Paper money of the Qing dynasty

and other early Qing paper money (, ) of 1 tael (). During the transition from Ming to Qing, the Manchu government issued banknotes known as Hubu guanpiao () or Shunzhi guanpiao (). They were first issued in the year 1651 on initiative of the Minister of Revenue, Wei Xiangshu () during the war with the remnants of the Ming dynasty to cover the more immediate expenses of the Manchus; as the finances of the Qing during this period were in dire distress, these banknotes were declared void only a decade after their issue. Peng Xinwei suggests that the Manchus started issuing banknotes in response to the treasury of the Qing dynasty experiencing funding shortfalls which were occasioned by the a campaign to occupy the island of Zhoushan (near modern Shanghai). An annual amount of 128,000 guàn () were issued, with a total sum of 1.28 million being produced before they were abolished. The denominations of the followed the pattern of the Ming dynasty period paper notes, but as historiographical sources about the early Qing era paper money are scarce, not much can be known about them. After the it was only rarely suggested by court officials to reintroduce paper money to the Qing Empire. Among these were Cai Zhiding () in 1814 and Wang Yide (王懿德) in his treatise on money known as (). During this era, privately produced paper notes and promissory notes known as () were used in the Chinese market that were mostly issued by private banks () and other merchants. These banknotes were known as (, 'corporate notes', (, 'silver notes'), or (, 'cash notes'). As is usual for China, the names designating privately produced banknotes varied greatly across the country, with names being used such as (), (), (), (), or (). The denominations used on them varied greatly with some reaching as high as 5 diào (, 'string of cash coins'). It has been suggested by Taiwanese economic historian Lin Man-houng that Chinese money shops did not start the production of their own private banknotes until the end of the Qianlong period. These shops were very likely to have been more developed in Northern China, where these money shops produced banknotes which were mostly denominated in cash coins, while banknotes from Southern China tended to be denominated in taels of silver. It is also possible that private-order banknotes could have emerged earlier in the 18th century and that their presence would become very common by the 1820s. By the middle of the 1800s various Western credit institutes and foreign banking corporations were operating in the Qing dynasty. During the late 1840s they began producing bills of exchange, promissory notes, or other forms of paper money for the Chinese market, which the Chinese referred to as (). This introduced modern credit instruments to the traditional Chinese business world Xianfeng era paper money banknote of 2000 wén issued in 1859. During most of the Manchu Qing dynasty, the monetary system largely relied mostly on copper-alloy cash coins () denominated in wén () for small transactions and the general retail market and silver sycees ( or ) denominated in taels () for larger transactions and the wholesale market. The general exchange rates between these two currencies fluctuated based both on time and on the location they were traded in, however the official exchange course was set by the imperial government as 1000 of copper-alloy cash coins for 1 tael of silver. Prior to 1800, the exchange rates were actually closer to 700 or 800 for 1 tael, but by the 19th century this had increased to 1200 . By the second half of the 19th century the imperial government of the Qing decided to experiment with cash coins that had a denomination higher than 1 which were known as Daqian, (, 'large money') because of copper shortages, but as the shortages ran higher the government decided to reintroduce paper money. The Great Qing Treasure Notes were imprinted with a statement that they were convertible into copper cash coins, however the statement also included the line that these banknotes could not be used for tax payment to the government. Imperial China saw itself as being at the center of the universe and that all territory "Under the Heavens" () and "Regions Within the Four Seas" () were included within their domains, and for this reason the copper-alloy cash notes of this era bear the four characters () in their right border design, which translated into English means 'to circulate under the heavens'. The Great Qing Treasure Note banknotes were supposed to enjoy circulation in all territories of the Qing dynasty. In order to facilitate this widespread adoption of the new paper currency, the Great Qing Treasure Note banknotes were issued to the general public through semi-official banks known as the Yu banks, Qian banks, and Tian bank groups; these semi-official banks served as the fiscal agents of the Ministry of Revenue. Strictly speaking, the Xianfeng-era banknotes issued by the official banks did not fall under the monies issued by the Qing government. However, the status and function of official banks was intertwined with that of the Daqian, Great Qing Treasure Note, and , and the over-issue of banknotes by the official banks was probably the real reason for the Xianfeng inflation. These silver notes were issued in denominations of values 1 tael, 3 taels, 5 taels, 10 taels, and 50 taels. These banknotes had a guideline written in both Manchu and Mandarin Chinese declaring that they had to be discounted by 2% when they exchanged into Beijing market silver and when counted against the Kuping tael, the notes were discounted at 6 per cent. As the government of the Qing dynasty saw that banknotes that were denominated in "metropolitan cash" could circulate well in the Chinese market, the Qing government, besides promoting government issued Great Qing Treasure Note cash notes, also started to focus on the promotion of official banknotes with three major measures. issued paper money for local circulation. These foreign financial institutions both challenged the Chinese banking system and set an example for them to improve themselves. Foreign banks were crucial in laying the foundation for the rise of modern Chinese banks and the popularisation of banknotes in the Qing dynasty in the early 20th century. These foreign banks included Mackellar (), the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (), the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank (), and the City Bank of New York () produced notes denominated in silver taels () and Chinese silver dollars (). The banknotes of Mackellar, the HSBC, and the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank were denominated in 1 tael, 5 taels, 10 taels, 50 taels, and 100 taels, while the banknotes issued by the City Bank of New York were denominated in 1 yuan, 3 yuan, 10 yuan, 50 yuan, and 100 yuan. These banknotes were commonly used in the region around the Yangtze River. Meanwhile, in Manchuria the Russo-Chinese Bank () issued Russian ruble notes () and the Japanese banks operating in the region issued military notes (). In Southern China the Yokohama Specie Bank () issued gold notes () and Hong Kong notes () for the local market. Various provincial authorities also started issuing local paper money during this era. In the province of Hubei, the local money office () started producing banknotes of 1000 which used the traditional Chinese banknote designs. Later, in 1899, the Zhang Zhidong (), Viceroy of Huguang ordered the local money office to also start making modern-style banknotes. The production of these was outsourced to the Empire of Japan using high-quality methods; however, the design of these banknotes was still vertical as opposed to the horizontal banknotes used elsewhere. In the province of Guangdong, a series of modern-style banknotes was introduced in 1904 which were denominated in 1 yuan, 5 yuan, and 10 yuan. These banknotes were printed by the Japanese Ministry of the Treasury (), but unlike the notes printed for Hubei had a Western-style vertical design. The Chinese defeats during these wars were perceived as being unexpected by the Qing government and threw it into a state of turmoil; the Qing was plunged deeply into debt to pay for war indemnities making the need for foreign capital great. • Commercial Bank of China (); • Da-Qing Bank (); • Bank of Communications (); • Ningpo Commercial Bank (); • Bank of Territorial Development (); • Hsing Yeh Bank of Che Kiang or Industrial Bank of Che Kiang () in Zhejiang; • Che Kiang Bank () in Zhejiang; • Sin Chun Bank of China () in Shanghai; • Hsin I Savings Bank () in Hankou; • Beijing Savings Bank () in Beijing; • Baoshan Yinhang () in Beijing; • Hetai Yinhang () in Yangzhou; • Chinese Mercantile Bank () in Yangzhou. Despite the fact that the number of these banks was not very high, their business proved to have a great impact on the modernisation of the financial and monetary system of China during the late imperial and the early Republican era. Even certain government-owned institutions like the railway corporations can be seen as modern credit institutes because they issued their own modernised paper money. By the end of the 19th century provincial governments started setting up their own note issuing banks like the Hupeh Provincial Bank (, ) with branches in Wuchang and Hankou. The issued a series of banknotes known as the Hubei guanpiao (). These banknotes were denominated in taels for silver and strings for copper-alloy cash coins. The Hubei was abolished over a decade after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1927 with the bankruptcy of the . China signed the Mackay Treaty with the United Kingdom on 5 September 1902. This treaty included a provision where the imperial Chinese government would create a uniform coinage "which shall be legal tender in payment of all duties taxes and other obligations throughout the Empire by British and Chinese subjects". The idea behind this provision was to remove obstacles for trading in the form of a very diverse coinage system throughout China. The reality was that subsidiary production of coinage was not so lucrative to begin with. Despite the provisions set for creating a uniform coinage, the treaty made no reference to banknotes. During this era both local and foreign businesses