China Revolutionized - John Stuart Thomson

How China is neglected by London, the world’s banker, is illustrated by the following investments of new capital in a normal year, 1910. China was given only $3,500,000 in 1909, and $8,000,000 in 1910, whereas to nearly a billion already loaned, Japan was given $30,000,000 more in 1910; Mexico a like amount; Argentine, $112,000,000; Russia, $20,000,000; and even little Denmark, Greece, Turkey and Cuba each received as much as dormantly opulent and vast China. The neglect of China by America reveals a similarly regrettable situation. Trade follows the loan as much as it follows the flag and the missionary, as England’s trade relation with Argentine proves.

The famous Russo-Chinese Bank, which was the catspaw for the Russians in securing from the Chinese the troublesome concession for the Chinese-Eastern railway, which largely led to the war with Japan, was absorbed in a new institution in October, 1910, called the Banque Russo-Asiatique, which is largely financed by the Banque du Nord and the Société Générale of Paris. The old Russo-Chinese Bank had a capitalization of 21,000,000 rubles, one-third of which was subscribed by China. The capitalization of the new bank is double that of the old.

The oldest and strongest bank operating in China; the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. It has branches throughout China, on the British banking plan. The building in the background is the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China.

The abundant use of street advertising by the new commercial China.