The Shanxi Votes Study

This dissertation consists of 7 chapters on seven different topics around Shanxi Banks (or Shanxi exchange shops). Some of these topics are basic research on the subject, while the others are the implications of the old Chinese financial institutions to the modern society.Chapter One mainly discusses the historical development of the business and trades in Shanxi Province and its relationship with the Shanxi Banks. As we all know, the financial business developed together with the overall business and trade in Shanxi, so if we are to know anything about Shanxi Banks, we must first of all give an analysis of the historical conditions for the rising of Shanxi business. Compared with neighboring Hebei and Shanxi provinces, the business achievement in Shanxi is very noticeable. In addition to the favorable natural environment in which it grew, human factors are held to be important as well in this chapter. Just from this point of view, the author tries to explain how the culture in favor of business had been cultivated in Shanxi.Chapter Two is a brief account of the history of the development of Shanxi Banks. Over the more than 100 years of its existence, the development of Shanxi Banks is divided into 4 stages: the starting stage, the enlargement stage, the stage for exchanging the foreign debts, and the declining stage. In the analysis, the author of this dissertation uses a quantitative approach to examine the changes of the number of the Shanxi Banks, the rise and fall of the deposits and the specific variations of the potential crisis underneath the superficial prosperity of the financial business. In response to the idea that Shanxi Bank had crashed together with the breakdown of Qing Dynasty, the author holds that Shanxi Banks had survived for some time during the age of the Republic of China.Chapter Three tries to count the rate of the funds from the government in the whole business of Shanxi Banks in order to appraise the nature of its capitals. From its surface, the Bank seemed to have transferred big sums of government funds, but this is misleading. In fact, according to the statistics of this chapter, the rate of the funds from the government is less than 20%. During the period of its transformation, the nature of the bank capitals was relatively more complicated. In the author's view, it shares the characters of both the loan capital and the usury capital.Chapter Four is a comparison of the differences between Shanxi Banks and Nanbang Banks, revealing the interior and the exterior factors that had brought abouttwo completely different fates to the two banking systems. Nanbang Banks came into being later than Shanxi Banks, but they had close relations with government officials, and some of their capitalists themselves were officials. They mainly relied on the government funds or ventures for their business. As a result, they declined very early. In contrast, Shanxi Banks, as nongovernmental businesses, stuck to its civil businesses and seldom undertook venturing businesses. Though they also took government funds, the rate of such businesses was too low to affect its regular businesses. That's why those powerful Nanbang Banks went bankruptcy one after another while Shanxi Banks survived for decades of years, or even as long as a century.Chapter Five is a research into the management philosophy of Shanxi Banks and the reasons for their success. As other scholars have already made some researches on the operation system of the Banks, here the author focuses on their institutional aspect. The author believes that the two factors essential to the success of its business are the specification of personal shares and the strictness of its management. These two factors not only mobilized the clerks' initiatives but also avoided potential risks, therefore ensuring the smooth running of its business.Chapter Six is an overall analysis of the reasons for the declination of Shanxi Banks. Generally, Shanxi Bank began to decline after the Revolution of 1911 and the Prince Mutiny of 1912, thus the idea of "crash...