During the last few years of the Taiping regime there was a great land boom in Shanghai, with which the rubber gamble scarcely could have compared, judged by the following "It was during the last few years of the Taiping regime that the great land boom set in Shanghai. The rubber excitement of the past few months (1910) must have been as child's play compared with that of the early sixties. Then thousand per cent. has been named as the -utmost profit made, and no wonder, for the number of refugees in the British Settlement alone was once estimated at 700,000! General Mesny, in one of the graphic touches for which he is noted, tells how quite ordinary people in those days called, not for their bottle, but for their case of champagne. There was also an immense amount of gambling in dollars. Maclellan says, "Millions of dollars: on paper, were bought and sold every day, and sometimes many times a day." A glance at the business life of the decade will show how from its pinnacle of prosperity Shanghai fell into the depths of despair. On November 21, 1863, Soochow was recovered from the rebels, and on July These two events put a stop to Shang-28, 1864, the Imperialists took Nanking.
hai development. Half a million re-
The Late Mrs. Henry Morriss fugees returned to their abandoned homes or went elsewhere, taking with them the money which, for three or four years they had been spending within the Settlement. The slump began in 1865. It was not arrested by the panic in England due to the failure of Overend, Gurney & Ca., for nearly nineteen millions sterling Shanghai was overwhelmingly British at the time, and failures were the order of the day. Six banks suspended payment; others were badly hit, but the newly-established Hongkong & Shanghai Bank, being free from the entanglements which were fatal to others, and having the confidence both of natives and foreigners stood the strain with complete success. It was said that, after the storm was over The Bund was strewn with distressed business men to such an extent that there was soon one broker for every two hongs. Land on The Bund went down in value to $4,000 a mow. Gas debentures had to offer 12 per cent. and the general condition of the community was of that soured, acidulated, sarcastic nature born of luxury by want."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.