Shanghai’s Bund and Beyond: British Banks, Banknote Issuance, and Monetary Policy in China, 1842–1937

254 Pages·2009·1.061 MB·English

by  Niv Horesh

Yale Series in Economic and Financial History
General Editors
Howard Bodenhorn
Clemson University, Department of Economics
William N. Goetzmann
Yale University, School of Management
K. Geert Rouwenhorst
Yale University, School of Management
Eugene White
Rutgers University, Department of Economics
Publication co-sponsored by the International Center
for Finance at the Yale School of Management
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Shanghai’s Bund
and Beyond
British Banks, Banknote Issuance,
and Monetary Policy
in China, 1842–1937
Niv Horesh
Yale University Press
New Haven and London
Published with assistance from the University of New South Wales and from the
Kingsley Trust Association Publication Fund established by the Scroll and Key
Society of Yale College.
Copyright © 2009 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be
reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that
copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except
by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009921877
ISBN 978-0-300-14356-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
A cata logue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of
Paper). It contains 30 percent postconsumer waste (PCW) and is certified by the
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my parents,
Itzhak and Dvora
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Contents
Ac know ledg ments, ix
List of Abbreviations, xiii
Part I
1 Introduction, 3
2 The Sino- Foreign Financial Grid in Prewar Shanghai, 24
3 The Chartered Bank and Its Note Issue, 49
Part II
4 HSBC and Its Note Issue in Shanghai, 1866–1925, 73
5 HSBC and Its China Note Issue in the Late-Republican Era,
1925–1937, 110
6 Conclusions, 153
vii
viii Contents
Appendix: British Bank Note
Circulation in Shanghai, 1881–1935, 163
Notes, 165
Glossary, 203
References, 205
Index, 233
Ac know ledg ments
This book could not have been completed without the helping hand
that was extended to me by many individuals and institutions, but
most notably by my two principal supervisors at the Australian Na-
tional University. Emeritus Professor Mark Elvin was one of the first
academics to show interest in the topic. He subsequently helped me
secure a Commonwealth scholarship and has proven an invaluable
fount of wisdom since; Dr. Pierre van der Eng has taught me the differ-
ence between “asserting” and “demonstrating” and has commented at
length on countless drafts. His goodwill at critical junctures of my doc-
toral candidacy ensured that the project would not fade into oblivion.
My work at the Guildhall Library has been greatly facilitated by the
Standard Chartered Bank and Stephen Freeth of the Corporation of
London. I am equally indebted to Edwin Green, Sara Kinsey, and their
staff at HSBC Group Archives, without whose hospitality and profuse
counsel this research would have struck a much flatter chord. Other
archival materials from around the world have furthered my under-
standing of foreign banking in prewar China, although they do not
necessarily feature in the following pages. These materials w ere sent to
ix
x Ac knowl edg ments
me on a pro bono basis by, among others, Maryvonne Véjux (BNP Parisbas),
MarcMeuleau (CA- Indosuez), Reinhard Frost (Deutsche Bank AG), Günter
Stutterich (Bundesarchiv), Sierk Plantinga (Dutch National Archives), Dr. Mark
Tomasko, and Theo van Elmpt (in de pen dent numismatists).
Some chapters in this book have appeared previously as abridged journal ar-
ticles, and are gratefully reproduced here with the publisher’s permission (see
items listed in the bibliography under the author’s surname). I wish to thank a
long list of scholars, authors, and editors for their support in that regard. The list
includes, but is not limited to, Emeritus Professor Nishimura Shizuya and
Dr. Yokouchi Masao (Hosei University), Professor William T. Rowe (Johns
Hopkins University), Professor Kathryn Bernhardt (UCLA), Professor Philip
Scranton (Rutgers University), Professor P. J. Drake (Melbourne University),
Professor Mark Selden (Cornell), Professor Patrick O’Brien (LSE), Dr. Frans-
Paul van der Putten (Nyenrode Business University), Dr. Paul van Dyke (Macau
Inter- University Institute), Dr. Zhang Jianjun (University of Inner Mongolia),
Dr. Noel Pugach (University of New Mexico), Dr. Julia Strauss (SOAS), Dr.
Andrea Janku (University of Heidelberg), Professor Wang Shaoguang (The Chi-
nese University of Hong Kong), Professor Louise Edwards (UTS), Professor
Tim Wright (University of Sheffield), Professor Hans Hendrischke (UNSW),
and Dr. Richard Rigby (Australian Office of National Assessment).
Colleagues and friends at the Division of Pacific and Asian History have been
remarkably generous with their time. I would like to thank in part icu l ar Dr.
Tana Li for the confidence she has shown in my teaching ability, and for her
open-d oor policy; Dr. Robert Cribb for his wonderful insights into academe
and for always striving to give a more human face to our Division; Dr. Josephine
Fox for her bibliographic tips; Maxine McArthur for bearing with my soporific
English prose; and Marion Weeks for her continual administrative backup. Fel-
low PhD students in the Division were always fun to talk to—Vanessa Ward,
Julian Kusa, Tim Amos, Yeetuan Wong, Curtis Gayle, Rev. Jeremy Clarke, Jamie
Greenbaum, and Leonid Petrov to name but a few.
Elsewhere on campus, I received much- appreciated feedback and assistance
from Professor Russel Craig (College of Business and Economics), Dr. Zhong-
wei Zhao (Research School of Social Sciences), Dr. Kent Anderson (Faculty of
Asian Studies), Dr. Luigi Tomba (Contemporary China Center), Renata Os-
borne, Darrell Dorrington, and Anne- Marie Boyd (Menzies Library).
Outside the ANU, I owe long- standing debts to Or Horesh, Leah Horesh,
Avi and Gabby Horesh- West; to Emeritus Professor Raphael Israeli, Dr. Yuri
Pines, and Dr. Lihi Yariv-L a’or (Hebrew University); to Professor Aron Shai