Abstract

"Regional Networks and Female Banking Entrepreneurship in Republican China: A Case Study on the Shanghai Women’s Commercial and Savings Bank, 1924-1953"

Dewen Zhang, Randolph-Macon College (dewenzhang@rmc.edu)

The extraordinary case of Shanghai Women’s Commercial and Savings Bank founded and operated by a small group of Chinese women has remained largely unknown to scholars of business history. Founded in a historical moment when finance was dominated by western banks in Shanghai as a result of global colonialism since the mid-19th century, this bank by Chinese women managed to survive and excel for three decades with the power of the city shifted from the Nationalists to Japanese and then to the Communists.

Drawing on materials from archive collection, personal memoirs, diaries, newspapers, government documents, and financial reports, this paper traces the founding and development of the bank to reveal the regional networks through which this financial enterprise was operated. It argues that the regional networks formed by traditional banking families and investors from Zhangjiang and Jiangsu provinces were essential to the successful founding of the bank. By combing Confucian and modern working ethic, the female banking entrepreneurs created a unique business atmosphere that privileged personal merits which contributed to the long lasting of the business before the coming of the Chinese communists. This paper is the first of its kind to introduce the history of the women’s bank to the English audience.