Shanghai International Settlement - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Shanghai International Settlement began originally as a purely British settlement. It was one of the original five treaty ports

Treaty ports

The treaty ports was the name given to the port cities in China, Japan, and Korea that were opened to foreign trade by the Unequal Treaties.-Chinese treaty ports:...

which were established under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking

Treaty of Nanking

The Treaty of Nanking was signed on 29 August 1842 to mark the end of the First Opium War between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Qing Dynasty of China...

at the end of the first opium war

First Opium War

The First Anglo-Chinese War , known popularly as the First Opium War or simply the Opium War, was fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over their conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice...

in the year 1842. American and French involvement followed close on the heels, and distinct areas of settlement for the Americans and the French were drawn out to the north and south of the British settlement respectively. In 1854 a united municipal council was created to serve all three settlements, but in 1862, the French concession dropped out of the arrangement. The following year the British and American settlements formally united to become the Shanghai International Settlement.

As more foreign powers entered into treaty relations with China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, their nationals also became part of the administration of the settlement, but it always remained a predominantly British affair, at least until the late 1930s when Japan's involvement became of increasing importance. Unlike the colonies of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

and Weiheiwei

Weihai

Weihai is a city in eastern Shandong Province, People's Republic of China. It is the easternmost prefecture-level city of the province and a major seaport. Between 1898 and 1930, the town was a British colony known as Weihaiwei or the Weihai Garrison , and sometimes as Port Edward...

which were sovereign British territories, the Shanghai International Settlement always remained Chinese sovereign territory. Hence when the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

declared war against Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

in 1939, German nationals continued to operate freely within the territory of the international settlement.

The international settlement came to an abrupt end in December 1941 when Japanese troops stormed in immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

. In early 1943, new treaties signed by Chiang Kaishek's free Chinese government with Britain and British India on the one hand, and with the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

on the other hand, brought to an end the extraterritorial privileges which had been enjoyed by British subjects and American citizens for one hundred years.

Arrival of the British, Americans, and Europeans (19th Century)

While Europeans had already shown interest in Shanghai's strategic position as a port, the first settlement in Shanghai for foreigners was the British settlement which was opened in 1843 under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking

Treaty of Nanking

The Treaty of Nanking was signed on 29 August 1842 to mark the end of the First Opium War between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Qing Dynasty of China...

following the first Anglo-Chinese Opium War. At first the Chinese governor of Shanghai refused to allow the British Consul, Captain Sir George Balfour, a place to hold consul. A pro-British Cantonese

Cantonese

Cantonese is a dialect spoken primarily in south China.Cantonese may also refer to:* Yue Chinese, the Chinese language that includes Cantonese* Cantonese cuisine, the cuisine of Guangdong province...

businessman offered his own home as a consul-building for the time being, with construction of a Western-style building within the official Settlement boundaries just to the south of the Soochow Creek completed within the year. This soon became the epicenter of the British settlement. Afterward both the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

and the Americans

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

signed treaties with China which gave their citizens extraterritorial rights similar to those granted to the British, but initially their respective nationals accepted that the foreign settlement came under British consular jurisdiction.

The American treaty was signed in July 1844 by a Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

politician, Caleb Cushing

Caleb Cushing

Caleb Cushing was an American diplomat who served as a U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts and Attorney General under President Franklin Pierce.-Early life:...

(1800–1879), who was dispatched with orders to "save the Chinese from the condition of being an exclusive monopoly in the hands of England" as a consequence of the Treaty of Nanjing. Cushing signed the treaty with the Imperial Chinese government at Wanghia, gaining Americans the same rights as those enjoyed by the British in China's treaty ports. It also contained a clause that effectively carved out Shanghai as an extraterritorial zone within Imperial China

Late Imperial China

Late Imperial China refers to the period between the end of Mongol rule in 1368 and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912 and includes the Ming and Qing Dynasties...

