This book provides a brief history on how foreign debt has shaped and influenced the development of China in the past 170 years, discussing both government and non-government debt. In modern China, especially after the first Sino-Japanese War, the foreign debt problem was a huge burden and influenced China's approach to finance, the economy, politics, and diplomacy. The book examines this and also looks at the deeper historical influences of foreign debt on China. Today, there is an argument that lending to China was the means for foreign capitalists and imperialists to enslave China, to export capital to China, and to vie for spheres of influence. However, the book examines how governments of old China colluded with foreign capital to serve their own ends and finance their own often misguided policies. For those who are interested in the history of finance in China and the rise of China, the book provides an understanding of a phenomenon that has helped shape China since the 19th century. (Series: Economic History in China)