demanded the creation of a uniform Chinese currency system, which would not occur during the Qing dynasty era. There was a major question at the time whether this uniform currency system would be placed on the silver standard or the gold standard. The introduction of a uniform currency also meant that the responsibility over monetary affairs would be completely transferred over to the hands of the imperial government which at the time was heavily in debt and did not have any grip on its own finances. Establishing a national bank depicting Zaifeng, Prince Chun issued in 1910. During the later part of the Qing dynasty era there was a discussion on whether or not the imperial Chinese government would have to establish a national bank, which it finally did in 1905. Peng Shu () stated before the introduction of new banknotes that the national bank would have to keep sufficient reserves in "tangible" money () at all times. The large number of private notes that were being produced all over the empire was to be restricted by introducing a stamp duty (). The reformer Liang Qichao campaigned for the government of the Qing dynasty to emulate the Western world and Japan by embracing the gold standard, unifying the currencies of China, and issuing government-backed banknotes with a ⅓ metallic reserve. At the end of 1905 the Da-Qing Bank was founded, and the production of the banknotes was entrusted to the prints of the Beiyang Newspaper () in Northern China. In 1906 the government of the Qing dynasty sent students to Japan to be educated in modern printing techniques, with the aim to have the Shanghai Commercial Press () print the cheques of the Ministry's Bank. The Da-Qing Bank were still issuing two different types of banknotes. One series was denominated in tael, known as the (), and had denominations of 1 tael, 5 taels, 10 taels, 50 taels, and 100 taels. The other series was denominated in yuan, known as the () and was issued in denominations of 1 yuan, 5 yuan, 10 yuan, 50 yuan, and 100 yuan. In the year 1907 the Da-Qing Bank of the Ministry of Revenue was renamed the Da-Qing Bank (); accordingly the inscription on all banknotes had to be changed to reflect this. Following the Chinese tradition of issuing new money in a new reign, the Xuantong administration had the design of the official Da-Qing Bank paper notes somewhat changed to herald in the new emperor. The new design was inspired by the designs of the banknotes of the United States dollar of this era; some banknotes showed the portrait of Li Hongzhang, and others depicted that of Zaifeng, Prince Chun who at the time was the current Chinese Minister of Finance. At the eve of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, there were 5,400,000 tael worth of banknotes circulating in China, and 12,400,000 yuan in banknotes. == List of banknotes denominated in copper-alloy cash coins issued during the Xianfeng era ==

List of banknotes denominated in copper-alloy cash coins issued during the Xianfeng era: == List of banknotes denominated in silver taels issued during the Xianfeng era ==

List of banknotes denominated in silver tael sycees issued during the Xianfeng era: == Banknotes produced by Belgian banks ==

() denominated in "Mexican dollars". The Kingdom of Belgium, despite being a small country, was a state with a rather highly developed industrial base and which also enjoyed being a centre of international trade during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. The Sino-Belgian Bank (French: ) was founded by King Leopold for doing business in remittances and conducting international trade; the Sino-Belgian Bank belied its name because it did not have any indigenous Chinese participation at all, making it a purely Belgian company. Following the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 the Sino-Belgian Bank set up a branch in Shanghai, where its primary business was in handling out long-term loans for the construction of railways in China. Other branches were later opened in the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hankou. Belgium itself benefited from this as it exported materials to China, especially construction materials which were used for railroads. In the scramble for Chinese railroad concessions the Sino-Belgian Bank worked closely together with the Compagnie General de Chemins de Fer et de Tramways en Chine to issue bonds, first in 1903 and once more in 1913. These company bonds were used to finance Chinese railroad construction during the early 20th century. The Sino-Belgian Bank issued banknotes in the year 1908 with denominations of 1 dollar, 5 dollars, 10 dollars, and 50 dollars at all of its branches as Mexican dollars, alluding to the old Spanish silver dollars that were traditionally in wide circulation across the Far East, even during Ming dynasty times. They initially emanated from the Philippines as part of the Spanish East Indies in the Spanish colonial empire from the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade with Mexico that minted the silver coins, which were usually mined in Bolivia or Peru. These banknotes mostly circulated within the Shanghai International Settlement and the Shanghai French Concession. In 1912 the Sino-Belgian Bank changed its name to the Banque Belge Pour l'Étranger. Banknotes issued after 1912 during the Republican period carried the new name of the bank to reflect this change. At the Shanghai International Settlement the circulation of paper notes was by the never allowed to exceed 1,000,000 dollars. The Sino-Belgian Bank/ enjoyed a positive reputation in China and its banknotes were at all times well-received and could easily be redeemed at the bank's offices. The was forced to cease its business when the Chinese republican government took over the Chinese economy from foreign management in the year 1935. == Banknotes produced by British banks ==

