One of the Centre’s missions is to nurture a new generation of Hong Kong historians.
An Early Career Scholar Network was created under the Hong Kong History Centre in June 2023. It is intended to help create a community of Hong Kong historians and offer a platform for face-to-face interaction and academic exchange among young scholars. Research students and fresh doctoral graduates working on socioeconomic, political and cultural history of Hong Kong and its global relevance are welcomed. We usually meet thrice a year (February, June and October) with participants taking turns to present their works in each meeting. Financial support is provided for our network members attending these sessions.
Please write to Prof. Ray Yep, Research Director of Hong Kong History Centre, at rekmy@bristol.ac.uk, if you are interested in joining this Network.
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In this post, we would like to introduce Yibin Liu, a member of the Network.
Yibin Liu is a PhD student at Queen’s University Belfast. In the note written by her below, she shares with us her reflections on her academic journey and current project on why did the global economic crises appear to have limited impact on Hong Kong economy in the early nineteenth century.
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My interest in history began during my third year as an economics undergraduate at UCL. The elective module, Economic History, revealed how abstract economic models could explain historical events. I was particularly captivated by the cyclical relationship between national debt and warfare. I had always heard the saying that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes,” yet this was the first time I truly understood its significance. Suddenly, every abstract economic theory in my textbooks felt powerfully relevant to our daily lives. It was this moment that inspired me to transition from economics to economic history.
I went on to do MSc Economic History (Research) at LSE, during which I developed an interest in financial crises. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse at that time made questions about business cycles and banking crises in history feel especially relevant. This inspired me to start my own project on measuring banking crises. I chose Hong Kong because, despite being an international financial centre, it has been largely overlooked in the mainstream financial history literature.
During my PhD at the Centre for Economics, Policy and History at Queen’s University Belfast, I developed a more systematic measurement of banking crises. I constructed the first chronology of Hong Kong’s banking crises from 1866 to 2010, drawing on a bank stock price index I built, historical newspapers, and secondary literature. This provided a long-term view of financial stability in Hong Kong. I then examined the macroeconomic indicators and consequences of the crises I identified.
Yet the project raised a fascinating puzzle: why did these crises appear to have limited impact on the wider economy? I tested various variables and models, but none produced evidence of significant effects. This unexpected finding pushed me toward a broader historical question—whether the banking system itself was central to Hong Kong’s financial life in nineteenth century. Beyond colonial banks, there existed a rich ecosystem of indigenous financial institutions that has been largely forgotten. Existing studies often focus on one or two types of these local or shadow banks, but little is known about the overall landscape of credit provision among Hong Kong’s residents in the nineteenth century.
This raises a larger question in economic history: financial historians tend to emphasize banks, but were they really the most important institutions for the majority of the population? From a wider perspective, perhaps the diverse credit institutions that served ordinary people deserve much more attention.
Liu Yibin
PhD student, Queen’s University Belfast
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我對歷史的興趣始於我在倫敦大學學院攻讀經濟學學士學位的第三年。選修課「經濟史」讓我看到抽象的經濟模型如何能夠解釋歷史事件。那時候，我特別著迷於國債週期與戰爭之間的關係。我一直聽說「以史為鏡，可以知興替」這句話, 然而這是我第一次真正理解其意義。突然間,每一個抽象的經濟理論都與芸芸大眾的生活息息相關了。這一刻啟發了我從經濟學轉向經濟史的決定。
我繼續在倫敦政治經濟學院攻讀經濟史(研究)碩士學位的期間我對金融危機產生了興趣。那時候包括美國Silicon Valley Bank48小時內破產在內的銀行業危機的新聞讓我覺得當時正在學習的歷史中的銀行危機分外有趣。於是我決定也試著測量一下歷史上的危機。我選擇以香港作為起點，因為儘管它是亞洲最重要的國際金融中心，但在主流金融史研究中卻長期被忽視。
在博士學習期間，我建立了一套更為系統化的銀行危機衡量方法。依據我自行構建的銀行股價指數、歷史報章與相關文獻， 我編制了1866年至2010年間香港銀行危機的首份編年史。這份編年史提供了一個關於香港金融市場穩定性的長期視角。之後，我開始研究可以識別出的危機與宏觀經濟指標以及這些銀行危機的經濟影響。
然而，這一步的研究卻引出了一個耐人尋味的問題：為何這些銀行危機對整體經濟的衝擊似乎相當有限, 尤其是早期的銀行危機？我嘗試了各種變量與模型，但始終未能得到顯著的效果。這個意外的發現使我轉向更宏觀的歷史提問——銀行體系是否真的是香港金融生活的核心？除了殖民地銀行之外，當時其實還存在著多樣而豐富的本土金融機構，但卻大多被遺忘。十九世紀香港的金融體系彷彿一個折疊世界，服務於財團和政府的殖民銀行和服務於本地居民的錢莊、銀號等本地金融機構雖有鏈接但卻相對隔絕。 現有研究往往僅涉及一兩種類型的本地銀行或影子銀行，但對於十九世紀香港居民整體的信用供給機制卻缺乏全面的了解。
這也引發了一個更大的經濟史問題：銀行確實在英美的金融史上舉足輕重，但在更廣闊的世界和更遼闊的歷史中，銀行真的對大多數民眾而言是最重要的金融機構嗎？或許那些被忽略的服務於更廣泛社會階層的信用機構也值得更多關注。
刘怡玢
