Commercial Bank Of China Was Founded And The Early Operation Of Research (1896-1911)

This thesis discuss the founding process and the operation on initial stages of the Imperial Bank of China. The main contents include the following five parts.The first part is about the founding of the Imperial Bank of China. In this part, I firstly discuss the reason of Sheng Xuan-huai founding bank.Then, I discuss the Sheng Xuan-huai's activities of originateing the Imperial Bank of China. His activities include planning and preparing, presenting a memorial to emperor, and setting up bank after receiving orders of emperor. Finally, I dissertate the flexura of the Imperial Bank of China in the course of being founded.The second part is about the status of the capital, constitution and personnel organization at the beginning of the bank. The capital mostly came from merchant stock and the deposit of ministry of finance, and the merchant stock mainly came from the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, the China Merchants' Telegraph Company and Sheng Xuan-huai. The constitution and system of the bank incarnated in several files drawed by the bank itself.The third part is about the expandedness of operation of the Imperial Bank of China in the first several years. It includes the operation of the chief bank and the foundation and operation of apiece subsidiary banks. Sheng Xuan-huai took active measures to create convenient conditions for the bank, and the quantity of capital and operation of the bank were both increasing in 1897-1899.The fourth part is about the loseing money in business and imbroglio of debt of the Imperial Bank of China. The subsidiary banks in Beijing, tianjin and zhenjiang losed money in business, and the else subsidiary banks gained little. At the same time, the chief bank encountered two cases of finance. These factors made chief bank get into overdraft of capitalization. Then, there are several proposals of reorganization or coalition about the Imperial Bank of China.The last part is about the renewer of operation after reform of the Imperial Bank of China. Sheng Xuan-huai took measures to adjust the personnel and operation of the bank, and the chief bank took measures to fetch up the losses. So the operation of the bank gradually recovered and the losses mended little by little.In conclusion, although the Imperial Bank of China was both the outcome of the development of Chinese neoteric industry and the need of the finance after Jia-Wu war, it faced inclement surroundings, and its early operation was unsuccessful. The cause mostly was that its system was not right.its management was jumbled, and mostmanagers did not abide orderly ways. The chief bank lack intendance and restriction to the managers in apiece subsidiary banks. In the early operation of the Imperial Bank of China, Sheng Xuan-huai took intervention on personnel and operation of the bank, and held the last power of decision. This made the Imperial Bank of China contacted Sheng Xuan-huai and his other corporations closely and made the bank can not operate according to the established constitution and system. So it often departed the impersonal demands of operation.