"Co-creating Informal Economies: Gold Trade and the Transnational Business Networks in Cold War Hong Kong"

During the Cold War, Hong Kong emerged as a critical node in the global economy, shaped not only by formal trade but also by informal and illicit business networks. This paper explores how the economic and political transformations of the era fostered the co-creation of resilient trading systems, focusing on the shadow gold trade as a key example. It highlights how diverse actors—including goldsmiths, merchants, bankers, smugglers, refugees, and migrants—collaborated, often unintentionally, to adapt to the regulatory and geopolitical constraints of the period.
The study examines how international gold trade regulations, decolonization movements in Southeast Asia, and Cold War dynamics reshaped Hong Kong’s business environment. Refugees and migrants played a pivotal role, using gold as a means of survival and mobility, while local artisans innovated with technologies such as electroforming and vacuum manufacturing to meet global and local demand. These activities fostered the development of socio-economic networks that extended across East and Southeast Asia, creating unofficial channels of exchange that circumvented dominant regulatory regimes.
This paper also reconceptualizes state-business relations by examining the ways gold traders interacted with government officials and law enforcement. Pragmatic collaborations and informal practices blurred the boundaries between legality and illegality, enabling traders and officials to navigate the challenges of the Cold War economy. By foregrounding the agency of non-elite actors and their role in shaping both local and global markets, this research reframes Hong Kong’s Cold War transformation as a process of co-creation. It provides new insights into the intersections of informal economies, material commodities, and global trade, offering a nuanced understanding of how individuals and networks adapted to and influenced the complexities of Cold War capitalism.