British banknotes in China during the Qing dynasty were by far the most common and the most highly esteemed of all banknotes of foreign origin circulating in China at the time. Early British banknotes that circulated in China became very influential for later Chinese banknotes and were essential for informing Chinese monetary thinking later in the 19th century and early 20th century. Early British Indian banks in China issued by the Shanghai Branch of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China. At one time there were never less than 15 British-owned banks that did business in the Qing dynasty; seven of these banks were from the British Indian Empire. After the conclusions of the First and Second Opium Wars the United Kingdom forced a number of "unequal treaties" on the Qing demanding trade rights with several Chinese ports which became known as treaty ports. Soon after these agreements were signed, the leading merchant houses of British India, setting themselves up as private banks, pursued new sources of revenue in imperial China. In the beginning the need for the services of these foreign banks in China was restricted to only trade opium from British India into Chinese territory and exports of Chinese tea to markets across the entire world. Because tea could be exported during the summer months, and as opium imports became increasingly restricted by the government of the Qing dynasty, many of these early Anglo-Indian banks in China went bankrupt or had to be reorganised. The National Bank of China Limited was an institution of which today only very little is known. The very existence of this bank would not have been known if it were not for the discovery of several salesman's samples in the beginning of the 21st century which mention its existence. It is known to have been operating in British Hong Kong with an additional branch in the city of Shanghai. Richard von Glahn reports that the National Bank of China Limited was established by the British in colonial Hong Kong in 1891 and disbanded in 1911. At the time of its disestablishment the National Bank of China Limited had a minor amount of paid-up capital worth only £600,000. The banknotes of this bank in circulation were always small in number. Upon closing its doors permanently all banknotes produced by the bank seemed to have been fully accounted for, which is a most unusual thing to happen in China; this explains the virtual non-existence of the National Bank of China Limited today. The central government of the Qing dynasty only attempted to regulate Chinese banks and its currency near the end of the dynasty. By the time that the Qing started finally implementing financial reforms, China was beholden to the mercy of foreign powers; because of this the issue of foreign banknotes in China and restrictions on foreign banking and foreign banks (including British banks) in general were generally not made. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation issued by the Shanghai branch of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation during the 1890s. The banknotes produced by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) had seen extensive circulation in the territory of the Qing dynasty from the 1870s and later. In 1864 the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was established by the Scottish Thomas Sutherland to finance Far East trade and would later grow to become both the largest and most influential of all the foreign banks during the Qing dynasty era. The Traditional Chinese characters for the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation were (, which the British pronounced as Wayfung after the Cantonese pronunciation). These Chinese characters could be translated as "abundant remittances". Over the following years the HSBC became a banking leader in East and Southeast Asia. This happened because the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was a key player in many major events in the region, such as acting as banker for the Hong Kong government from 1880 onwards, establishing the first bank in the Kingdom of Siam in 1888 where it printed the first banknotes of the Siamese tical, and overseeing the management of British colonial government accounts in Qing China, Japan, Singapore, and other areas of influence. In an advertisement in the North-China Herald of 17 February 1876 the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation reported to have a paid-up capital of five million dollars and a reserved fund of one hundred thousand dollars while at the time it operated branches in eight different countries, while in China it had branches in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hankou, Fuzhou, Yantai, and Xiamen. The quantity of banknotes of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation made the amounts produced by other foreign banking corporations in China at the time look minuscule by comparison. