Banks in Hong Kong in 1864-65

28,016. The Hong Kong stock market rallied in the past few days surging to 7-year high since the global financial crisis yesterday.

A couple of hours after the market closed, investors and speculators resumed to their laptops and tablets to take another chance. HSBC 150th Anniversary Banknote.

Several weeks ago, my mother phoned me to ask whether I will apply for the winners-take-all lucky draw for the banknote for myself and her online. I coldly declined.

I never knew my mother, a retired housewife-investor/speculator, is, like me, a historian. I never knew she is interested in HSBC's history. I never knew HSBC was established in 1865.

All in a sudden, everyone in town is talking about HSBC but rarely touches on its founding history.

150th anniversary means that HSBC opened for business in 1865. As a historian obsessive with facts and figures, without Frank H.H. King's formidable books on HSBC's history from the beginning and David Kynaston and Richard Roberts' latest book on HSBC's modern history (published in March 2015, exactly 150 years) in hand, I searched my database for an answer and found three directories published in Hong Kong from 1864 to 1866 particularly useful.

Century-old directories were produced for commerce use and similar to today's business directories, which list names of companies, its proprietors and employees. They were published in January. A directory for 1865, for example, is the work done by the compiler in 1864.

According to the Directory for both 1866 and 1865, there were 11 banks  in Hong Kong (yes, nearly a dozen in this small colony!):
     1. Agra and Masterman's Bank, Limited.
     2. Asiatic Banking Corporation [agent only]
     3. Bank of Hindostan, China and Japan (Limited)
     4. Bank of India
     5. Central Bank of Western India
     6. Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China
     7. Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China
     8. Commercial Bank Corporation of India & the East
     9. Comptoir d'Escompte de Paris
     10. Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Co. (Limited)
     11. Oriental Bank Corporation

Whilst the Directory for 1866 gives a list of managers, accountants, a clerk, and an agent in London, only the manager, Victor Kresser (who was an acting manager for Comptoir d'Escompte de Paris before joining HSBC), is recorded in the Directory for 1865. It means that in 1864, HSBC was founded but with a single staff member in 1864 it may be true that it opened for business not until March 1865 as it is stated in HSBC's official history.