| "The Development of Banks in Shanghai and Hong Kong", an exhibition co-organised by the Hong Kong Museum of History and the Shanghai Bank Museum, will be held from tomorrow (November 28) to March 24, 2008, at the Museum of History. The exhibition traces the development of the banking industry in the two cities through more than 500 artefacts selected from the collections of the two museums.
Picture shows a brass balance used by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Colombo branch, in the late 19th century. It is one of the items from the Museum of History's collection on display at the exhibition. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation expanded its business globally soon after establishing its headquarters in Hong Kong and went as far as Colombo, the commercial capital of Sri Lanka. The brass balance was used to weigh silver. At the time, foreign-funded banks provided remittance and exchange services in silver and silver and gold coins. HSBC controlled the import and export of silver as well as the silver exchange rate, earning tremendous profits from its sales of silver bars.
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