Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China

The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China (or simply The Chartered Bank) was a bank founded in London in 1851/1853 by Scotsman James Wilson following the grant of a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria. It opened its first branches in 1858 in Calcutta and Bombay and then in 1863 in Karachi and Shanghai. The bank was keen to capitalise on the huge expansion of trade and to earn the handsome profits to be made from financing the movement of goods from Europe to the East.

The Shanghai branch of Chartered bank began operation in August 1858. Initially, the bank's business dealt specifically with large volume discounting and re-discounting of opium and cotton bills. Although opium cultivation gradually increased in China, opium imports still increased from 50,087 picul in 1863 to 82,61 picul in 1888. Transactions in the opium trade generated substantial profits for Chartered bank.Zhaojin Ji. 2003. A History of Modern Shanghai Banking. (M.E. Sharpe), pp.44-5.

In 1859, the bank opened a branch in Hong Kong and an agency in Singapore. In 1861, the Singapore agency was upgraded to a branch. In 1862, the bank was authorised to issue bank notes in Hong Kong, a privilege it continues to exercise to this day. Over the following decades, it...
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