Author Description

This volume explores the implications of colonialism in Pacific banking. The Yokohama Specie Bank was, from 1880 until its closure by the Americans in 1946, the engine of Japanese overseas foreign banking. No other Asian peoples were able to achieve financial power at this time. The British, despite being challenged by other colonial powers, such as France, through various banking houses, and especially through the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, were able to exert a powerful influence throughout the region. They recruited able British nationals to head banking operations in south and east Asia.