Yokohama Specie Bank
Following the signing of the Japan-U.S. Treaty of Amity and Commerce in 1859, Yokohama was opened as a port for foreign trade and quickly grew in importance.
The creation of the YSB was initiated by statesman Ōkuma Shigenobu in alliance with Yokohama merchants, and submitted in November 1879 to the chief minister of the imperial government or Daijō-kan.[6] Its concept was first advocated by early Meiji intellectual luminary Fukuzawa Yukichi, and its design inspired by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which had a great influence on Japan's overseas trade and foreign exchange at the time.
[8] It was created by a syndicate of 22 individuals with the support of Fukuzawa and Inoue Kaoru on the basis of the National Bank Act, aiming to ensure the availability of specie for the trading community.
Ōkuma's successor Matsukata Masayoshi engineered the dismissal of its first president Nakamura Michita in June 1882 and his eventual replacement in March 1883 by an ally, Hara Rokuro.
[11]: 172 That same year, it started issuing banknotes in China, first in Shanghai and Yingkou and then also in Tianjin, which it had not done until then out of concerns about antagonizing its Western banking partners.
[7]: 1382 With the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, it further established branches in the Kwantung Leased Territory and served as paymaster for the Imperial Japanese Army, opening offices in Dalian, Liaoyang, Mukden and Tieling.
[11]: 172 In December 1917, however, it lost that privilege which was transferred to the Bank of Chōsen at the initiative of the government led by Terauchi Masatake which envisioned a future monetary unification of Manchuria with Japanese-ruled Korea.
[14][15] By 1919, the YSB had an expanded network of 30 overseas branches, of which 7 in Manchuria, 7 in the rest of Mainland China, 5 in Southeast Asia and Australia, 3 in India, 2 in South America, and 6 in Europe and the United States, including the most important by far in London.
[16] Its Chinese note circulation peaked in late 1918, after which it was negatively affected by local boycotts in the wake of the May Fourth Movement.
[10]: 4 Even so, by 1929 the YSB had a total 37 offices outside of Japan and its colonies, by far the largest international network of any Japanese bank.