, though it did not actually give the American government a true legal concession. It was only in 1845 that Britain followed in America's footsteps and signed a land-deal to allow Britons to rent land in Shanghai in perpetuity. The American consular presence did not create a problem for the British because it was never intended to have a post in person. Since American traders in China were prohibited from engaging in the opium trade (though almost all were active in this trade), their business transactions were conducted under the auspices of British firms. The only serious incident of political complaint against the Americans was in 1845, when the Stars and Stripes

Flag of the United States

The national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...

was raised by the acting-US Consul, Henry G. Wolcott, who had just arrived in the city. Neither the British, nor the Chinese governor, approved of the display. In 1848, France established its own French concession under French consular jurisdiction, squeezed between the south of the British settlement and north of the Chinese walled city.

During the Taiping Rebellion

Taiping Rebellion

The Taiping Rebellion was a widespread civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, who, having received visions, maintained that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, against the ruling Manchu-led Qing Dynasty...

, and with the Concessions effectively landlocked by both the Manchu

Manchu

The Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...

government and Small Swords Society

Small Swords Society

Small Swords Society was a political and military organisation active in Shanghai, China and neighbouring areas during the Taiping Rebellion....

rebels, the Western residents of the Shanghai International Settlement, known as "Shanghailander

Shanghailander

ShanghailandersSometimes "Shanghighlanders" in punning reference to the Scottish highlanders. were foreignprincipally European and Americansettlers in the extraterritorial areas of Shanghai, China, between the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing and the mid-20th century....

s", refused to pay taxes to the Chinese government except for land and maritime rates (nominally because Shanghai's customs house had been burnt down). They also claimed the right to exclude Chinese troops from the concession areas. While the Settlement had at first disallowed non-foreigners to live inside its boundaries, a large number of Chinese were allowed to move into the International Settlement to escape the Taipings or seek better economic opportunities. Chinese entry was subsequently legalised and continued to grow.

The Municipal Council

On 11 July 1854 a committee of Western businessmen met and held the first annual meeting of the Shanghai Municipal Council, ignoring protests of consular officials, and laid down the Land Regulations which established the principles of self-government. The aims of this first Council were simply to assist in the formation of roads, refuse collection, and taxation across the disparate Concessions.

In 1863 the American concession (land fronting the Huangpu River

Huangpu River

The Huangpu River is a -long river in China flowing through Shanghai...

to the north-east of Suzhou Creek) officially joined the British Settlement (stretching from Yang-ching-pang Creek to Suzhou Creek) to become the Shanghai International Settlement. The French concession remained independent and the Chinese retained control over the original walled city and the area surrounding the foreign enclaves. This would later result in sometimes absurd administrative outcomes, such as needing three drivers' licenses to travel through the complete city.

By the late-1860s Shanghai's official governing body had been practically transferred from the individual concessions to the Shanghai Municipal Council (工部局, literally "Works Department", from the standard English local government title of 'Board of works'). The British Consul was the de jure authority in the Settlement, but he had no actual power unless the ratepayers (who voted for the Council) agreed. Instead, he and the other consulates deferred to the Council's so-termed "democracy". The International Settlement was wholly foreign-controlled, with staff of all nationalities, including British, Americans, Danes

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, and Germans. In reality, the British held the largest number of seats on the Council and headed all the Municipal departments (British included Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Newfoundlanders, and South Africans whose extraterritorial rights were established by the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

treaty). The only department not chaired by a Briton was the Municipal Orchestra, which was controlled by an Italian. No Chinese residing in the International Settlement were permitted to join the council until 1928. Amongst the many members who served on the council, its chairman during the 1920s, Stirling Fessenden, is possibly the most notable. An American, he served as the settlement's main administrator during Shanghai's most turbulent era, and was considered more "British" than the council's British members. He oversaw many of the major incidents of the decade, including the May 30th Movement and the White Terror

White Terror

White Terror is the violence carried out by reactionary groups as part of a counter-revolution. In particular, during the 20th century, in several countries the term White Terror was applied to acts of violence against real or suspected socialists and communists.-Historical origin: the French...

that came with the Shanghai massacre of 1927

Shanghai massacre of 1927

The April 12 Incident of 1927 refers to the violent suppression of Chinese Communist Party organizations in Shanghai by the military forces of Chiang Kai-shek and conservative factions in the Kuomintang...

