The Gold-Exchange Standard and Imperial Competition in China, 1901–1905

This chapter examines the intellectual and policy debates among Qing officials about the dynasty's place in the world monetary system. It recounts the continued shift to the gold and gold-exchange standard in the late nineteenth century that occurred in the background of changing economic and political conditions. It also discusses the emergence of currency blocs tied to the pound, dollar, and yen, and the falling price of silver after the Boxer Indemnity in 1901. The chapter identifies figures in China that understood the gold-exchange standard's practical, economic, and symbolic meanings in different ways, such as Zhang Zhidong, who believed that adopting the gold-exchange standard would extend foreign control of Chinese finances. It covers the periodic financial panics, falling prices, and a general move to the gold and gold-exchange standards that defined the global political economy of the late nineteenth century.