Xu Xinliu

Name in Chinese
徐新六
Name in Wade-Giles
Hsü Hsin-liu
Related People

Biography in English

Hsü Hsin-liu (1890-24 August 1938), banker, used Western banking methods to transform the conservative National Commercial Bank of Shanghai into one of the three leading commercial banks in that city. As the bank's general manager (1925-38), he also helped to form the Tai-shan Insurance Company. The son of a prominent classical scholar who was an official of the Commercial Press at Shanghai, Hsü Hsin-liu was born into aVi affluent family in Hangchow. His native place was Yühang, Chekiang. A precocious child, he reportedly was adept at literary composition at the age of 1 1 sui. After being graduated from the Yangcheng School in Hangchow, he spent six years in Shanghai at the Nanyang kung-hsueh, the institution which later became Chiaotung University. Hsü Hsin-liu received a Chekiang government scholarship for advanced study in Europe. After arriving in England in 1908, he took a four-year course in metallurgy at Birmingham University and received a B.Sc. degree in 1912. He read economics at the Victoria University of Manchester, where he received a B.A. degree in 1913, and then went to France to study public finance at the Ecole des Sciences Politiques. After returning to China in 1914 and passing the competitive examination for senior civil servants, Hsü was assigned to the ministry of finance at Peking. He also held a teaching post at Peking University. When Liang Ch'ich'ao (q.v.) was named minister of finance in the summer of 1917, Hsü entered his service as an assistant. At that time, Liang was concentrating on the problem of currency reform. However, public opinion was against him, and he resigned in November of 1 9 1 7. Hsü Hsin-liu left government service at the same time and joined the staflTof the Bank of China. He served as assistant treasurer and later as assistant manager of the bank's branch office at Peking. For a time, he also served as chief accountant of the Han-yeh-p'ing Company at Hankow. Liang Ch'i-ch'ao emerged from retirement shortly after the end of the First World War and took an extended trip to Europe to acquaint himself with conditions in the West, traveling in the capacity of an unofficial delegate to the Paris Peace Conference. Hsü Hsin-liu was invited to become a member of Liang's entourage, which also included Carsun Chang (Chang Chia-sen), V. K. Ting (Ting Wen-chiang), and Chiang Fang-chen (qq.v.). After the group arrived in France, Hsü was appointed a member of the Chinese delegation on the reparations committee of the Paris Peace Conference. On his return from Europe, Hsü Hsin-liu began his long association with the National Commercial Bank of Shanghai. The bank had been founded by the Chekiang Railway Company in 1907, with its head office at Hangchow. After the inauguration of the republic in 1912, the railway company had been nationalized and the bank had been reorganized as a private enterprise. By 1918 the bank's capital had grown from CNS250 thousand to CNSl million. Yeh Ching-kuei, who had been superintendent of the Ta Ch'ing Bank, was its general manager. To compete more efficiently with such modern banks as the Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank and the National Industrial Bank of China, both of which were managed by men who had received Western training, the directors of the National Commercial Bank decided to obtain Hsü Hsin-liu's services as secretary of the board of directors. He served as assistant general manager of the bank from 1923 to 1925 and as general manager from 1925 until his death in 1938.

Hsü instituted important reforms in the operations of the National Commercial Bank. New men were hired to train the staff, and new business methods were adopted to expand the bank's operations. Hsü favored gradual streamlining rather than drastic reform. By 1929 the bank had set up an independent savings department, with separate capital and unlimited responsibility to depositors. A year later, a realty and trust department was launched, also with separate capital. In 1932 the National Commercial Bank, collaborating with C. V. Starr and Company, an American insurance company, formed the Tai-shan Insurance Company (capitalized at CNSl million) to engage in life, fire^ and casualty insurance business. By 1931 the National Commercial Bank had increased its capital to CNS4 million. The bank had become one of the three most prominent commercial banks in Shanghai, the other two being the Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank and the National Industrial Bank of China. Hsü Hsin-liu also served as a member of the board of directors of the Shanghai Municipal Bank, the China Times {Shih-shih hsinpaoj, and the China Press of Shanghai. During Hsü Hsin-liu's long career in Shanghai, he also played an active role in public affairs. He was particularly concerned with furthering the interests of the Chinese residents of the International Settlement. The Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC), which was dominated by its British and American members, administered the International Settlement. Representing the Chinese Ratepayers Association of Shanghai, Hsü began to participate in the work of the SMC after the First World War. When a post for a Chinese member was created on the SMC, Hsü Hsin-liu was elected to it by the Ratepayers Association. He served on the council for a decade, during which he worked consistently to protect the interests of his Chinese fellow citizens and to support Sino-W'estern cooperation in Shanghai. In 1936 the SMC appointed Hsü chairman of its library committee. He was the first Chinese to hold a chairmanship in the council. Through the years, Hsü Hsin-liu often had been asked by the National Government to undertake official assignments involving financial matters. He had declined all such offers, though he expressed his opinions to the government authorities when consulted. In the summer of 1938, when the Japanese were concentrating their military operations against the Wuhan cities, the problem of foreign assistance to China became critical. The only significant aid that China had received from friendly governments in the first year of the war came from the Soviet Union, which gave credits and "volunteers," and from the United States, which undertook the purchase of Chinese silver. At the end ofJuly 1938 word was received from the United States that Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. had indicated that, although he could make no promises, it might be well for China to send K. P. Ch'en (Ch'en Kuang-fu, q.v.) to Washington to investigate the possibility of obtaining American credits. Hsü Hsin-liu was made a member of the Chinese delegation, and the National Government considered sending Hsü as chief representative instead of K. P. Ch'en because of Ch'en's uncertain health. Hsü, who was then in Hong Kong, was summoned to Chungking for urgent consultation with H. H. K'ung, the minister of finance. He left Hong Kong on the regular commercial flight of the China National Aviation Corporation passenger plane Kweilin on 24 August 1938. One of the other passengers was the banker Hu Yun. The plane never reached its destination. It was intercepted and shot down by Japanese military aircraft. As a war casualty, Hsü Hsin-liu was honored by the National Government. The Times of London eulogized him as "a great gentleman," and Mr. Arthur N. Young, then financial adviser to the Chinese government, described him as "a man of high character and ability and a real patriot."