.

The International Settlement maintained its own fire-service, police force (the Shanghai Municipal Police

Shanghai Municipal Police

The Shanghai Municipal Police was the police force of the Shanghai Municipal Council which governed the Shanghai International Settlement between 1854 and 1943, when the settlement was retroceded to Chinese control....

), and even possessed its own military reserve

Military reserve

A military reserve, tactical reserve, or strategic reserve is a group of military personnel or units which are initially not committed to a battle by their commander so that they are available to address unforeseen situations or exploit suddenly developing...

in the Shanghai Volunteer Corps

Shanghai Volunteer Corps

The Shanghai Volunteer Corps , also known as the Shanghai Defence Corps, was a part time military unit of the Shanghai International Settlement in existence from 1853 to 1942.-History:...

(萬國商團). Following some disturbances at the British concession in Hankow in 1927, the defences at Shanghai were augmented by a permanent battalion of the British Army, which was referred to as 'The Shanghai Defence Force

Shanghai Defence Force

The Shanghai Defence Force was a tri-service military formation established by the British Government to protect European nationals and their property in Shanghai from Chinese communist forces.-History:...

' (SDF or SHAF), and a contingent of US Marines

China Marines

The term China Marines originally referred to those United States Marines from the 4th Marine Regiment who were stationed in Shanghai, China during 1927 - 1941 to protect American citizens and their property in the Shanghai International Settlement during the Chinese Revolution and the Second...

. Other armed forces would arrive in Shanghai; the French Concession had a defensive force of Annamite troops, the Italians also introduced their own marines, as did the Japanese (whose troops eventually outnumbered the other countries' many times over).

By the mid-1880s, the Council had become a practical monopoly over the city's businesses. It bought up all the local gas-suppliers, electricity producers and water-companies, then — during the 20th-century — took control over all non-private rickshaws and the Settlement tramways. It also regulated opium sales and prostitution until their banning in 1918 and 1920 respectively.

Until the late-1920s, therefore, the SMC and its subsidiaries, including the police, power station, and public works, were British dominated (though not controlled, since Britain itself had no authority over the Council. Some of the Settlement's actions during this period, such as the May 30th Movement, in which Chinese demonstrators

Demonstration (people)

A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...

were shot by members of the Shanghai Municipal Police

Shanghai Municipal Police

, did embarrass and threaten the British Empire's position in China even though they were not carried out by "Britain" itself.

In summary, the International Settlement was not a British possession in the sense that Hong Kong

Hong Kong

or Weihaiwei were, and was instead ruled as a self-governing treaty port under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking 1842. Chinese sovereignty still prevailed on the territory, but individuals who were not Chinese and were members of the Fourteen Favoured Nations enjoyed extraterritoriality. The SMC did however exercise a considerable degree of political autonomy over both foreign and Chinese within its borders.

The rise of Imperial Japan (20th century)

In the 19th century, Europeans possessed treaty ports in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

in the same way they held those in China. However, Japan rapidly developed into a modern nation, and by the turn of the 20th century the Japanese had successfully negotiated with all powers to abrogate all unequal treaties with it. Japan stood alongside the other European powers as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance

Eight-Nation Alliance

The Eight-Nation Alliance was an alliance of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States whose military forces intervened in China to suppress the anti-foreign Boxers and relieve the siege of the diplomatic legations in Beijing .- Events :The...

during the famous fifty-five day siege of the foreign embassy compound in Peking. Japan entered the 20th century as a rising world power, and with its unequal treaties with the European powers now abrogated, it actually joined in having and unequal treaty with China granting extraterritorial rights under the Treaty of Shimonoseki

Treaty of Shimonoseki

The Treaty of Shimonoseki , known as the Treaty of Maguan in China, was signed at the Shunpanrō hall on April 17, 1895, between the Empire of Japan and Qing Empire of China, ending the First Sino-Japanese War. The peace conference took place from March 20 to April 17, 1895...

signed in 1895.

