the solution was to redeploy capital to finance and banking.
The final stage came in 1972 when the Wallace interests were combined with those of the Tao and Wong families in a new Company, Ocean Leila Ltd of Hong Kong.
[1] Wallace Brothers and Company (Holdings) Limited and its UK subsidiaries were taken over by Standard Bank in 1977 and were wound up over the following twelve years.