This family is based on the Jardine-Matheson or 'Jardine' family.
The Struan family begins its journey with the story of Dirk Struan[?], a trader of opium and other goods between China and England. Dirk is the founder of the Noble House and plays a major role in establishing Hong Kong.
Tai-pan[?] is the first book about the Struan family, although it is preceded by Shogun in the Asian saga.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump