ABSTRACT
International loans provided indirect, political guarantees for continued commercial growth. To compete effectively with European rivals, British financiers and British-owned banking institutions had to have access and equal opportunity to offer the large indemnity loans China needed after the Sino-Japanese War. These loans supplied more than long term, monetary interest; financial transactions of that scope purchased political and commercial influence. Mining concessions were equally important to British investors and to British policy in China. Like the myth of unlimited markets, many Westerners believed that beneath Chinese soil lay the richest veins of coal, iron, and other mineral resources waiting only for development. Usually mining concessions included major transportation and public works projects considered so necessary for industrial progress. In an intensifying financial struggle the privately funded Anglo-German cartel had matched the semi-public Russo-Chinese Bank. The final indemnity loan further pitted Britain’s informal, traditional strategy against the more overtly political Franco-Russian policy.
