A preliminary study of the overseas business networks of Chinese merchant in Hong Kong: The case of Ma Tsui Chiu, 1900s-1940s

Abstract

Ma Tsui Chiu (in Cantonese pronunciation), born in Baisha, Taishan prefecture, Guandong province in 1878. He successfully founded two businesses in Hong Kong such as Kung Yau Yuen piece silk store and Cheong Wah Co., Ltd. Besides, he invested in steamship and railway companies. Ma emerged as a successful merchant in Hong Kong in the early of the twentieth century. He was successful in building up his business networks over the region of Hong Kong, South China and North America. The information disclosed by the account books of Ma enabled us to understand how he had been successful to tape various sources of capital on one hand, and on the other hand connected with foreign banks such as HSBC and his group of firms including Kung Yau Yuen, Wuzhou Bank and Gongyu Bank. Thus, money was circulated among these institutions. It is used to say that the Chinese tradition of writing account book is to grasp the networks wove by commodities, clients, and branches instead of counting the loss and profit. Chinese account books usually composed of three parts: customers, commodities, and branches. The notion of Chinese accounting is something more than a just record. Chinese merchants viewed personal relationship more important than any other things else since they collected capital and built up their personal trust by networking. Chinese merchants keep account for maintaining personal trust and balancing their networks composed by commodities, clients and branches. As according to the analysis of the account books kept by Ma Tsui Chiu, all the information including his operation of remittances, buying and selling of stocks and real properties, leasing and brokerage, can be derived from his account books, which has been discussed in this paper. Ma’s businesses spanned over remittances, import/export trade, and leasing of properties. He acted for agent of the Ma’s family whose members wherever located in Taishan, Hong Kong, North America and elsewhere in the world. Ma did not only send money for them, but also helped them to make investment in the capital market of Hong Kong and China.