Background
Mr. Hu was born in Ningpo, Chekiang, China on the 7th of October in 1887.
胡祖同字至嘉
Mr. Hu was born in Ningpo, Chekiang, China on the 7th of October in 1887.
Meng-chia Hu educated at Nanyang University in Shanghai, and Birminghan University in England, graduating from the latter institution with Master of Arts in commerce. Following graduation, he did research work at the University of Manchester.
FoMeng-chia Hu returned to China in 1913 and joined the Chekiang College of Political Science at Hangchow as a professor of economics and concurrently professor of business administration in the Provincial College of Commerce at Hangchow. He was engaged in educational work for seven years and left Hangchow in 1919 to join the National Commercial Bank of Shanghai as a sub-manager and later as chief of the Credit Information Department.
In 1920 he joined the Bank of Communications as assistant chief of the Foreign Exchange Department of the Head Office of the Bank. In 1922 he became sub-manager of the Shanghai Branch of the Bank and in this capacity, he instituted reforms in the working of the Bank, introduced up-to-date methods and inaugurated new policies in the banking operations. In recognition of his services, he was promoted manager of the Shanghai Branch of the Bank in 1927.
During the Nationalist Advance from Kwangtung to the Yangtsze Valley in that year which resulted in the overthrow of the Peking Government, he successfully maneuvered his bank through the crisis with great credit in the autumn of 1928, a new charter was obtained from the National Government at Nanking granting the Bank of Communications the privileges of an industrial bank; following the reorganization of the Bank's Administration, he was appointed general manager.
In April, 1933, he was transferred to the Central Bank of China as general manager of the Treasury Department, which post he has since held, and at the same time, was elected to the Board of Directors of the Bank of Communications, councillor of the Shanghai Municipal Council in 1930 and re-elected in 1932. He held concurrently the following positions: director of the China Development Bank, director of the Shanghai Municipal Bank, director of the Shanghai College of Law, director of the Great China University, supervisor of the China State Bank, executive officer of the Shanghai Bankers' Association, Chinese member of the Association of Shanghai Banks, member of the Standing Committee of the Joint Reserve Board of the Shanghai Bankers' Association, and director of the Ningpo Cotton Exchange, and general manager of the Industrial Bank of China.
