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1. The Birth of the Modern Chinese Banking Industry: Ri Sheng Chang

Author:
Vivid Lam, Oenone Kubie, and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
Pingyao (平遥) is a remote place for a tourist attraction. Located in the centre of Shanxi province, it is some 380 miles from Beijing and further from Shanghai or Hong Kong where the tourists tend to congregate. Yet, despite the isolation, come they do to Pingyao. The nearest airport to Pingyao is in Tiayuan, over one hundred kilometres away, so most visitors arrive by coach or by train; along the poorly paved streets and past the decaying houses until they arrive in the middle of the city. Here the tourists disembark from their coaches and their trains and find themselves transported to the days of the Qing dynasty emperors, surrounded by imperial architecture. The tourists wander slowly towards West Street. This is the home of the most popular attraction: the headquarters of Ri Sheng Chang (日昇), a late Qing company which revolutionised Chinese banking, now a museum and an increasingly busy tourist attraction. This is the story of how it came to be and how the little city in a small province in China rose to prominence, became the financial centre of the world’s largest economy, fell to obscurity and, now, rises again.
Topic:
Development, International Trade and Finance, History, Capitalism, and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
China and Asia

2. The Father of Japanese Capitalism: Shibusawa Eiichi’s Vision of the Ethical Corporation

Author:
Sean Valencia, Rebecca Orr, and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
04-2019
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
When Europeans began trading with Japan in the 16th century, they were amazed by Japanese craftsmanship, the country’s sophistication, and its extraordinary wealth but the Japanese elite were not equally convinced by the benefits of European trade. Wary of foreign influence, particularly the attempts by Christian missionaries to convert the Japanese, the Tokugawa Shogunate enforced a policy of strict isolation in Japan. Tokugawa Iemitsu, the shogun of Japan from 1623 to 1651, issued a series of edicts placing severe restrictions on trade and the movement of people and goods after 1638. These prohibitions remained in place for more than two hundred years until 8 July 1853 when, under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry, four United States Naval Ships sailed into Tokyo Bay. In the decades leading up to this confrontation, the presence of foreign ships in Japanese waters had become an increasingly common sight as western powers competed ever more fiercely to establish trade relations in the region. The arrival of Perry’s “black ships”, however, marked a stark shift in Japan’s foreign relations. American President Millard Fillmore had tasked Perry with forcing open Japanese ports to US vessels and, unlike in previous naval expeditions, granted him full and discretionary powers to achieve this end. On arriving into Tokyo Bay, Perry staged a week-long campaign of intimidation that began fiercely with the firing of blank shots and culminated in ominous threats to destroy the nation. The Tokugawa Shogunate, stymied by indecision, finally conceded that Perry would be allowed ashore to deliver a letter demanding that Japan abandoned its protectionist policies
Topic:
Capitalism, Ethics, Business, and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
Japan and Asia