After the first "Opium War" Russell & Co. became the third largest dealer in opium in the world.

RUSSELL STURGIS WAS THE FACE OF THE BANK THAT SPONSORED WORLD NARCOTICS TRAFFICKING IN THE 19TH CENTURY

Sturgis: his grandson by the same name was chairman of the Baring Bank in England, financiers of the Far East opium trade. ​

The Baring family is a German and British banking family, descended from Johann (John) Baring (1697–1748), a wool merchant of Bremen. He founded a merchant house in Exeter in 1717. His sons Francis Baring and John Baring moved to London, where they founded the John and Francis Baring Company, commonly known as Barings Bank, in 1762. Barings Bank become one of the leading London merchant banks. The City of London recognized Baring's special qualities and in 1771 the Royal Exchange Assurance, a giant public business, appointed him to its court.

Russell Sturgis

One of the best known merchants of his time. He was partner of Russell & Sturgis, and of Russell, Sturgis, and Co.; of Russell and Co. after the consolidation of the two firms.

He was later partner of and finally head of Baring Banks, London.

Other facts: merchantnetworks.com

Lawyer and Chairman of Barings Bank London, England: sponsor of the world narcotics traffic throughout the nineteenth century.

Also known as Nathaniel Russell Sturgis , Russell Sturgis was born in 1805 in Circa. He died in 1887 in London.

His own wikipedia entry fails to note his father in thepeerage.com.

In 1842 he became a full partner of Russell and Co. He once worked for opium dealer John Perkins Cushing.

He had country houses at Coombwood, Mt Felix and The Farm at Leatherhead, plus Upper Portman Place and Carlton House Terrace in London. He is of Carlton House Terrace, London. Also of Boston, Mass. 
http://www.merchantnetworks.com.au/genealogy/web/lathrop/pafg39.htm#359154

Sturgis library William Sturgis family papers .pdf

Born on August 27, 1750, Russell Sturgis was the third child and second son of Thomas Sturgis, Jr. (1722-1785), and Sarah Paine, of Barnstable.1 Thomas Sturgis, Jr., referred to himself as a yeoman in his will.2 On November 11, 1773, Russell Sturgis married Elizabeth Perkins (1756-1843), the daughter of James Perkins (d. 1773), a Boston merchant, and Elizabeth Peck. James Perkins died at age forty, and his widow kept a "Grossary shop" to help support her ten children.3 Elizabeth Perkins's grandfather was the Boston merchant and fur trader Thomas Handasyd Peck, with whom Russell Sturgis apprenticed at age sixteen.4 In the spring of 1775 the Sturgises left Boston and sought refuge in Barnstable with their young son and Elizabeth's widowed mother and seven younger siblings.5

THE BARING ARCHIVE SERIES HC2 STATISTICS OF GENERAL TRADE
1828 6 Mar, London: Charles Roberts. Statement of stock of opium in the principal warehouses [London]; and prices of opium in bond, 1814-28
http://www.baringarchive.org.uk/materials/the_baring_archive_hc2.pdf

Russell & Company Records 1820 -1891 Harvard Cite as: Russell and Co./Perkins and Co. Collection. Baker Library Historical Collections. Harvard Business School.

familiar story . . powerful family connections & networks

RUSSELL STURGIS'S grandfather, who bore the same name, visited the Daniel Bacons on Cape Cod, and while there he met and married Elizabeth, the daughter of Mrs. James Perkins. Mrs. Perkins was the daughter of Thomas Handasyd Peck, who left some interesting letters concerning the lives of the Boston­ians of the early days. Of her it is related that during the Revolutionary War there was much sickness among the English troops in Boston and the English general was advised to get assistance from Mrs. Perkins, who was known to be very capable. She replied, as was quite natural at that time, that she would aid them "as sick men but by no means as soldiers." After the war Mrs. Perkins and her son-in-law ­returned from the Cape to Boston.