In the year 1915, during the First World War, Japan overtook Britain

United Kingdom

as the country with the largest number of foreign residents in Shanghai. In 1916 they sided with Britain

United Kingdom

and France

France

in the war and conquered all German possessions in China. By the beginning of the 1930s, Japan was swiftly becoming the most powerful national group in Shanghai and accounted for some 80% of all extraterritorial foreigners in China. Much of Hongkew, which had become an unofficial Japanese settlement, was known as Little Tokyo. In 1931, supposed "protection of Japanese colonists from Chinese aggression" in Hongkew was used as a pretext for the Shanghai Incident, when Japanese troops invaded Shanghai. From then until the Second Sino-Japanese War

Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...

(1937–1945) Hongkew was almost entirely outside of the SMC's hands, with law and protection enforced to varying degrees by the Japanese Consular Police and Japanese members of the Shanghai Municipal Police.

In 1932 there were 1,040,780 Chinese living within the International Settlement, with another 400,000 fleeing into the area after the Second Sino-Japanese War

Second Sino-Japanese War

broke out in 1937. For the next five years, the International Settlement and the French Concession were surrounded by Japanese occupiers and Chinese revolutionaries, with conflict often spilling into the Settlement's borders. In 1941, the Japanese launched an abortive political bid to take over the SMC: during a mass meeting of ratepayers at the Settlement Race Grounds, a Japanese official leaped up and shot William Keswick, then Chairman of the Council. While Keswick was only wounded, a near riot broke out.

Anglo-American influence effectively ended after 8 December 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Army

Imperial Japanese Army

-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...

entered and occupied the British and American controlled parts of the city in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

. The French and Americans surrendered without a shot, while the only British riverboat in Shanghai, HMS Peterel

HMS Peterel (1927)

HMS Peterel was a river gunboat built by Yarrow Shipbuilders at Scotstoun for service on the China station, on the Yang Tse, which entered service on 18 July 1927. Her name was a mistake - she should have been named Petrel as per the bird, but this was not noticed until after she had been launched....

, refused to surrender and was destroyed. Senior Allied personnel and councillors were removed from their posts, but the majority of European nationals working for the administration remained in their jobs until they were interned after February 1943. This has led to questions of whether they were collaborators or merely "getting on with their jobs". European Shanghailanders were forced to wear armbands to differentiate them, were evicted from their homes, and — just like Chinese citizens — were liable to maltreatment. All were liable for punitive punishments, torture and even death during the period of Japanese occupation.

However, amongst all this, Shanghai was notable for a long period as the only place in the world that unconditionally offered refuge for Jews escaping from the Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

s. These refugees often lived in squalid conditions in an area known as the Shanghai ghetto

Shanghai ghetto

The Shanghai ghetto, formally known as the , was an area of approximately one square mile in the Hongkou District of Japanese-occupied Shanghai, to which about 20,000 Jewish refugees were relocated by the Japanese-issued Proclamation Concerning Restriction of Residence and Business of Stateless...

in Hongkew. On 21 August 1941 the Japanese government closed Hongkew to further Jewish immigration.

Return of the Settlement to Chinese Rule

In February 1943, the International Settlement was de jure returned to the Chinese as part of the British–Chinese Treaty for the Relinquishment of Extra-Territorial Rights in China and US China Treaty for Relinquishment of Extraterritorial Rights with the Nationalist Government

History of the Republic of China

The History of the Republic of China begins after the Qing Dynasty in 1912, when the formation of the Republic of China put an end to over two thousand years of Imperial rule. The Qing Dynasty, also known as the Manchu Dynasty, ruled from 1644 to 1912...

of the Republic of China

Republic of China

The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...

under Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....

