As China emerges as a global powerhouse, this timely book examines its economic past and the shaping of its financial institutions. The first comparative study of foreign banking in prewar China, the book surveys the impact of British overseas bank notes on China's economy before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Focusing on the two leading British banks in the region, it assesses the favourable and unfavourable effects of the British presence in China, with particular emphasis on Shanghai, and traces instructive links between the changing political climate and banknote circulation volumes. Drawing on recently declassified archival materials, Niv Horesh revises previous assumptions about China's prewar economy, including the extent of foreign banknote circulation and the economic significance of the May Thirtieth Movement of 1925.

Niv Horesh is lecturer, Department of Chinese Studies, University of New South Wales, Australia.

"Niv Horesh breaks new ground with this book on the prewar Chinese economy. . . . Horesh corrects some of the distortions that have appeared in literature on the operations of foreign banks in China."--Linsun Cheng, "Business History Review"--Linsun Cheng "Business History Review "