ABSTRACT
With changes in the world political reality after World War I, foreign powers altered their existing banking and finance structures in China. The DeutschAsiatische Bank was excluded from the International Banking Consortium when Germany was defeated; the Russo-Asiatic Bank was discriminated against following the Bolshevik victory in Russia; British and French banks were retrenched because of war financial debts that were due for repayment. While the old members of the consortium struggled with their domestic problems, Japanese and American banking groups entered Chinese banking as new powers. Before World War I, Japanese loans amounted to 12.4 percent and the U.S. loans amounted to 0.7 percent of total foreign loans to China. From 1915 to 1918, Japanese loans to China increased to 78.6 percent and U.S. loans increased to 6.4 percent. 1 In 1917, Japan assumed real power to represent the International Banking Consortium by extending 30 million Japanese yen for the Chinese Reorganization Loan. The American banking group entered China's market after the U.S. Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, which approved the establishment of American banks in foreign countries.
