Thomas, W. A., “An Intra-Empire Capital Transfer: the Shanghai Rubber Company Boom 1909-1912” (1998)

Title : “An Intra-Empire Capital Transfer: the Shanghai Rubber Company Boom 1909-1912”

Author(s) : Thomas, W. A.

Year : 1998

Type : Journal article

Subject : History

Keywords : economy

Journal : Modern Asian Studies

Volume : 32

Number : 3

Start page : 739

End page : 760

Language:Name : English

Support : Print

Abstract : Capital flows in the Victorian empire were not simply from the metropole to the periphery, for as this study of the Shanghai Rubber Company illustrates, capital was also transferred from one colony to another, in this case from Shanghai to Malaysia. Between 1909 and 1914, the Shanghai Stock Exchange listed 39 rubber companies with paid-up capital amounting to nearly 2.4 million pounds. This compares quite favorably with the London Stock Exchange, where 145 companies were launched and 12.8 million pounds were raised. This is evidence of the ability of smaller colonial markets to raise capital quickly if the returns were sufficiently lucrative, and if, like Shanghai, there was an infrastructure in place which not only enabled capital to be mobilized but also provided access to overseas markets. Yet when the boom collapsed and share prices tumbled, the vulnerability of the Shanghai stock market became evident, forcing the stock exchange to make some reforms.