 The forced opening of China during the Qing dynasty created a number of treaty ports alongside the China's main waterways and its coastal areas, these treaty ports would fundamentally change both the monetary system of China as well as its banking system, these changes were introduced by the establishment of European and American merchant houses and later banks that would engage in the Chinese money exchange and trade finance.Between the years 1840 and 1900, 1 market tael was worth 1.38 Spanish dollars.Various Western banking companies, the largest of which being the HSBC, and later Japanese banking companies started to begin to accept deposits and they would issue banknotes which were convertible into silver, these banknotes would quickly find favour with the Chinese public that resided in the treaty ports.