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation produced the banknotes of the Hong Kong dollar during its colonial era. The Shanghai branch of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was established only briefly after the bank opened its headquarters in the British colony of Hong Kong. The general manager of the Shanghai branch was a Scotsman named David MacLean who fulfilled his role between 1865 and 1873 and managed to convince the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs to deposit all its incoming revenue with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which proved to be a very profitable endeavour for the British bank. HSBC soon established new branches wherever the Imperial Maritime Customs had one of its local offices. Afterwards the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation would find itself branching out beyond customs as it would expand in the businesses of money deposits and lending money to the Chinese government, collecting war indemnities on behalf of the British government, financing the construction of railways, and lending money to the military of the Qing dynasty, which was fighting an expensive campaign against warlords in the north of China. The many branches of the bank issued their own banknotes, which due to the position and positive reputation of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation were in great demand across China. During the 19th century until the breakout of World War I the United Kingdom closely cooperated with the German Empire in China to balance out the expansionist influences of the French and Russian spheres of interest in China. As a result, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation worked closely and very successfully with the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank. By the turn of the 20th century HSBC had become the most important foreign banking company in imperial China, leading to a great variety of banknotes being issued by the bank during this era. As the shareholders of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation had only very limited liability for the banknotes emissed by the company, HSBC was required to hold ⅓ specie reserve in their vaults at any given time. These banknotes were thus always secured to be paid out to the bearer and never faced being defaulted. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation had effectively set the Shanghai foreign currency exchange rates, a fact which shows the extent of its sizable and growing dominant role in Chinese financial matters during the Qing dynasty and early Republican eras. The role of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation as custodian of the official finds of the Chinese government would continue until this task was assumed by the Central Bank of China and responsibilities were handled by the Chinese themselves; this was done after the Chinese currency reform enacted in 1935. == Banknotes produced by French banks ==

banknote issued by the Banque de l'Indochine in French, English, and Mandarin Chinese. Prior to the outbreak of the first world war, the French operated two banking corporations in China which were granted banknote issue rights by the Chinese government; these were the Banque de l'Indochine and the Banque Industrielle de Chine. The was created in 1875 to serve as the financial arm of France in Southeast Asia, and more particularly in French Indochina. After the turn of the century in 1900, the business interests of the were shifted from India to focus more on the Chinese market, particularly in southern China. In China the collected war indemnities for the Boxer Rebellion on behalf of the French government, where it served as the sole French representative in handling the Boxer indemnity. After the French sphere of influence established in China as southern China, the was tasked with taking over international trade between the French Republic and all of Qing China. In addition to its monopoly on issuing banknotes in French Indochina, the also circulated its banknotes in neighbouring Chinese provinces, most notably in the provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou. The was assigned a position of priority in the financing of the infrastructure of the French concession in Shanghai's International Settlement, where some of its notable accomplishments include the Shanghai Electric Power Company and the Shanghai Tramways. The opened its first branch in China in 1899 in Shanghai and quickly opened more branches in Beijing, Hankou, Kunming, and Tianjin. All of these branches produced banknotes denominated in dollars for local circulation in China. At the Shanghai branch the French had made an attempt at issuing banknotes denominated in taels but this programme was almost immediately abandoned as non-remunerative. The banknotes produced by the were tri-lingual, printed in French, English, and Mandarin Chinese, making them the only foreign bank to employ three languages on their paper money in China. Denominations on banknotes produced by the were described in both French francs and Mexican piastres. These banknotes circulated in relatively small quantities in China until 1940, and consequently tend to be quite rare today. == Banknotes produced by Japanese banks ==

