NOTES AND QUERIES
VILLAGE CREDIT AT SHEK PIK, 1879 - 1895
119
Shek Pik was a large Cantonese village on Lantau Island. It appears to have been established in the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and in the late nineteenth century was inhabited by about a dozen different clans. At the 1911 Hong Kong Census its recorded population was 363, although for various reasons, it seems likely there were more people living there fifty years before. The village was removed for a reservoir scheme in 1960.
One of the villagers has kindly allowed me to see a few papers which survived the removal. Some of these relate to credit arrangements made by local people in the late nineteenth century. Although their context and meaning is not always clear, some documents appear to have been only aides memoire for the writers; they provide information on this interesting subject. They concern the activities of:
a) several money-loan associations (†);
b) loans made by a business organization belonging to one of the clans, the Chi Wing Shing Tong (祺永盛堂) (AI).
Money Loan Associations
These are described by Dyer Ball in the various editions of his Things Chinese and, with more local application, by G. N. Orme in Appendix E to his "Report on the New Territories, 1899-1912” (see the Hong Kong Government's Sessional Papers for 1912).
A few of the Shek Pik papers directly concern these associations and in others they figure indirectly. For the three money associations for which some details are available, the following facts may be noted:
1. The number of participants was small (16, 13 and 9), although the village was comparatively large.
2. Membership was not restricted to one clan or even to the members of the village. In the thirteen-member association, eleven villagers came from five different clans, and the remaining two members were outsiders. This suggests that the groups were formed on the basis of acquaintance and a mutual and contemporaneous need for funds —
NOTES AND QUERIES
VILLAGE CREDIT AT SHEK PIK, 1879 - 1895
119
Shek Pik was a large Cantonese village on Lantau Island. It appears to have been established in the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and in the late nineteenth century was inhabited by about a dozen different clans. At the 1911 Hong Kong Census its recorded population was 363, although for various reasons, it seems likely there were more people living there fifty years before. The village was removed for a reservoir scheme in 1960.
One of the villagers has kindly allowed me to see a few papers which survived the removal. Some of these relate to credit arrangements made by local people in the late nineteenth century. Although their context and meaning is not always clear some documents appear to have been only aides memoire for the writers they provide information on this interesting subject. They concern the activities of:
a) several money-loan associations (†);
b) loans made by a business organization belonging to one
of the clans, the CHI Wing Shing Tong (AI).
Money Loan Associations
These are described by Dyer Ball in the various editions of his Things Chinese and, with more local application, by G. N. Orme in Appendix E to his "Report on the New Territories, 1899-1912” (see the Hong Kong Government's Sessional Papers for 1912).
A few of the Shek Pik papers directly concern these associa- tions and in others they figure indirectly. For the three moncy associations for which some details are available the following facts may be noted:
1. The number of participants was small (16, 13 and 9),
although the village was comparatively large.
2. Membership was not restricted to one clan or even to the members of the village. In the thirteen-member association eleven villagers came from five different clans, and the remaining two members were outsiders. This suggests that the groups were formed on the basis of acquaintance and a mutual and contemporaneous need for funds —
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.