Shanghai Trust Industry Study (1921-1949)

This paper tends to study on Shanghai Trust Industry from 1921 to 1949. Financial periodicals during the period of the Republic of China and other historical materials that had not been published have been sorted and collected in Shanghai Archives, thus organizing the network of the development of Shanghai Trust Industry during that period. Historical facts have been sorted clear and corresponding features been summarized. Economical, political and social reasons that influenced the change of Shanghai Trust Industry have been analyzed. This paper has led to the following conclusion: during the thirty-year development, Shanghai Trust Industry has gone through the periods of rise, fall, initial development, abnormal prosperity and gradual fading. It can be considered as a comparatively independent financial division as far as the number, scale and association are concerned. But in terms of its dealing in business, the majority of trust business was not focused on trust. There had been some trust companies during the period of the Republic of China. But there had never heen a trust industry which was different from banks and which could independently handle accomodative money trade and finance management.