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| 10 ruble banknote of Russian-Asiatic Bank in Harbin, Chinese Eastern Railway |
The Russo-Asiatic Bank
In 1910 the Russo-Chinese Bank underwent an organizational change, emerging as the Russo-Asiatic Bank. This was fundamentally a change in name only as all outstanding assets and business, after deducting its war losses, remained intact. That the Russo-Chinese Bank never had a large bank note circulation is attested to by the fact that the final balance sheet, published by the St. Petersburg head office, showed notes remaining outstanding and unredeemed to total a modest 146,177 in dollars and 13,766 in taels. A rather unusual issue of notes was made by the Russo-Asiatic Bank for its Turkestan branches (Kashgar, Kuld'sha and Changuchak). These notes were in circulation from 1913 to 1924. China had become a republic in 1911, but despite this the Turkestan notes, printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson and Company in London, prominently displayed the imperial dragon on the obverse and reverse. This set of notes was distinguishable from all other foreign money because they were denominated in fixed weights of pure gold, rather that specific monetary units. Upon seizing power in Russia in 1918, The Communists expropriated and nationalized all assets of the Russo-Asiatic Bank lying within Russian territory; whereupon the head office was moved from St. Petersburg to Paris. After being forcibly taken over by the Communists, the bank lost its home base. The seizure was partly due to the fact that the Russo-Asiatic Bank had financed the White Russian army's resistance to the Bolshevik regime. The bank's affairs continued to be directed from Paris, although unsuccessfully. In 1926 the Russo-Asiatic Bank was closed after losing 5 million pounds in foreign currency speculation in the Paris financial markets; whereupon Paris cabled the Shanghai branch to close its doors forever.