15/03/2016
【Historic Present of Macau】 March 15, 1909, General Commercial Chamber of China was established. There was no more description of it in Macau chronicle. What was it?
First, it’s not Macau General Commercial Chamber of China, which’s predecessor was founded in 1913 called Macau Commercial Chamber. Second, it didn’t like the one established by Chinese businessmen under the encouragement of the Qing government in early 20th century, which was revoked by Portuguese Macau later. Therefore, the only clue was the General Commercial Chamber of China founded in Kobe, Japan in 1909.
1894 Sino-Japanese war broke out, causing the cancel of consular jurisdiction of two countries. Chinese businessmen in Japan might lose the right of running business in there. Under desperation, they broke barriers of different gangs and established of that Commercial Chamber. In the last decade of Qing Dynasty, due to intense social and economic changes, businessmen desired for an integrated social and economic order and wished to ally themselves. In this situation, plenty of commercial chambers was founded in Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Russia, America, Southeast Asia and other places. Overseas commercial ports where inhabited Chinese businessmen, through their direct or indirect interlocking relationship with China’s coastal ports, became main communication stations for economic transactions circles.
