Cornes & Company Limited was established in Yokohama in 1861 and is the oldest international trading house in Japan. Under the leadership of its founder, Frederick Cornes, a young English textile merchant, the company began trading in silk and tea but soon expanded its activities to include other merchandise, and then shipping and insurance. Today, the Cornes group employs over 700 people in Japan and hundreds more in its operations in the USA, Australia and Hong Kong. In Japan, the company has four main areas of business; automobiles, insurance & maritime, agricultural machinery, and high technology products and services.