In 1909, the State Department prodded a reluctant Wall Street to undertake Chinese business. A consortium of British, French, and German banks had nearly completed negotiations for a $25-million loan for the Hukuang Railway, which ran from Shanghai to Canton. Much to the European’s dismay, the State Department demanded an equal share for U.S. bankers. As Herbert Croly wrote, “The majority of these bankers had gone into the Group not because they were seeking Chinese investments but in order to oblige the administration.”
