This thesis investigates financial capitalism in Qing China on the periphery and under Western influence, through a study of the 1910–1911 boom and bust in rubber stocks on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE). Shanghai was the main center of Western business in China, and its principal financial hub. The financial system of Qing China was dominated by indigenous banking institutions, namely the qianzhuang and piaohao. Qianzhuang were historically concentrated in Shanghai. Foreign banks were also attracted to Shanghai after this treaty port was opened to foreign trade. The SSE was incorporated by foreign businessmen under British laws in 1905. Amidst a worldwide speculation in rubber, stocks of rubber companies on the SSE, which were all British, became the focus of speculation by Chinese investors in Shanghai. A rapid boom in the prices of rubber stocks on the SSE between January and March 1910 was followed by an equally rapid drop. British rubber companies continued to issue stocks, taking advantage of investors’ over speculation and worsening their losses. A significant amount of Chinese investment in the rubber stock market was leveraged through qianzhuang. The slump in rubber stocks caused a series of qianzhuang bankruptcies in Shanghai and led eventually to a collapse in the Shanghai money market. British banks acted as the backstop to this crisis by providing a substantial amount of loans guaranteed by the Qing government. While the study of this financial bubble reveals the institutional fragility of a peripheral market, the thesis also analyses interactions between Western and Chinese capitalism in the closing years of the Qing Empire.