Mar 25 2007
Of Human Bondage
Elaine is my cousin I met thro my research. She lives in Honolulu with her hubby n three grown kids; perhaps is the only one who’s interested in our genealogy. Not long after we began corresponding back in 2004, she excitedly told me that she found a bond that signed by our great great grandfather: a good friend of hers has a chunk of bonds from various nations that is about to auction off early 2005 in London. Out of curiosity, he asked her about few Chinese bonds. There, for the first time she saw the bonds .. .. “He offered to sell me at 10% discount .. will you buy too?” Of course I would. But the prices he offered are bit steep for my taste. So I casually asked around and found an auction house in downtown on Rector Street. They have identical bonds at more attractive price. I didn’t follow the London auction and have since bought few more bonds from this firm in New York.
According to Kuhlmann, this 1907 5% Gold Loan was offered by the HongKong & Shanghai Banking Corp. on behalf of the British & Chinese Corp. in Shanghai at 94% and in London at 100%. The HSBC made £35,000 commission. The loan was for the railway between Canton and Shenzhen … which was the passage way for me to leave for HK back in 1979. Our common ancestor Zhou Fu was the viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. The railway opened in 1911, enabling tourists traveling from