Currency boards and Chinese banks in Malaya and the Philippines before World War II

Gregg Huff

Australian Economic History Review, 2003, vol. 43, issue 2, 125-139

Abstract: This article examines the relationship between currency boards and the development of local Chinese deposit banking in Malaya and the Philippines before World War II. While in both countries Chinese banks filled an important gap in financial intermediation, the currency board system – an especially strict version of the classical gold standard – virtually ensured that these institutions remained small. Moreover, in the slump of the 1930s the currency board system's preclusion of a central bank and requirement to pay depositors in 100% metropolitan currency, together with the volatility of highly staple‐dependent export economies, pushed Chinese banks to the verge of bankruptcy or beyond. Examination of the 1930s crisis in South‐East Asia and the role of banks in it reveals more differences from than parallels with the 1990s experience.

Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8446.t01-1-00046

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ozechr:v:43:y:2003:i:2:p:125-139

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0004-8992

Access Statistics for this article

Australian Economic History Review is currently edited by Stephen L Morgan and Martin Shanahan

More articles in Australian Economic History Review from Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().