Legend of Xiangjiang Tycoon

The colonial invasion of Xiangjiang by the British in 1841 completely changed the course of the currency history of Xiangjiang, making the currency history of Xiangjiang branched out from the entire currency history, forming its own branch with its own characteristics.

Before the British army occupied Hong Kong Island in 1841, Hong Kong was part of the territory of China and was unified under the regime of the ancient feudal dynasty in China. Therefore, the currency in Hong Kong was the same as that in the mainland, and the currency system was integrated.

At that time, the Qing Dynasty implemented the "two standard system of silver" (silver is the standard currency, there is no fixed shape or weight, silver ingots, silver nuggets, silver or broken silver can be used, and "two" is used for weighing, and "two" is both a unit of weight. , is also a currency unit), and at the same time, copper coins are used as auxiliary currency (copper coins are round square holes, and the weight and fineness standards are prescribed by the imperial court, a copper coin is a penny, and "wen" is a currency unit).

Therefore, the main currencies in circulation in Hong Kong are also silver taels and copper coins. The price ratio between silver taels and copper coins is not fixed, but fluctuates with the market prices of silver and copper.

In 1840, the first Opium War broke out between the Qing government and the British due to the opium trade dispute.

During the war between the two sides, the British army occupied Hong Kong Island on January 26, 1841. The war ended with the Qing army's defeat and compromise. In August 1842, the "Nanjing Treaty" was signed, ceding Hong Kong Island to the United Kingdom.

Afterwards, the United Kingdom occupied Kowloon and the New Territories through unequal treaties (the Treaty, the 1898 "Sino-British Expansion of the Hong Kong Boundary"), making the entire Hong Kong area a British colony.

The occupation of Hong Kong by the British army in 1841 not only changed the sovereignty of Hong Kong, but also changed the course of Hong Kong's monetary history.

The invasion of the colonists broke the integration of Hong Kong embedded in the entire Chinese territory, making the history of Hong Kong currency diverted from the history of Chinese currency and became a separate branch, resulting in the "Hong Kong dollar".

When the British army occupied Hong Kong Island in January 1841, the currency circulation on Hong Kong Island was mainly divided into two categories: the silver taels and copper coins of the Qing government accounted for the main part of the circulation; various foreign silver dollars accounted for the secondary.

Since Hong Kong Island is adjacent to Guangdong Province, and Guangdong Province was an important port for foreign trade in the Qing Dynasty, the economy and currency of Hong Kong Island were naturally greatly influenced by the foreign trade port. At that time, some foreign currencies entered the Chinese mainland from Guangzhou, and some of them flowed into the mainland. Hong Kong Island.

Among these foreign silver dollars are the Spanish silver dollar ("Benyang"), the Mexican silver dollar ("Eagle Ocean"), the East India Company rupee silver dollar (the Indian currency issued during the rule of the British East India Company in India), as well as Japanese and American silver dollars. silver dollar.

At that time, the Qing government called foreigners foreigners, so foreign currencies were called "foreign money". Mexican "Eagle Ocean" and Spanish "Benyang" were exactly what Chinese people called foreign currencies.

Mexico was a colony of Spain before independence and minted silver dollars for the Spaniards. In 1824, Mexico established an independent republic, so it began to mint silver dollars by itself, that is, Mexican silver dollars.

"Yingyang" and "Benyang" are the same in weight and fineness, but the coin face pattern is different.

Although the currency system of Hong Kong Island was in a state of chaos and disorder in the early days of colonization, it still maintained the silver standard system (whether it is silver taels or silver dollars, they are all silver coins, so they are all silver standard).

After the British army occupied Hong Kong Island, they tried to "copy" the British monetary system to Hong Kong.

At that time, ot, the British commercial director in China, announced that the sterling gold coin will be used as the legal tender to replace various other currencies and abolish the silver standard that has been implemented for centuries.

However, this order cannot actually be implemented, because the local residents of Hong Kong Island are Chinese, they have close economic ties with Guangdong Province, they have long been accustomed to using silver transactions, and it is impossible for Hong Kong Island to cut off economic ties with the mainland, closed.

Therefore, trying to replace silver with sterling gold coins cannot be implemented at all. Therefore, silver continues to dominate currency circulation on Hong Kong Island.

In view of the failure of the "replication and implementation" of the sterling gold standard on Hong Kong Island, in March and April 1842, Inger, the plenipotentiary representative of the British side, issued two announcements and announced that all currencies in circulation on Hong Kong Island at that time (including Qing Dynasty silver taels and copper coins, various Foreign silver dollars) are legal banknotes on Hong Kong Island and can continue to be circulated; all the accounts and commercial trade of the British Hong Kong government are paid in Mexican silver dollars (Eagle Ocean); however, the British Hong Kong government still uses "GBP/Pound" is a currency unit for bookkeeping, and it is stipulated that 1 Pound = 5 Mexican silver dollars and .200 Chinese copper coins. When bookkeeping, whether silver taels or silver dollars, need to be converted into Pounds.

