A bank for insiders: the Moscow branch of the Russo-Chinese bank in 1897-1899

The article analyses the customer network of the Moscow branch of the Russian-Chinese Bank at in the end of the 1890s. The bank has previously been studied from the perspective of Russian political and economic expansion in the Far East. However, the Far East transactions played a secondary role in the Moscow branch operations, although the financial integration of Moscow and Asian markets considerably grew after the opening of the Moscow branch. At the same time, the largest part of the new branch's lending went to a powerful group of textile enterprises, mainly from the Moscow region, headed by the firm «L. Knoop», which was associated with the bank via interlocking directorates, and therefore there was a classic case of insider lending. The Moscow branch's customers included the largest Russian banks and joint-stock enterprises, some of which were established in the upturn of the 1890s, having close ties with foreign capital, with the St. Petersburg stock and with banking markets; unfortunately, however, some of these banks and companies appeared rather unstable during the crisis in 1899-1903.