Russo-Chinese Bank

The Russo-Chinese Bank (Traditional Chinese: 華俄銀行) was a foreign bank representing Russian interest in China during the period between Qing Dynasty and Republic of China.

The former building of the Russo-Chinese Bank in Saint Petersburg

Russo-Asiatic Bank note, 3 Rubles (1917)

History

• December 5, 1895: The bank was created in the Russian Embassy in Paris,[1] from Russian and French capital.[2] It lent money to China and issued Chinese government bond to finance China for its indemnity to Japan after First Sino-Japanese War.[1]
• February, 1896: It opened a Shanghai branch.[3]
• August 28, 1896: China joined the bank as a partner for the construction of China Eastern Railway. The bank was renamed to Sino-Russian Righteousness Victory Bank (Traditional Chinese: 華俄道勝銀行).[4][3]
• 1902: The bank became the second largest bank in China.[3]
• 1904-1906: A branch bank was established February 1904 in San Francisco, the only one in the United States, which was destroyed by the April 1906 earthquake.[5]
• 1910: It merged with Banque du Nord to form Russo-Asiatic Bank (Traditional Chinese: 俄亞銀行).[3][6]
• 1918: the new Soviet government nationalized all Russian banks, including the Russo-Asiatic Bank. A separate Russo-Asiatic Bank set up its new headquarters in Paris same year.[7]
• September 26, 1926: The bank was closed down after losing 5 million pounds in foreign currency speculation in Paris financial market.[3]

See also

• Russo-Chinese Bank Building, Shanghai

References

1. Davis, Clarence B.; Wilburn, Kenneth E., Jr; Robinson, Ronald E. (1991). "Russia, the Soviet Union, and the Chinese Eastern Railway". Railway Imperialism. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 140. ISBN 9780313259661. Retrieved 24 July 2015 – via Questia.
2. Issue in focus: Russian Bankers to Return to U.S. West Coast Archived 2007-08-16 at the Wayback Machine
3. Ji, Zhaojin (2003). A History of Modern Shanghai Banking: The rise and decline of China's finance capitalism. Russo-Chinese Bank and Russo-Asiatic Bank. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe. p. 70-72. ISBN 0-7656-1002-7.
4. China's Loss of Sovereignty in Manchuria 1895 - 1914
5. Scanland, J.M. (July 1905). The Russo-Chinese Bank (San Francisco). Detroit, Michigan: The Business Man's Magazine and Book-Keeper. p. 236-245.
6. Watson, D.R. (January 1993). "The Rise and Fall of the Russo-Asiatic Bank. Problems of a Russian Enterprise with French Shareholders, 1910-26". European History Quarterly. 23: 39–49. doi:10.1177/026569149302300102. S2CID 144169965.
7. Share, Michael B. (2007). Where Empires Collided: Russian and Soviet Relations with Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao. Chinese University Press. ISBN 9789629963064. Retrieved 17 August 2019.