Abstract

The European voyages to the East in the late 15thcentury heralded a large scale of transnational migration waves along the navigation routes. It was different from the previous overland migration and gradually a maritime immigration pattern with a focus on colonization and a global trade system were formed.

The official ban on maritime trade with Southeast Asia was not lifted until the 19thcentury, especially after the Opium War, when the Qing court changed its policy and allowed its subjects to seek fortune in Nanyang. Modern post service and financial institution were not in place at that time. Instead, Qiaopi or Overseas Remittance emerged as a migrant financial invention which fully exhibited the Chinese wisdom. Personal savings, funds as well as family communications as a consequence could be transferred through the transnational Qiaopi channels. While a huge amount of overseas remittance were sent back to home villages in China with the assistance of the Qiaopi sector, more and more overseas Chinese were encouraged to be involved in the globalization activities. For more than one hundred years, collaborated with the transnational service provided by the Qiaopi sector, Chinese migrants in Southeast Asia were actively involved in the regional commerce and financial activities. It is in this sense that the Qiaopi sector could be labeled as one of the key nongovernmental channels linking South China and the rest of the world.

The Qiaopi sector was the rudiment of Chinese modern banks, and it was involved in the international financial market in its capacity of financial pioneer shouldered with a multi-function such as currency, credit and international remittance and exchanges. The Qiaopi sector not only met the needs of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, but also kept developing. A transnational Chinese financial system was thus gradually established with the joint efforts of ethnic Chinese banks and Chinese government funded banks, and together they have been integrated into the global financial network.