Biography in Chinese

徐新六
字:振飞
徐新六(1890—1938.8),银行家,他运用西方的银行经营方法,把老式的上海浙江兴业银行改变为上海三大商业银行之一。徐任该行总经理,并帮助创办了泰山保险公司。
徐新六是一位在上海商务印书馆当高级职员的卓越旧学者的儿子,出生在杭州的一个富裕家庭,原籍浙江余杭。他自幼颖悟,十一岁即有文名。他在杭州养正学校毕业后,去上海南洋公学读书六年,该校后来改成交通大学。
徐新六获得浙江省公费去欧洲留学。1908年他到英国后,在伯明翰大学学冶金四年,1912年获科学学士学位。又在曼彻斯特市的维多利亚大学学经济学,1913年获文学硕士学位。以后又去法国巴黎政治学院学国家财政。
1914年回国,经高等文官考试录取后,分配到财政部工作。同时他还在北京大学任教。1917年夏,梁启超任财政总长,徐新六是他的助理。当时梁致力于币制改革,但公众舆论反对,乃于1917年11月辞职。徐新六亦随之离职而进了中国银行,任金库部副主任,后又任中国银行北京支行协理。一度任汉口汉冶萍公司总会计。
梁启超于第一次世界大战结束后不久再度出山,他以巴黎和会非正式代表身份,遍游欧洲各地,了解西方情势。徐新六被邀作为随员,其他还有张君劢、丁文江、蒋方震等人。一行人到法国时,徐新六被任命为巴黎和会赔款委员的中国代表。
徐新六由欧洲回国后,开始他在上海浙江兴业银行的长期工作,该行原由浙江铁路公司于1907年创办,总行设在杭州。1912年民国成立后,铁路公司收归国有,而银行则改为私营。1918年该行资金由二十五万元增加为一百万元,原大清银行总裁叶景暌任经理,为了和受过西方训练用现代方法经营业务的上海商业储蓄银行、中国实业银行这些现代化银行竞争,这两家银行都有受过西方训练的人经营,浙江兴业银行聘徐新六为董事会秘书。徐于1923—1925年任该行副总经理,1925年任该行总经理直到1938年他死去。
徐新六对兴业银行进行了重要改革,雇用新人以训练原有职工,采用新的经营方式发展银行业务。徐新六主张精简机构提高效率,而不主张剧烈的改变。1929年前后,成立了独立的储蓄部,拥有单独资金,对储户负无限责任。一年后,又设立房地产信托部,也同样拥有单独资金。1932年,兴业银行和美商斯达莱公司合作,开办泰山保险公司,资金一百万元,经营人寿、水火、灾害等保险行业。1931年时,浙江兴业银行资金已增至四百万元,与上海商业储蓄银行、中国实业银行成为上海三大商业银行。徐新六同时充任上海市银行、《时事新报》、《大陆报》的董事。
徐新六在上海的多年经历中还积极从事公众事务。他特别关心公共租界内中国人的利益。上海市工部局,原由英美人员把持,管理公共租界,徐新六代表中国纳税人协会,自第一次世界大战后就参加了上海工部局的工作。当工部局设有中国人席位时,徐新六即由纳税人会议推举充任。他在这个职位上工作了十年,一贯致力于保护中国市民的权益、并赞助上海中外人士的合作。1936年,工部局任命他为图书馆委员会主席,他是工部局担任主席的第一个中国人。
多年来,国民政府常邀他出任有关财政的职务,都被他谢绝,但政府当局有所谘询时,他就提出他的看法。1938年夏,日军集中军力进攻武汉,争取外援成为当时的重要问题。战争第一年中来自友好政府最重要的对华援助是苏联:给予贷款、派出“志愿军”,还有美国采取收购白银来加以援助。1938年7月底,美国财政部长摩根索告知中国说,他虽不能作出任何许诺,但如派陈光甫来华盛顿了解一下取得美国援助的可能性对中国可能有些好处。徐新六是代表团成员之一。国民政府考虑到陈光甫身体不好,准备以徐新六为首席代表。那时他正在香港,被召去重庆备财政部长孔祥熙的紧急諮询。徐新六于1938年8月24日乘香港到桂林中国航空公司的班机,同机还有另一名银行家胡筠。但这次班机为日军用飞机击坠,始终未能达到目的地。国民政府给他以阵亡烈士的称号。《泰晤士报》赞扬他是“一个伟大的君子”,中国政府的财政顾问杨格称他“品学高超,赤心爱国”。

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