Cragside was an important setting for Armstrong's commercial activities. The architectural writer Simon Jenkins records: "Japanese, Persian, Siamese and German dignitaries paid court to the man who equipped their armies and built their navies". In his 2005 book "Landmarks of Britain" Clive Aslet notes visits with the same purpose from the Crown Prince of Afghanistan and the Shah of Persia. The Shah Naser al-Din visited in July 1889, and the Afghan prince Nasrullah Khan in June 1895. Armstrong's biographer Henrietta Heald mentions two future Prime Ministers of Japan, Katō Takaaki and Saitō Makoto, among a steady stream of Japanese industrialists, naval officers, politicians and royalty who inscribed their names in the Cragside visitors' book. The Chinese diplomat Li Hung Chang visited in August 1896. King Chulalongkorn of Siam was staying in August 1897, when activity at the Elswick Works was disrupted by a bitter strike over pay and hours.