of 1 yuan issued by the Fuzhou branch of the Bank of Taiwan in the year Guangxu 32 (1906). Bank of Taiwan After the First Sino-Japanese War ended, the Chinese were forced to give up the island of Taiwan to the Japanese as a part of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Under Japanese rule the island was run as a colony and soon Japanese institutions were being established for the benefit of the Empire of Japan. In 1899 the Bank of Taiwan was established and had a starting capital of ¥ 5,000,000. During the early years of the Yokohama Specie Bank, it survived an economic recession, after which it received loans from the imperial Japanese government and permission to issue its own paper notes. At first the bank used the silver standard to back the banknotes it put into circulation, but due to global depreciation of silver during the late 19th century, the Meiji period imperial Japanese government had turned to using the gold standard for its currency in 1897, using the war indemnity money due to them after the defeat of the Qing dynasty in the First Sino-Japanese War as backing for the new gold yen banknotes. After the first Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars, the Yokohama Specie Bank shifted its focus northwards to Manchuria where it first took over the grain trade from the Chinese and later the railroad activities from the Russians. Its branch offices tasked with producing banknotes in Manchuria were located at Dalian, Harbin, Yingkou (Niuzhuang), Jinan, Liaoyang, Mukden (Shenyang), and Tieling. These offices were initially established in support of Japanese military personnel stationed in Manchuria. Additional branches of the Yokohama Specie Bank in China were located in Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, and Hankou. Although the issues of paper money by the bank were small and managed in a good manner, the banknotes principally served the Japanese population in China and Manchuria, as the Chinese people rejected them due to resentments they harboured over Japanese encroachment in their country. The 1903 silver yen notes produced by the Niuzhuang branch played an important role in financing local soy bean production in the region of Manchuria. By 1907 the Yokohama Specie Bank's paper notes enjoyed circulation throughout all of Manchuria. These banknotes were circulated by the branch in the port city of Dalian. Peak circulation of the bank's paper notes was reached in 1911 when a total of 7,200,000 dollars in banknotes were paid out. Over its many years of operating in China, the Yokohama Specie Bank issued a large variety of paper notes. At different times it issued banknotes that were denominated in taels, dollars, silver yen, gold yen, big money, small money, local currency and even fractional small denominational sen notes. All banknotes produced by the bank were printed by the Printing Bureau of the Imperial Japanese Government. Today all banknotes produced by the Yokohama Specie Bank during the late Qing dynasty period between 1902 and 1911 are rare and bring exceedingly high prices on the private collector's market, the sole exception being the 1 dollar banknote which was issued in 1902; this banknote occasionally becomes available to collectors. In general Yokohama Specie Bank varieties provide private collectors with a rather wide field from which they could build up a notaphilic collection. The problem many collectors of banknotes today face is that, due to tight management by the Japanese and a near total banknote redemption, very few of these paper notes remained unredeemed, making them relatively rare today. == Banknotes produced by Russian banks ==

Russo-Chinese Bank The Russo-Chinese Bank () was founded on 5 December 1895 in the Russian Embassy in Paris as a joint-venture, from Russian and French capital. Approximately a year after it was established the Russo-Chinese Bank received a contract from the government of the Qing dynasty for the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway in the three provinces making up Manchuria. This venture into Manchurian railways proved to be so successful that by the end 1902, the Russo-Chinese Bank had achieved the status of being the second-largest foreign banking corporation in all of the Chinese Empire. Banknotes produced by the East Turkestan branches of the Russo-Asiatic Bank (Kashgar, Yining, and Changuchak) during the Republican period circulating between 1913 and 1924 still prominently depicted imperial Chinese symbols such as the five-fingered dragon on both sides. They were distinguished from banknotes produced by other foreign banking corporations because they were denominated in fixed weights of pure gold, rather than specific monetary units. The banknotes from this era were printed by Bradbury Wilkinson and Company in London, United Kingdom. == Deutsch-Asiatische Bank ==

