Sino-Italian relations told through the archive’s papers of the Banca Italiana per la Cina (1919–1943)

Abstract

Archives in financial institutions can often appear detached from reality, less relevant in reporting political facts and the documents mostly reveal redundant financial details. Yet financial institutions hold reliable primary information and their files contain insights of international historical relevance. Through the analysis of documents kept at the historical archive of the the Italian Bank for China (now in Archivio Storico UniCredit) it is possible to contextualize the bank’s activity in the first half of the twentieth century in relation to historical facts of the first republic, China. In this article, the author unveils how the Banca Italiana per la Cina was involved in financial and political events concerning the Chinese and Italian governments. In the documents and correspondence written by the bank’s management the facts are described with real perception of the situations. They reveal, using reliable sources, significant aspects regarding Sino-Italian relations during that historical period.