. However, because Shanghai was under Japanese control, this was unenforceable. In reply, in July 1943, the Japanese retroceded the SMC to the City Government of Shanghai, which was then in the hands of the pro-Japanese Wang Jingwei Government

Wang Jingwei Government

In March 1940 a puppet government led by Wang Jingwei was established in the Republic of China under the protection of the Empire of Japan. The regime officially called itself the Republic of China and its government the Reorganized National Government of China...

. Although the original treaty between Britain

United Kingdom

and China the Treaty of Nanking

Treaty of Nanking

The Treaty of Nanking was signed on 29 August 1842 to mark the end of the First Opium War between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Qing Dynasty of China...

was signed in 1842 on behalf of the entire British Empire, the new treaty of 1943 was only signed on behalf of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

, colonies and British India. It was not signed on behalf of the dominions. Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

signed its own treaty with China

China

the following year.

After the war and the liberation of the city from the Japanese, a Liquidation Commission fitfully met to discuss the remaining details of the handover. By the end of 1945, most westerners not actively involved in the Chinese Civil War

Chinese Civil War

The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...

(such as intelligence agents, soldiers, journalists etc.) or in Shanghai's remaining foreign businesses, had left the city. With the defeat of the Kuomintang

Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...

in 1949, the city was occupied by Communist troops and came under the control of Mayor of Shanghai

Politics of Shanghai

The Politics of Shanghai is structured in a dual party-government system like all other governing institutions in the mainland of the People's Republic of China . In the last few decades the city has produced many of the country's eventual senior leaders...

.

The foreign architecture of the International Settlement era can still be seen today along the Bund

The Bund

The Bund is a waterfront area in central Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The area centres on a section of Zhongshan Road within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District...

and in many locations around the city.

Legal System in the Shanghai International Settlement

The International Settlement did not have a unified legal system. The Municipal Council issued Land Regulations and regulations under this, that were binding on all people in the settlement. Other than this, citizens and subjects of powers that had treaties with China that provided for extraterritorial rights

Extraterritoriality

Extraterritoriality is the state of being exempt from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. Extraterritoriality can also be applied to physical places, such as military bases of foreign countries, or offices of the United Nations...

were subject to the laws of their own countries and civil and criminal complaints against them were required to be brought against them to their consular courts (courts overseen by consular officials) under the laws of their own countries. Treaty Powers included Britain, France, Germany, Austro-Hungary, Belgium and the United States. Japanese citizens also enjoyed extraterritorial rights under a reciprocal treaty signed in the 1870s and then under the Treaty of Shimonoseki

Treaty of Shimonoseki

signed in 1895. Chinese citizens and citizens of non-treaty powers, for example Portugal, and after World War I, Germany, were subject to Chinese law. Inside the Settlement, cases against them would be brought to the Mixed Court a court established in the Settlement in the 1870s which existed until 1927. In cases involving foreigners, a foreign assessor, usually a consular officer, would sit with the Chinese magistrate and in many cases acted like a judge.

Two countries, Britain and the United States established formal court systems in China to try cases. The British Supreme Court for China and Japan

British Supreme Court for China and Japan

The British Supreme Court for China and Japan was a court established in the Shanghai International Settlement in 1865 to try cases against British subjects in China and Japan, and from 1883, Korea, under the principles of Extraterritoriality. The court also heard appeals from consular courts in...

was established in 1865 and located in its own building in the British Consulate compound

Former Consulate-General of the United Kingdom, Shanghai

The Former Consulate-General of the United Kingdom building located in Shanghai, China, is one of the oldest buildings on The Bund.It is housed in a compound that housed a number of buildings used by the British Consulate-General....

and the United States Court for China

United States Court for China

The United States Court for China was a United States District Court that had extraterritorial jurisdiction over U.S. citizens in China. It existed from 1906 to 1943 and had jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters, with appeals taken to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San...

was established in the US Consulate in 1906.

