The Deutsche Bank was founded to accomplish the task of foreign trade financing in 1870. The Shanghai and Yokohama branches were opened in 1872 to start the Deutsche Bank's business in East Asia. But, because one of the jobs of the Deutsche Bank was to sell to a large amount of silver, a good portion of which was part of the silver stock held by the German Government, both Asian branches were closed in 1875 with large currency losses by the fall of the price of silver.
After the Deutsche Bank's withdrawal from East Asia, the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank was founded in 1889 to secure opportunities for Germany to make commitments in East Asia. The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank was a joint institution of the large German banks under the leading role of the Disconto-Gesellschaft, however, the founding of the Bank was an arduous process. The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank's head office was established in Shanghai, and branches were opened in not only China but also in major Asian areas and Germany.
In this paper, the development and the peculiarities of the Deutsche Bank and the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank are analyzed using their financial statements. The analysis focused on the original financial statements (the balance sheet and the profit and loss statement) of 1906, a relatively stable business year in the history of the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank. Those statements which were accidentally found to still exist in the Historical Archive of the Deutche Bank included an entry of all titles of the accounts of the head office and all branch offices that reflected the whole activity of the Bank.
At first, those documents are explained for their characteristics and composition. Next, the titles of the accounts of each branch office are placed together and consolidated. And then the fi nancial statements of each branch office are rearranged to match the the original financial statements of 1906. Through this procedure The Synthesis Balance Sheet and The Synthesis Profit and Loss Statement are made.
With these synthesized financial statements, the financial situation of the Shanghai head offi ce and each branch are clarifi ed, in addition to the tendencies of the internal transaction relations between all of the branch offices.