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1、“French bankers and economic patriotism in the Chinese port-cities (1880s-1930s)”Hubert Bonin, professor of modern economic history at Sciences Po Bordeaux & research centre Gretha-Bordeaux University hubertbonin The French communities of interest involved in Far Eastern trade were expected by the F
2、rench sState, industrialists and business communities of the French port-cities committed to overseas trade to support the French production, services and financial investments in the bridgeheads established in several concessions (Tianjin, Shanghai, Canton, Wuhan, etc.) or colony (Hong Kong). The s
3、uccession of banks active in the area (Comptoir national descompte de Paris, Banque de lIndochine, Banque russo-chinoise, Banque industrielle de Chine, etc.) were meant to serve as conduits of French outflows and inflows. But, under the pressure of competition and the need of finding new sources of
4、operations and profits, the need for the mutualisation of their means and amortisation of capital employed (roce), they became more and more embedded in the business life of these port-cities. They began to assume a mixed profile, spurring the interests of the “local” business communities in France
5、at the “global” level of the Chinese economy, and weaving networks among “local” trading houses in China to fuel their “global” development.The main issue is: did French banks promote French companies in the Chinese port-cities, or did they act more as globalised business partners? How did they mana
6、ge to tackle the interests of French firms in the host country and its port-cities and become positive intermediaries in favour of Chinese business firms? We intend to determine how far the interests of Banque de lIndochine as a firm tended to establish a balance between both demands: those of econo
7、mic patriotism and those of local embeddedness, along what is called today a “multidomestic strategy”. Such an approach will allow us to determine the connections established between the business communities of the port-cities, and the building of autonomous strategies to prospect these markets. Our
8、 text will, of course, gauge the formationshaping of a new “culture of risk management” in such “imperial” off-shoots, thus fostering a reshaping of the overall corporate culture of the firm. As we are preparing a book on the Banque de lIndochines presence in Chinese port-cities and concessions, we
9、will use direct aArchival records and we hope that this case-study on Banque de lIndochine will broaden the scope set out by Frank King regarding Hsbc and Banque industrielle de Chine Frank King, “Sino-French Banque industrielle de Chine between 1900-1922”, in Peter Hertner (eds), Finance and Modern
10、ization: A Transnational and Transcontinental Perspective for the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Farnham, Ashgate, 2008., the studies by some Japanese colleagues on the role played by the Yokohama Specie Bank and the book retracing Citibanks history in China.I1. The Eemergence of a French Bbank
11、ing Sstrategy in ChinaThroughout South East Asian and Chinese commercial flows, it was the British and Japanese banks which prevailed by scale and strength over those of the French. Nevertheless, the latter continued to try and loosen the hold of their competitors, to play a greater part in the Asia
12、n money market and to follow the development of trade, whether local, or inthose joining the Pacific hubs or those linking Asia and Europe. Three axes of action can be defined: supporting trade between the Far East and Europe; propping up the half political, half financial penetration in China, espe
13、cially against the United Kingdom, - a penetration which wasought to strengthen the size and range of the Paris financial hub; and taking part inof the trade between China and North America. The competitiveness of French banks was tested at every commercial and money market all along the Chinese coa
14、st which had been opened to western traders and bankers and where they could broaden the scope of their portfolio of skills through the acquisition of the specific commercial and financial know-how required for dealing with Chinese customers, Asian traders or European firms active there. This proces
15、s demanded the consolidation of their ability to master the particular risks created by extending their reach in such new business areas against a background of stiff competition, with foreign firms scrambling to get footholds ion the North-Chinese and Hebei markets. See Albert Feuerwerker, The Fore
16、ign Establishment in China in the Early Twentieth Century, Ann Arbor, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1976.In fact, French banks active in Asia had not targeted China because they had to first nurture the business fostered by the development of French firms in Indochina from the 1860s-1880s after the two-stage conquest of the peninsula. The Indochinese commercial business itself opened the doors to the Hong Kong market (fo
