Study On System Of China's Central Bank At The End Of Qing Dynasty (1905-1912)

As the impact of the International Protocol of 1901 and the implementation of New Deal, the Qing government was eager to increase national revenue. Moreover, the government hoped to make the currency system and financial market standard with modern banking institutions. Thus, drawing on the experience of the Imperial Bank of China, the Qing government founded the first central bank of china in 1905, which was called Ta Ching Hubu Bank. In order to open up profit source, when choosing the service and governance models, the Experimental Regulation of Hubu Bank complied with provisions of the Company Law and learned from models of the Bank of Japan. For example, Hubu bank adopted two-tier board system, and the supervisors of bank were elected by shareholders instead of the government. Besides, it cooperated with local financial institutions when setting up sub-branches to save cost. However, because of lacking experience, there were some problems in the system of Hubu Bank, like paying too much attention on profit, shortage of managerial personnel and difficulty of stock collection.After running for three years, Hubu Bank was renamed Ta Ching Government Bank because of superior authorities'alteration and own identity's adjustment. And its regulation terms also made some changes in the number and content of articles. Furthermore, in comparison to the Experimental Regulation, the rules of Ta Ching Government Bank strengthened the standardization of system framework and staff appointment. The central bank's management capability on financial market reinforced, and the government role became more obvious as well. Meanwhile, the system still displayed some weaknesses which led the bank into bankruptcy, such as it was obscure about regulations of loan type and qualification of stockholders who attended the general meeting. What's more, the case of Houde Bank also revealed that the practice of the rules conflicted with the content.Although different social background of western banks and local financial institutions made western banks'management system separate from native banks and exchange shops'. To be specific, the earlier based on formal constraints, while the later was affected by traditional institutions (like paternalism). Ta Ching Government Bank still had some similarities with local financial institutions, due to the shortage of skilled persons. And its personnel and accounting system were influenced deeply by tradition. For instance, just like that in local financial institutions, the staff's experience and regional background paid a more important role than one's knowledge and ability in employment system of Ta Ching Government Bank. At the same time, managers'professional background and administrative authority of Ta Ching Government Bank were similar to that in native banks and exchange shops.It is because the central bank was promoted by the Qing government with the aim of increasing national revenue, that Ta Ching Government Bank underlined the government's dominant function and took the Bank of Japan as a learning object. But as a result of nature discrepancy between western system and traditional culture, when formal institutions gradually became more intensive, if culture remained the same, the implementation would deviated from the rules. Therefore, for system transplantation, it is inevitable to experience the process that foreign system conflicted with the traditional culture, and its success lied much in indigenization, which means that foreign system matched traditional culture.