Sturgis,was born in Boston in 1805, went to Harvard at the age of twelve, and in 1828 made his first voyage abroad in the "Boston," with only two fellow-passengers. He had settled down in this city as a young lawyer and would probably have continued in this profession had he not overheard John. P. Cushing speak of the unwillingness of a certain person to go to China. "I wish I had that chance offered me," remarked Sturgis. In a few days the opportunity was given to him by Mr. Cushing and he sailed for Canton in 1833.

Eventually Sturgis entered the firm of Russell & Sturgis of Manila and Russell, Sturgis & Co. of Canton, and in 1840 the latter house consolidated with Russell & Co., Mr. Warren Delano being taken in as a member of the firm.

Two years later Russell Sturgis became a part­ner. The East had a great fascination for him, and in fact for all the men who went out there from Boston. The life there was new and interesting to them, and they assumed great responsibilities; they lived a life of great freedom, although they were not allowed to go outside the "Factory" reservation. Besides being called "foreign devils" they were also described as "a ghostly tribe of barbarians," as "uncouth beings with fiery hair" as "a strange people who came to the Flowery Kingdom from regions of mist and storm where the sun never shines," even as "wild, untamed men whose words are rough, and whose language is confused." During the opium war, Rus­sell Sturgis's son, Julian Sturgis, who wrote a short memoir of his father, describes how each member of Russell & Co. had to do some of the housework. Lots were drawn and the duty of cook fell to Capt. R. B. Forbes, who was soon deposed from his position by Warren Delano for presenting to his fellow-captives a dish of ham and eggs which was mistaken for some sort of leather. John C. Green, who was the head of Russell & Co., tried his hand at boiled rice, which resembled a mass of glue, so the story goes. A. A. Low, father of Seth Low, was ordered to set the table after having produced some boiled eggs that resembled grape-shot. To kill time they played whist, and hunted rats with a terrier, which latter fact led the Chinese to believe that the "Fan-Kwae" were holding a continuous feast. Julian Sturgis also mentions the Canton Regatta Club, which was founded in 1837, thereby causing a protest to be issued by three of the Co-Hongs, who believed that great danger would arise from its formation. The protest reads as follows: --

"On the river boats are mysteriously abundant; everywhere they congre­gate in vast numbers; like a stream they advance and retire unceasingly. Thus the chances of contact are many; so are accidents even to the breaking of one another's boats, to the injury of men's bodies, while more serious con­sequences might ensue!

this story shows how "kind" he was.

there are many stories like this about pirates.

he was nothing more than a opium drug smuggler!! 

never lose site of this bottom line

Quirky Series of  Events Leading to His Joining Barings Bank

In 1844 Russell Sturgis retired from business and came home to Boston to join his children, who had been sent there to school, their mother having died in Manila in 1837. Sturgis then married again, his wife being Julia A. Boit, a sister of Robert A. Boit's mother. He found the scale of living in that day more expensive than he had expected and therefore decided to return with his family to the East. He was to sail on the "Canada" from Boston to London, where he was to connect with a ship that was to take him eastward. The expressman who brought in the family luggage from Jamaica Plain was delayed by an open drawbridge and failed to get to the wharf until after the vessel had sailed. Sturgis and his family decided not to sail without the luggage and had to wait over for the next boat. It is said that when he found the delay occurred through no fault of the express­man, he treated the expressman so kindly that the man was so surprised and overcome that he immediately burst into tears. The steamer on which they finally crossed did not arrive in London in time to catch the boat sailing eastward, therefore Sturgis and his family had to remain a number of weeks in London before making connections. During this time he was asked by Mr. Bates, the senior member of Baring Bros. & Co., to become a partner in the firm, which position he accepted, finally becoming head of the house. It was jokingly said in the family that if it had not been for the dilatory expressman Mr. Sturgis would never have become head of the firm of Baring Bros. & Co. He never returned to this country, dying in England in 1887.

Mr. Sturgis' opium money went to the  Boston Art Museum when its new building was built in Copley Square by his son John H. Sturgis.