Chapter 6 deals with the activities of German bankers in China during the First World War and the eventual liquidation of the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank after 1917 due to China’s entry into the war. The chapter starts with a discussion of the development of the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank’s business and the internationalization of the Chinese banking sector in the years before 1914. It then turns to the negative impact the outbreak of war had on commerce and transnational connections in China. Thereafter, it discusses how the German bank tried to use loans to the Chinese government to keep China out of the war between 1914 and 1917. After these attempts failed and China entered the war on the side of the Allies, the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank was liquidated. This liquidation had severe consequences not only for the German bank but also for German business in China more generally.

Chapter 1 begins with a discussion of the early interest of German bankers in the Chinese market, including the failed attempt of the Deutsche Bank to establish branches in East Asia in the 1870s. The chapter then explores the early development of foreign banking in modern China from the middle of the nineteenth century and the growing interest of Chinese reformers and officials in using foreign capital and cooperating with foreign banks. We then return to the German bankers and investigate the activities of a study mission sent to China by a group of German banks and industrial concerns. Finally, the chapter traces the establishment of the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank in China by leading German banks in 1889.

Chapter 2 explores the entry and activities of the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank in the Chinese banking sector on the China coast. More generally, it explores the role foreign banks played in China’s banking sector, including their role in financing China’s foreign trade, and the relationship and interaction between foreign and Chinese banks. The chapter shows that, unlike what is often claimed by previous literature, the relationship between foreign and Chinese financial institutions was not one of one-sided domination but interdependence. The final part of the chapter explores the development of the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank’s business during the 1890s and the growing internationalization of the Chinese banking sector during the same period.