Networks of Capital: German Bankers and the Financial Internationalisation of China (1885-1919)
This dissertation examines the hitherto neglected role foreign, and specifically German, bankers played in the Chinese economy and the history of modern economic globalisation in China during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By following the history of the German Deutsch-Asiatische Bank (DAB) during the last two decades of the Qing dynasty and the first years of the Chinese republic, this dissertation shows how the interaction between foreign bankers and Chinese officials, bankers and entrepreneurs led to the rapid internationalisation of Chinese finance, both in terms of public finance and the banking sector of China’s treaty port economy. Unlike most previous literature, which only depicts foreign banks in modern China as mere manifestations of foreign imperialism, this dissertation demonstrates that foreign banks acted as intermediary institutions that financially connected China to the first global economy and provided the financial infrastructure necessary to make modern economic globalisation in China during the late 19th and early 20th centuries possible. At the same time, this dissertation stresses the importance of Chinese agency for the operation of foreign banks in China’s treaty ports and shows that the interaction between foreign bankers and Chinese actors was made up as much of cooperation as of conflict. In sum, this dissertation not only furthers our knowledge of the role foreign banks played in the modern Chinese economy, but also contributes to our understanding of how China was financially integrated into the first global economy.
Foreign banks, China, modern, Deutsch-Asiatische Bank, Bond market, Sovereign debt, International banks, Sino-German relations
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