Reports

Discussion Papers

No.688 The Establishment of the China and Southern Bank and the Southern Warehouse Company: In Relation to the Bank of Taiwan’s Southward Strategy with Overseas Chinese from the 1910s to the 1920s

by Ryoichi Hisasue

February 2018

ABSTRACT

This paper elucidates how the Bank of Taiwan (BOT, 台湾銀行) tried and failed to approach the market between South China and Southeast Asia in the 1910s and 1920s through an analysis of a brief history of two affiliate companies: the China and Southern Bank (CSB, 華南銀行) and the Southern Warehouse Company (SWC, 南洋倉庫). Under political and economic trends of the Southward Movement (南進論) of the 1910s, the BOT tried to enter South China and Southeast Asia by themselves but recognized the difficulties, and formed an alliance with Overseas Chinese. Therefore, the CSB and SWC, which were established in 1919 and 1920, respectively, to promote economic cooperation with Overseas Chinese to facilitate market entry in the south by Japanese capitals. However, both companies faced managerial difficulties upon development in the early 1920s.

Keywords: the Bank of Taiwan; the China and Southern Bank; the Southern Warehouse Company; Southward Movement; Financial history; Economic history.

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