Currency in the Shanghai International Settlement

The currency situation in China

China

generally was very complicated in the 19th century. There was no unified system. Different parts of China operated different systems, and the Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

pieces of eight

Pieces of Eight

Pieces of Eight is the eighth studio album and second concept album by Styx, released September 1, 1978.The album was the band's follow-up to their Triple Platinum selling The Grand Illusion album....

that had been coming from Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

for a few hundred years on Manila Galleon

Manila Galleon

The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...

s taken root along the China

China

coast. Until the 1840s these silver dollar coins were Spanish

Spain

coins minted mainly in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

, but from the 1840s these gave way to Mexican republican dollars.

In Shanghai, this complexity represented a microcosm of the complicated economy existing elsewhere along the China

China

coast. The Chinese reckoned in weights of silver, which did not necessarily correspond to circulating coins. One major weight was a tael

Tael

Tael can refer to any one of several weight measures of the Far East. Most commonly, it refers to the Chinese tael, a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency....

, which came in a variety of types depending on the amount of silver they equalled. These included: Customs Taels (for foreign trade), Cotton Taels (for cotton trade), etc. Shanghai had its own tael

Tael

Tael can refer to any one of several weight measures of the Far East. Most commonly, it refers to the Chinese tael, a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency....

, which was very similar in weight to the Customs Tael and therefore popular for international business. China also had a mixture of coins, including Chinese Copper Cash

Cash (Chinese coin)

A cash was a type of coin of China and East Asia from the 2nd century BC until the AD 20th century. The photograph to the right shows replicas of various ancient to 19th century cast coins in various metals found in China and Japan.-Terminology:...

coins and Mexican dollars. Paper money was first issued by European and North American colonial banks (one British colonial bank known as the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China at one time issued banknotes in Shanghai that were denominated in Mexican dollars).

European and North American currencies did not officially circulate in the International Settlement, except Yen in the Japanese district of "Little Tokyo". Until the year 1873, however, US dollar coins would have reasonably corresponded in size, shape and value to Mexican dollars. Between 1873 and 1900, all silver standard

Silver standard

The silver standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of silver. The silver specie standard was widespread from the fall of the Byzantine Empire until the 19th century...

dollars had depreciated to about 50% of the value of the gold standard

Gold standard

The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed mass of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard...

dollars of the USA and Canada

Canada

leading to a rising economic depression.

The Chinese themselves officially adopted the dollar unit as their national currency in 1889, and the first Chinese dollar coins, known as yuan

Chinese yuan

The yuan is the base unit of a number of modern Chinese currencies. The yuan is the primary unit of account of the Renminbi.A yuán is also known colloquially as a kuài . One yuán is divided into 10 jiǎo or colloquially máo...

, contained an inscription which related their value to an already existing Chinese system of accounts. On the earliest Chinese dollar (yuan

Chinese yuan

) coins it states the words 7 mace

Mace (measurement)

A mace is a traditional Chinese measurement of weight in East Asia that was also used as a currency denomination. It is equal to 10 candareens and is of a tael or approximately 3.78 grams. A troy candareen is approximately 3.74 grams. In Hong Kong, one mace is 3.779936375 gramme...

and 2 candareen

Candareen

A candareen is a traditional measurement of weight in East Asia. It is equal to 10 cash and is 1/10 of a mace. It is approximately 378 milligrams. A troy candareen is approximately 374 milligrams....

s. The mace

Mace (measurement)

and candareen

Candareen

A candareen is a traditional measurement of weight in East Asia. It is equal to 10 cash and is 1/10 of a mace. It is approximately 378 milligrams. A troy candareen is approximately 374 milligrams....

were sub-divisions of the tael

Tael

Tael can refer to any one of several weight measures of the Far East. Most commonly, it refers to the Chinese tael, a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency....

unit of weight. Banknotes tended to be issued in dollars, either worded as such or as yuan.