After the signing of the Treaty of Nanking in August 1842, Hong Kong Island officially became a British colony.

Two months later, Inger announced the opening of Hong Kong Island for trade, making Hong Kong Island a trading port.

After the opening of the port, foreign businessmen poured in, and foreign currencies also flowed into Hong Kong Island in large quantities.

Compared with silver taels with no fixed shape or weight, silver dollars with a fixed shape and standard weight and fineness are not only easy to carry, but also easy to identify the fineness and measure the value, and are obviously more convenient to use, so they are very popular.

Soon, foreign silver dollars were popularized on Hong Kong Island and occupied the main body of currency circulation.

Among the foreign silver dollars, the most popular is the Mexican silver dollar (Eagle Ocean), because of its stable and reliable color, uniform size, shape and weight, easy to identify authenticity, easy to convert into silver taels, and easy to convert to "Pound" for bookkeeping, and, The British Hong Kong government also uses it as the payment standard for all the accounts of the British Hong Kong government and commercial trade.

The Mexican silver dollar has gradually become recognized as the most popular and trusted silver dollar, and it has also become the de facto standard currency in the early days of Hong Kong Island's colonization.

In May 1845, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issued another announcement, trying to "copy" the British monetary system to Hong Kong again, but it also failed. Hong Kong residents are still used to foreign silver dollars, especially Mexican silver dollars.

After the British Hong Kong government insisted on using "Pound" for accounting for more than 20 years, it finally announced on July 1, 1862 that it would no longer use "Pound" as the accounting unit, but instead use the "yuan" of silver dollar as the currency unit for accounting. .

This signifies that the British Hong Kong government has completely abandoned the implementation of the British currency system in Hong Kong, and formally established the silver dollar standard with Mexican silver dollars as the mainstay and "yuan" as the currency unit.

Then in 1863, the British Hong Kong government announced that the Mexican silver dollar was the only currency that could be used to make payments to the government.

However, at that time, there was a shortage of supply and demand for the Mexican silver dollar, and its currency value rose for a time.

Gu Xu

The then Governor of Hong Kong, Robinson, also noticed this for a long time, so he decided to issue metal coins by the British Hong Kong government from 1863 to meet the money supply, and the local currency history of Hong Kong began.

According to Robinson's decision, the currencies issued by the British Hong Kong government itself are: basic unit currency ("Hong Kong dollar" silver dollar, that is, with a denomination of 1 yuan) and auxiliary coins (metal coins with a denomination of less than 1 yuan, including silver coins and copper coins).

Since Hong Kong did not have its own mint at that time, the British Hong Kong government first entrusted the Royal Mint in London, England to mint the "Hong Kong one cent" copper coin, the "Hong Kong one cent" copper coin and the "Hong Kong one cent" silver coin.

In 1864, Hong Kong began to establish its own mint, located in Canning Street, Causeway Bay. It was completed in May 1866 and began to mint coins.

The mint was forced to close down after maintaining for 20 months. During the production period, the mint successively minted "Hong Kong Five Cents", "Hong Kong One Cent", "Hong Kong Two Cents" and "Hong Kong Five Cents". , "Hong Kong one yuan", a total of five silver coins, a total of 2,018,054 pieces, and also minted "Hong Kong one cent" and "Hong Kong one cent" copper coins.

At the same time, the local currency unit of Hong Kong has officially formed a four-level decimal system of "yuan, centimeter, cent, and Wen". "Yuan" is the basic currency unit, and "millimeter, cent, and Wen" are auxiliary currency units.

In addition, "Hong Kong one yuan" is the basic unit currency (standard currency), which is made of silver. "Yuan" corresponds to "", and Hong Kong dollar is "". This name comes from the British name for Mexican silver dollar "ar", and "ar" is derived from "ar", so the name of "Hong Kong dollar" and its currency unit "yuan" are all quoted from foreign silver dollars, not locally created, nor influenced by "pounds/Pound".

At this point, Hong Kong's local independent currency system was officially formed, and the word "Hong Kong dollar" began to be used. The era of the silver dollar standard system with "yuan" as the currency unit in Hong Kong began.

After the collapse of the Hong Kong Mint, Hong Kong was no longer produced locally in Hong Kong, and the supply of Hong Kong dollars in the market was cut off in the following years. In order to solve this problem, the British Hong Kong government took various measures: In 1872, the British Hong Kong government authorized HSBC to issue face value "One Yuan" banknotes try to replace the circulation of silver coins with banknotes.

In the same year, the British Hong Kong government entrusted the British Birmingham Heaton & Sons Company to mint various metal coins for Hong Kong.