The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank (DAB) was created on 15 May 1889 and was notable for being the first major non-British foreign banking corporation in China during the Qing dynasty period, and for being the only German bank with the right to issue its own notes in China. The main priority for the was to finance imperials loans requested by the Qing government with a special focus on both railways and mining operations within the sphere of interest held by the German Empire in the province of Shandong. The initial capital the paid to the government of the Qing dynasty numbered 5,000,000 taels, a number which would steadily increase as time went by. After the outbreak of World War I, the was forced to suspend its operations in China. At the time that it had to cease operating in China, an amount of 2,595,968 taels worth of banknotes was circulating. In 1917 the Chinese republican government revoked the bank's privilege to produce its own paper notes for the Chinese market. == International Banking Corporation ==

, note that the serial numbers on the top and bottom don't match. The sole American bank to operate in imperial China was the New York City-based International Banking Corporation, which was founded on 1 December 1901 for the purpose of promoting foreign trade with the United States in China and had two series of banknotes issued during both the Qing dynasty and early Republican periods. As the flag of the United States flew over the bank's several branch offices in China, the Chinese people began referring to the red, white, and blue coloured standard as (, 'colourful flag'), and it was not long before the International Banking Corporation itself was referred to as (, 'colourful flag bank') by the people of China. American banking companies did not do business in the Chinese banking field until the very beginning of the 20th century. With none of their own banks in imperial China, all trade remittances of the United States had to go through British banks operating in the country. American Secretary of State John Hay advocated for the Americans to get involved in the Chinese market and obtain a share of it. As the United States had joined the eight-power alliance to put down the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, Americans felt it only right that they also participate in their share of the Boxer indemnities awarded to foreign powers in China. The first branch office of the International Banking Corporation in China was opened in Shanghai in 1902. In addition to dealing with the Boxer indemnities, the bank was active in granting loans to the government of the Qing dynasty, the largest of these loans being the Huguang Railway loan of 1911. In 1915 the National City Bank of New York had acquired a majority of shares in the International Banking Corporation. On 1 January 1927 the International Banking Corporation was to be entirely superseded by the National City Bank of New York, which took over all branch offices and would continue to operate them under its own brand name. The banknotes issued by the International Banking Corporation were denominated in local currency and were released in denominations of 1 dollar, 5 dollars, 10 dollars, 50 dollars, and 100 dollars in the year 1907. All banknotes featured a pair of globes depicting both the Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere, an American eagle, and the scales of Justice. In the first year of its business the International Banking Corporation issued banknotes into circulation worth 202,474 dollars, later increasing this amount to 477,760 at the end of the Qing dynasty period by 1912. During the early Republican era a series of banknotes was released in 1918 which were denominated in taels. The old paper notes issued by the International Banking Corporation were very popular in China and in great demand, and were always redeemed by the bank without being discounted as was very common for other institutions. When called in, the banknotes were canceled by the bank by cutting them in half. Many banknotes of the International Banking Corporation today found in collections were altered by gluing the two halves together and tend to bear mismatched serial numbers as a result; these banknotes are worth very little when compared to unaltered specimens found today. == Netherlands Trading Society ==

