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 TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk 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 TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk 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