It’s a slow news week in China, means it’s time for the different Beijing bureaus to trot out the history features. Last week, NPR had the court music of the Tang Dynasty, this week the IHT looks at Pingyao banks from the Ming and the Qing eras.
At Pingyao’s height, the 22 banks here thrived on the flourishing trade in Shanxi Province, as silk and tea moved north to Mongolia and Russia from southern China and wool went south.
Compared with the excesses of today, scholars say, the early days of banking were a time of solid business ethics. There were no toxic mortgages, no opaque financial instruments. Trust among businessmen was so strong that the banks were able to start a system of remittances, credit and check-writing, the first of its kind in China. Currency was in silver ingots.
Yet, some of the banks’ practices might raise eyebrows today.
Still visible in the two-story courtyards of the defunct banks here are opium dens and mah-jongg tables, as well as rooms where prostitutes hired by the banks plied their trade to win over potential customers.
I thought of about 15 different jokes related to the last bit there, but none