{"product_id":"9789815378641","title":"The Hongkong Bank in Singapore 1877-1902: The First 25 Years","description":"\u003cp\u003eSingapore, 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pansing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50760159428854,"sku":"9789815378641","price":99.9,"currency_code":"MYR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0767\/8050\/3286\/files\/20260717_125906.jpg?v=1784264406","url":"https:\/\/shop.litbooks.com.my\/products\/9789815378641","provider":"Lit Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}