Under the Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895) that ended the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing empire had to pay a significant indemnity to Japan. French and Russian were involved in the syndication of Chinese government borrowing to raise the indemnity funds, and soon felt the need for a dedicated institution to handle the corresponding loans.[1][2]
The bank immediately opened a branch in Shanghai in February 1896.[8] On 28 August 1896 it partnered with the Chinese imperial government for the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, acting as a conduit for project financing from the Russian government, and also receiving capital financing from the Chinese authorities - the only time ever that the Qing empire was involved in the capital of a foreign enterprise.[2] In Chinese, the bank was then referred to as "Sino-Russian Righteousness Victory Bank" (Traditional Chinese: 華俄道勝銀行).[9][8] By 1902, it had become the second-largest bank in China,[8] and the fifth-largest private-sector bank in the Russian Empire.[10]: 43 In 1898, the State Bank of the Russian Empire took a significant share of the bank's newly issued capital.[2] The Russian interests subsequently prevailed in the bank's management, and its French stakeholders were marginalized. The Russo-Chinese Bank's activity had initially been focused north of the Yangtze in order not to compete further south with the French-sponsored Banque de l'Indochine, but the bank breached that arrangement by opening a Hong Kong office in 1904.[6]
In 1910, the merger with Banque du Nord gave the bank a new impetus, with a major network of branches in Russia, and re-established the influence of French stakeholders in the governance of the merged entity.[6]
Buildings
The headquarters building of the bank in Saint Petersburg, on Ekaterinskaya Street [ru] 8,[13] was demolished during the Soviet era.
Former branch building in Vladivostok, now Primorye State Art Gallery [ru], 2015
Banknotes
Like other foreign banks in China at the time, the Russo-Chinese Bank issued paper currency in the concessions where it had established branch offices.
1 tael, all Chinese branches (1898)
10 Mexican dollars, Shanghai (1901)
1 dollar local currency, Peking (1903)
10 dollars local currency, Tianjin (1900s)
100 taels, Peking (1907)
10 Mexican dollars, Shanghai (1909)
50 dollars local currency, Harbin (stamped Russo-Asiatic Bank)
^ a bDavis, Clarence B.; Wilburn, Kenneth E. Jr; Robinson, Ronald E. (1991). "Russia, the Soviet Union, and the Chinese Eastern Railway". Railway Imperialism. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-313-25966-1.
^ a b c d eKazuhiko Yago (January 2013). "The Anatomy and Pathology of Empire: Three Balance Sheets of Russian and Soviet Banks" (PDF). In Kimitaka Matsuzato (ed.). Comparative Imperiology. pp. 61–86.
^ a bCharles Lagrange (5 August 2014). "Gazette de Changhai - 26: Les banques". Ambafrance-cn.org.
^Hubert Bonin (2000). Le monde des banquiers français au XXe siècle. Paris: Editions Complexe. ISBN 978-2-87027-778-2.
^Issue in focus: Russian Bankers to Return to U.S. West Coast Archived 2007-08-16 at the Wayback Machine
^ a b cHubert Bonin (1994). "L'activité des banques françaises dans l'Asie du Pacifique des années 1860 aux années 1940". Revue Française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer: 401–425.
^Michael Jabara Carley (1990), "From Revolution to Dissolution: The Quai d'Orsay, the Banque Russo-Asiatique, and the Chinese Eastern Railway, 1917-1926" (PDF), The International History Review, 12, Taylor & Francis
^ a b cJi, Zhaojin (2003). A History of Modern Shanghai Banking: The rise and decline of China's finance capitalism. Russo-Chinese Bank and Russo-Asiatic Bank. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe. pp. 70–72. ISBN 0-7656-1002-7.
^China's Loss of Sovereignty in Manchuria 1895 - 1914
^Nikita Lychakov (2018), Government-made bank distress: Industrialisation policies and the Russian financial crisis of 1899-1902 (PDF), Belfast: Queen's University Centre for Economic History
^Scanland, J.M. (July 1905). The Russo-Chinese Bank (San Francisco). Detroit, Michigan: The Business Man's Magazine and Book-Keeper. pp. 236–245.
^Mike Klein (16 October 2019). "A Rare Russian Plan of Dalian". Library of Congress.
^ a bВесь Петербург на 1907 год. ("All Petersburg in 1907: Address and Reference Book of St. Petersburg"), A.S. Suvorin, 1908
^"Русско-китайский банк в Самарканде". STV. 29 June 2020.