On The Rise And Decline Of Chinese American Bank Of Commerce

In the first years of the Republic of China, there emerged a high tide of establishment of joint banks between China and foreign countries. Prior to it new-typed banks as neonatal objects were just initiated. After that for less than ten years joint ventures were temporarily booming, but they were phased out after the downfall of the Northern Government. Sino-American joint Chinese American Bank of Commerce was one of them. It had been brewed by the end of Qing Dynasty in 1887, but till the ninth year of Republic of China (1920) it was established officially, the process lasting as long as 33 years Yet its existence was only less than 10 years. And the thorough liquidation of the bank was completed in 1956 after the founding of People's Bank of ChinaJust like other joint banks, Chinese American Bank of Commerce was the infant of that epoch, and its rise and decline were naturally related to the environment of that day. But as a newborn object, it remained a lot to be discussed. Take this bank for example, and as the individual case, we can further understand the bank's structures, administration, personal arrangement, business and its banknote issue that made creative achievements, which was its successful side or so called experience. Meanwhile there were evident drawbacks in coordinating the relation between Chinese and American, interior organs, the relation between the bank and the government, and on how to supervise the higher officers in effect, which was the failure of the bank, or so called lesson.In details, the development of the bank could be divided into three phrases. The period from February 1920, when all branches were in succession opened, to the first half of 1923 was the time of its initial and adjustment stage, the first phase; the period from the last half of 1923 to late 1926 was the time of its prosperity, the second phase; the time from late 1926 to 1929 witnessed its depression, the third phase. From the three phases we can find its trend of development on the whole.The reason for the bank's failure was always focused on by us. Although all the joint banks had the common background, for the part of this bank, the failure could lie in four aspects Firstly the heavy burden that all local governments taxed on it without end, which made it hard to sustain. Second it was a bottomless hole that it provided to the central government loans that were never paid off, and most of them turned out to be bad debts Third the problem with the relation between Chinese and. American, and with coordinating the organs working together, was long unsettled, deteriorating the diversity of the interior forces. Fourth it cast in its lot with other banks of the same kind, which means that, as soon as other banks bankrupted, it would be greatly impacted by the whole disfavoring conditions that the bankruptcies brought about. All the four above mentioned aspects were only the potential crises but the real reasons that caused its failure in the end were the warlords' chaotic wars and Shanghai and Tientsin branches' bad businesses. Due to the entry of Guangxi warlords as the shareholders, it was no wonder that the bank was confiscated by Kiang kai-shek after Guangxi clique was defeated in 1929, for Guangxi clique had held the majority of the shares of the bank...