Research Catalog

Title

Crisis banking in the East : the history of Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China, 1853-1893 / Stuart Muirhead ; edited by Edward Green.

Author

Muirhead, Stuart.

Publication

Aldershot, England ; Brookfield, Vt. : Scolar Press, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Green, Edwin.

Description

xiv, 379 pages; 25 cm

Summary

• The Chartered Mercantile Bank was the forerunner of the Mercantile Bank, which became part of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1959. This study charts its first 40 years when it was one of the pioneering banks of the Far East, becoming the leading exchange bank in India and South East Asia while always retaining its head office in the pivotal London market.
• Based upon meticulous research using a particularly rich set of banking archives, Crisis Banking in the East describes the complex political and financial circumstances on the subcontinent during the bank's early years and introduces the personalities in the Indian business and London banking worlds who guided the infant institution. The volatility of local markets is analysed, including portraits of the banks and merchant houses which did not survive the many financial crises in the East.
• The book provides a vivid inside view of the workings of an Eastern bank - the nature of its business, methods of payment and exchange, and recruitment and career patterns of staff - and includes valuable new material on the role of European bankers in an Eastern setting.

Subjects

• Banks and banking, British > Asia > History
• Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China History
• Banks and banking, British > India > History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Foreword / William Purves -- 1. The Birth of Eastern Exchange Banking -- 2. The Foundation of Mercantile Bank -- 3. Early Success and a Charter, 1854-58 -- 4. Expansion, Boom and Crisis, 1858-65 -- 5. Survival and Stagnation, 1866-70 -- 6. Bad Banking, the Silver Crisis and New Leadership, 1871-84 -- 7. The Officers, Local Staff, Management and Directors -- 8. London Head Office: Its Business and Overseas -- 9. The Mechanics of the Bank's Business, 1854-93 -- 10. The Last Years of the Chartered Mercantile Bank -- 11. Liquidation and Reconstruction, 1892-93 -- Postscript / Geoffrey Jones.

ISBN

185928244X (cloth)

LCCN

96001788

OCLC

• 503437767
• ocn503437767

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries