The Hongkong Bank in Singapore 1877-1902: The First 25 Years

Singapore, December 1877. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation opens for business in a city where reliable currency is scarce, silver is steadily losing value against sterling. and much of commerce rests on trust and reputation.

This book traces the branch's first 25 years: its day-to-day work financing trade and managing exchange, its pursuit of the right to issue bank notes, and the occasional crises, from a banknote for- gery to the theft of $272,000 from the bank's vault.

For author R.E. Hale, the story lies in the people. Nine managers passed through in this period, each navigating a different combination of market conditions and head office expectations, with varying degrees of success. Working alongside the British staff were the long-serving Eurasian clerks, and the Compradore's department, which managed cash and mediated relationships with local Chinese merchants. Beyond the bank, the Chettiar money- lenders were indispensable to local credit, and their promissory notes proved a recurring and costly temptation to the branch.

Drawing on bank archives and the contemporary Singapore press, this is a detailed account of how a single branch functioned within the structures of colonial trade - and of the working lives that sustained it.