The Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society, Hong Kong, established 1910

Our posted article, Joy Fat Construction – Factory Building Pioneer contains this information:

After the War, Joy Fat Hong was involved in import/export of valuable food products such as ginseng and shark fin and over time built up a large business shipping Japanese red ginseng to markets such as Taiwan and Southeast Asia. It was also involved in the lucrative post-War gold trade and was a member of the Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society during its hey days when it had 197 members, 20% of whom were of Chiuchow descent like Chan.

History of CGSE from CGSE’s website: Founded in 1910, the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society (“CGSE”) is the sole exchange in Hong Kong which trades physical gold and silver, and operates in pursuance of section 3 of Chapter 82 of Laws of Hong Kong, under which its operation as a commodity exchange is legally exempted. Run on a membership- based system, CGSE now has 171 Members and is managed by the Executive and Supervisory Committee, which comprises 21 Directors and Supervisors. The mission of CGSE is to provide an exchange, facilities and related services to its Members for transaction of precious metals, such as gold and silver. CGSE trades 99 Tael Gold and Kilobar through an open outcry system; and Loco London Gold / Silver Contract, RMB Kilobar Gold, HK Dollar 999.9 Tael Gold and HK Dollar Loco Silver 1 through “Electronic Trading Platform”. “Transaction Code” is also provided to parties in the transactions.

In order to tie in with the internationalized standards and requirements of precious metal industry, CGSE set up a modernized assay centre – “Hong Kong Precious Metals Assay Centre”, which obtained the qualification of accredited laboratory under “Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme” of the Hong Kong Accreditation Service. Moreover, in order to facilitate the implementation of “Practitioners’ Registration System”, CGSE has conducted course on “Certificate in Gold and Silver Markets” in collaboration with the Hong Kong Securities Institute and published “Study Learning Manual” to enhance practitioners’ professional knowledge about precious metals markets and their integrity.(1)

History of CGSE from Wikipedia: The CGSES was formally established as an organisation in 1910. Its founders were immigrants from mainland China. It eventually stopped trading silver, but gold trading saw significant growth after 1974 when the government loosened legal restrictions, and by 1979 trading volume was roughly one million ounces per day, making it one of the world’s four largest gold trading centres along with London, New York City, and Zurich.(2)