The Netherlands Trading Society (Dutch: or NHM) created its first branch office in China in 1903 on the Bund in the port city of Shanghai. In comparison with other foreign banking corporations operating in China, the Netherlands Trading Society was not a large banking company. However, the bank handled a large variety of different trade businesses with the Chinese. While the Netherlands Trading Society's presence in China was small or served as a training base for the future generation of Chinese bankers, many of these native businessmen later went on to form their own private banking companies during the Qing and Republican eras. The number of banknotes produced by the Netherlands Trading Society in circulation in China was at all times relatively small in quantity because Dutch law had a substantial requirement for reserves to be held to back up the paper money issued that went into circulation. In 1909 the Netherlands Trading Society issued banknotes with the denominations 1 dollar, 5 dollars, and 10 dollars, and later under the Republic of China government in 1922 banknotes with denominations of 100 dollars and 500 dollars were issued. All banknotes issued by the Netherlands Trading Society in China had a principal vignette that depicted a Chinese warrior bearing a sword, clad in Chinese armour, and an ancient stone bridge. == Currency units used on paper money during the late Qing period ==

or 7 mace and 2 candareens issued by the Hupeh Government Mint in 1899; note that this banknote depicts the coin it was worth. The denominations of the contemporary coinage were chaotic with different standards being used across regions, making it confusing to exchange between areas due to the wide range of systems and denominations used to categorise the many coinages of the Qing. There was likewise a wide range of types of paper notes. The traditional copper-allow cash was reflected in cash notes (). Some of these banknotes used the traditional government-mandated exchange rate of 1,000 wén per string of cash coins ( or ) in a system for cash coins known as (), while others used differing local exchange rates, like the Eastern cash or () of the Fengtian province, with 160 cash coins per string, or the metropolitan cash () from Beijing, which had an exchange rate of 500 cash coins per string. Local banknotes usually reflected local exchange rates. as well as cash coins from earlier dynasties of different shapes and sizes at different exchange rates. On the local markets, the exchange rates even deviated from the fixed denominations, as had been the case with cash coins of substandard quality for an extended amount of time. The silver currency was reflected in silver notes (), and also in other types of paper money there were great differences in the conversion rate depending on the region where the banknotes were traded or used in. In Beijing, the imperial Kuping tael (), which had a standard weight of 37.5 grams, the exchange rate was used side by side with the local metropolitan rate which was known as the (), while the Shanghai tael () was used on banknotes issued by both the Huifeng Bank () and the Shanghai Tongshang Yinhang (). while the round silver coins were standardised at 1 yuan or dollar ( / ) = 10 jiao or hou ( / ) = 100 fen or sin ( / ) = 1000 cash ( / ), and 1 yuan was worth a coin with a weight of 0.72 taels as standardized in 1910. == Denominations on banknotes of foreign banks in Qing China ==

List of note issuing foreign banks in imperial and early republican China: == Banknotes as a percentage of the Chinese money stock during the late Qing dynasty ==

Chinese historian Peng Xinwei stated that in 1900, privately produced banknotes made up only 3% of the total volume of Chinese currency stock. This number would (according to Niv Horesh) be unlikely to surpass 6% if banknotes denominated in silver currencies were taken into account (these banknotes were produced by government banks and modern banking corporations). Foreign banks operating in China generally did not disclose the volume of banknotes issued by them circulating in China proper; the fact that they did not openly disclose this resulted in inflated estimates thereof over the years. For this reason Horesh states that it would be very implausible to assume that the ratio of all banknotes as part of the entirety of the Chinese money stock was any significant number higher than 10% even as late as 1900. Meanwhile, during this same period the traditional cast copper-alloy cash coins made up only 17.78% of the total Chinese currency stock; the percentage representing cash coins would only decrease from this point onwards. Meanwhile, Peng estimated that foreign trade dollars circulating in China (which mostly included the silver Mexican dollar) made up 25% of the total Chinese currency stock by the 1900s. The Mexican or Spanish silver dollar had been in wide circulation since Ming dynasty times, due to past Maritime Silk Road trade with the Philippines as part of the Spanish East Indies in the Spanish colonial empire that minted the silver coins from Mexico or Bolivia or Peru and flowed through the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade. This trend was actually the opposite in the Western world and Japan where the global introduction of government steam-minted coinages halted the spread of Mexican-mined silver pesos. This effect was most notable in North and South America as well as the Philippines. At the same time silver was being diffused from the gold standard and there were major discoveries of large silver deposits in the United States and West Africa. == Gallery ==