By 1895, the British minted the Far East trade silver dollar in India, and the British Hong Kong government immediately introduced it into Hong Kong and listed it as the legal tender of Hong Kong.

After the closure of the Hong Kong Mint, there was no new source of supply for the "Hong Kong dollar" silver coin, and it gradually disappeared from circulation. After the introduction of the British trade silver dollar, its importance increased significantly.

During the period 1895-1935, the British trade silver dollar occupied a very important position and was almost a substitute for the "Hong Kong dollar" silver coin.

Due to the issuance of "one yuan" banknotes, the continuous supply of various metal coins, and the continuous inflow of British trade silver dollars, the British Hong Kong government decided to no longer rely on foreign metal coins.

In 1912, the British Hong Kong government issued a decree prohibiting the import and use of various foreign metal coins, except that the British trade silver dollar was still circulated as legal tender in Hong Kong.

Since then, there have been only three types of currency in Hong Kong: HSBC "one-yuan" banknotes, British trade silver dollars, and various metal coins (silver, copper, alloys).

The earliest domestic banknotes in Hong Kong were not the "one-yuan" banknotes issued by HSBC since 1872, but a batch of banknotes printed and issued by the East Fan Club in 1846.

The predecessor of the East Fan Club is the West India Bank established in Mumbai, India in 1842, which is a British bank.

In 1845, the West Indian Bank moved its headquarters to London, England, and changed its name to "". In the same year, it set up branches in Hong Kong and other places.

As a private commercial bank, Crédit Bank was the first bank in Hong Kong history and the first bank to issue banknotes in Hong Kong.

In 1846, Agricole Bank issued the earliest batch of banknotes in Hong Kong, with four denominations of "ars", "ars", "ars" and "ars", which kicked off the Hong Kong local banknotes.

At that time, the issuance of banknotes by the Commonwealth Bank of Dongfan was the bank's own commercial activity, and it was not authorized or legally recognized by the British Hong Kong government, so the bank's banknotes were not legal tender.

Dongfan Agricole Bank takes silver dollars from depositors as reserves, and issues banknotes of equivalent value. The banknotes are actually a kind of silver dollar deposit bills, which are circulated instead of silver dollars; the holder of the banknotes can exchange it with the bank at any time. The equivalent of silver dollars, if the bank cannot be cashed or goes bankrupt, the banknote holder can only admit the loss.

In August 1851, Dongfan Agricole Bank obtained the "Royal Charter" issued by the King of England and obtained the privilege of issuing banknotes, which meant that the banknotes issued by the bank were actually recognized by the British Hong Kong government. Banknotes issued by the bank actually become legal tender in Hong Kong.

Since then, the banknotes of Dongfan Agricole Bank have been widely circulated and used, and have become the common currency in Hong Kong's business activities and daily life. Moreover, the issuance of banknotes has also effectively solved the problem of insufficient supply of metal coins for a period of time.

After the entry of Dongfan Agricole Bank into Hong Kong, other commercial banks were successively established in Hong Kong. Due to the laissez-faire attitude of the British Hong Kong government, each bank also issued its own banknotes, which also used silver dollars as reserves, and banknotes held Some people can exchange silver dollars at the corresponding bank that issued the banknotes.

During the years, a total of eight commercial banks in Hong Kong issued banknotes. The basic requirements of the Hong Kong British government for the issuance of banknotes by these banks are: the denomination of banknotes issued by the bank must be 5 yuan or a multiple of 5; but HSBC Bank started in 1872. Except for the "one-yuan" banknotes. UU reading www. uukanshu. com

In addition, for authorized banks, it is required that the amount of banknotes issued shall not exceed the actual amount of the issued share capital, and it must have at least 1/3 of the amount of banknotes issued as a reserve of silver.

In 1895, the British Hong Kong government promulgated the "Issuance of Bank Notes Ordinance", which clearly stipulates that only banks that have obtained the Royal Charter of the British Government, or banks authorized by special laws of the British Hong Kong Government, have the right to issue banknotes.

Therefore, after the promulgation of the regulation, there are only two banks that have the right to issue notes - Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC, and the rest have either closed or stopped issuing notes, or are prohibited from issuing notes.

Later in the month, the British Hong Kong government promulgated the "Benefit Bank Issuance of Banknotes Ordinance", which re-authorized the Bank's right to issue banknotes.

As a result, note-issuing banks became three again: Lili, Standard Chartered, and HSBC. Then in August 1913, the British Hong Kong government promulgated the "Foreign Banknotes Ordinance", which stipulated that "all banknotes not issued by HSBC, Standard Chartered and Lili Bank are prohibited from circulating", in order to protect the three commercial banks in Hong Kong. Monopoly on issuing banknotes.

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