Despite the complications arising from a mixture of Chinese

China

and Spanish coinages, there was one overwhelming unifying factor binding all the systems in use: silver

Silver standard

. The Chinese reckoned purely in terms of silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

, and value was always compared against a weight of silver

Silver

(hence, the reason large prices were given in tael). It was the strict adherence of the Chinese to silver that caused China and even the British colonies of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

and Weihaiwei to remain on the silver standard

Silver standard

after the rest of the world had changed over to the gold standard

Gold standard

The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed mass of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard...

. When China officially began producing official Republican yuan

Yuan

Yuan may refer to:* Chinese yuan, the basic unit of currency in China** Renminbi, the current currency used in the People's Republic of China, whose basic unit is Yuan...

coins in 1934, they were minted in Shanghai and shipped to Nanking for distribution.

Postal services in the International Settlement

Shanghai had developed a postal service as early as the Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

, but during the treaty port era foreign postal services were organized through their respective consulates. The British originally used British postage stamps overprinted with the local currency amount, but from 1868, the British changed to Hong Kong

Hong Kong

postage stamps already denominated in dollar

Dollar

The dollar is the name of the official currency of many countries, including Australia, Belize, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States.-Etymology:...

s. However, in the special case of Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

, in the year 1865 the International settlement began to issue its own postage stamps, denominated in the local Shanghai tael

Tael

Tael can refer to any one of several weight measures of the Far East. Most commonly, it refers to the Chinese tael, a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency....

unit. The Shanghai Post Office controlled all post within the Settlement, but post coming in or going out of the treaty port was required to go through the Chinese Imperial Post Office. In 1922 the various foreign postal services, the Shanghai Post Office and the Chinese Post Office were all brought together into a single Chinese Post Office. Some other foreign countries refused to fall under this new postal service's remit, however: for many years, Japan was notable as sending almost all its mail to Shanghai in diplomatic bag

Diplomatic bag

A diplomatic bag, also known as a diplomatic pouch is a kind of receptacle used by diplomatic missions. The physical concept of a "diplomatic bag" is flexible and therefore can take many forms e.g. an envelope, parcel, large suitcase or shipping container, etc...

s, which could not be opened by postal staff.

List of Chairmen of the Shanghai Municipal Council

Some of the persons who chaired the Shanghai Municipal Council were:

William Keswick (1865/66)
Arnold Foster
J. S. Fearon
William Johnstone "Tony" Keswick
Keswick family
The Keswick family are a business dynasty of Scottish origin associated with the Far East since 1855 and in particular the conglomerate Jardine Matheson....
Godfrey Phillips
Henry Keswick
Keswick family
The Keswick family are a business dynasty of Scottish origin associated with the Far East since 1855 and in particular the conglomerate Jardine Matheson....

—British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

Quarter
Stirling Fessenden
Harry Edward Arnhold
Harry Edward Arnhold
Harry Edward Arnhold was for five years the chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council, the body that administered the Shanghai International Settlement in Shanghai, China; the chairman of Arnhold & Co., which is now Arnhold Holdings Ltd.; and the chairman of the Shanghai Land Investment Company,...

(born 16 January 1879 in London)

French Concession

The French Concession

Shanghai French Concession

The Shanghai French Concession was a foreign concession in Shanghai, China from 1849 until 1946, and it was progressively expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The concession came to an end in practice in 1943 when the Vichy French government signed it over to the pro-Japanese puppet...

was governed by a separate municipal council, under the direction of the Consul General. The French Concession was not part of the International Settlement.

Arrival of the British, Americans, and Europeans (19th Century)

The Municipal Council

The rise of Imperial Japan (20th century)

Return of the Settlement to Chinese Rule

Legal System in the Shanghai International Settlement

Currency in the Shanghai International Settlement

Postal services in the International Settlement

List of Chairmen of the Shanghai Municipal Council

French Concession

See also

Further reading