De La Rue was founded by Thomas De La Rue in 1813 in Guernsey, where he helped print a small paper called Le Miroir Politique. He eventually moved his business to London where he printed playing cards. The company continued to expand for the next few decades as they printed stamps for the British colonies. Finally, in 1860, DLR entered the banknote business and printed its first banknotes for Mauritius. The company designed and printed banknotes for 150 countries, including China in 1930s. For more than 200 years, the company has grown and bought out many of its competitors including Harrison & Sons, Bradbury Wilkinson & Company, and Waterlow & Sons.
From 1930 to 1948, China was DLR’s largest customer.
The first order received by De La Rue was for 400 million notes and the price was very good. Initially, the company’s China representative Albert Avramow, a young and shrewd Jewish businessman, phoned Bernard Westall, DLR’s Executive Vice-President, asking if the company would accept payment in US dollars. DLR first rejected it, but as the Chinese government at the time had more dollars than pounds in foreign reserve and insisted on payment in dollars, De La Rue reluctantly accepted. Luckily the pound suddenly depreciated sharply against the dollar and DLR's contract price automatically rose by 18%, and even fatter cheque for both the company and its China representative.
Around 1934, DLR’s Chairman wanted to fire Avramow, but Westall insisted on keeping him. It seemed he worked very well with the Chinese. He soon secured a deal for millions of Bank of Communications notes. There was an urgent need for large quantities of banknotes in China, Avramow was sent to China again to negotiate with the Farmers Bank and the Bank of China.
The first shipment of the Bank of China notes was hijacked by pirates between Shanghai and Tianjin, all the passengers was forced off the ship. Fortunately the banknotes printed by De La Rue and not yet in circulation were safe and sound, otherwise the company would have to reprint them in a different colour.
When he learned that the Central Bank needed a large quantity of banknotes, Avramow approached H.H. Kung, China’s Minister of Finance (an influential politician, central banker and finance minister for the Nationalist government, he married the elder Soong sister Ai-Ling, the other two sisters married Dr. Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek). One day Westall received a call from Avramow and urged him to go to China immediately, he refused and Avramow flew to London insisting that he had to come back to China with him. The potential order was a 90 million notes intaglio in three colours, Westall agreed to go to Chongqing with him.
They wanted the contract so badly… Westall waited outside the church on Sunday, it was Ai-Ling’s birthday, he presented a very expensive of jade necklace as a birthdate gift to Ai-Ling.
When the two men visited H.H. Kung, he was distancing himself. Knowing that something was wrong, Westall asked Kung when they were alone. Kung returned the necklace and added, “You have come a long way, but your company’s conduct is unacceptable (bribery)…”
Westall was a smart guy and very quick to respond, he immediately pointed out that Avramow was Jewish and used to such dealings, and it was the norm in the East for centuries. He was surprised and so impressed that the Chinese finance minister was now so “ethical and uncorrupted". Kung was flattered and agreed that the order for Chinese banknotes to be split between DLR, Waterlow and the American Banknote Company. So corruption didn’t work, but flattery did…
The Americans didn’t like to share the contract with the Brits, they wanted it all. They told Kung that there’s no way DLR would fulfil the contract and deliver on time. Kung asked Westall if he was sure that the company would be able to meet the deadline, and if he would accept a fine of £100 per day for any delay. Westall replied: "If we cannot meet the deadline, DLR will pay £1,000 per day!”
News came back to the company, there was a lot of doubts on DLR’s capacity. When Westall returned to the UK, he placed orders with the plate makers, doubled the price and asked suppliers to cut 2/3 of the delivery time. And they did.
This is where the staff's dedication came into play and the company was able to finish printing five days before the deadline, but still the sheets needed to be cut, counted and packed. The female workers worked overnight, though it was illegal. Office staff were there too, as well as all senior executives, including all the executive directors, unshaven and with their sleeves rolled up, packing. The work finally finished on Friday evening in time for the shipment that left the port of London the following day. This uplifting story has been repeated many times among DLRers…
As a result, Kung invited Westall to China to discuss future plans. Westhoff had an interview with the Straits Times in Singapore, when the ship docked for two days. The next day’s headline with a full page article - "China prints millions of new banknotes”. A disaster…
On his arrival in Shanghai, Westall was summoned by Kung, who threw a copy of the South China Daily News on his desk. "You've let the whole world know we're inflating, and you're responsible for cleaning up the mess!" Westall immediately flew to HK and went to the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, he asked for a correction, the editor refused. But the paper agreed to publish a feature on Chinese banknotes, which mentioned the DLR order, but stressed that the purpose of printing the new notes was to replace the old ones, claiming it was Kung’s decision to protect the Chinese people from the old, unsanitary and easily forged notes. After the paper was printed, Westall flew back to Shanghai with a copy, and went to Kung immediately. Kung was very happy and he hosted a big dinner that evening. Talking about crisis management…
In May 1937, the British invited Chiang Kai-shek to the coronation of King George VI and Chiang appointed Kung to represent him. Westall and DLR offered assistance. Kung hinted that he would discuss follow-up orders during his visit to the UK. When Kong arrived in the UK, he was delighted to see his pictures and reports in the newspapers and magazines. He visited the company the following day. He then proposed to commission 800 million bank notes from the four major banks if the original price could be maintained. He asked Westall to come to the hotel he was staying the next day for further discussion.
When Westall entered his suite at 8am the following morning, Kong stared at him and angrily told him to sit down. After a brief and embarrassing silence, Westhoff saw Kong's perverse side when Kong angrily scolded Wei for calling from Shanghai to tell him that the new Denarro banknotes that had arrived were missing a large number: "How can I trust you when the numbers are wrong and the packaging and bundling do not match the quantity?" And again, "The American Banknote Company never makes mistakes!" He waved his arms in anger, knocking milk all over his trousers. Wei went to the bathroom first to get a towel for Kong to clean up, and in a softer tone asked Kong to finish his breakfast first and talk about other miscellaneous matters until Kong was calmer.
After waiting until after 9 o'clock, Wiswall suggested that Kong call the manager of the Bank of England's printing department and ask him point blank if there were any mistakes in the Bank of England's banknote issuance operations, to which he received the reply, "As long as the printing and inspection of banknotes are done by hand, mistakes are inevitable." Kong put down the receiver with a smile and said that it was clear that the American Banknote Company employed no human beings. "It is possible", Weiswold continued, "that there may be something too human in your central bank?" Kong laughed at this and when the meeting was over, Denarro had been awarded a contract totalling almost £3 million, the largest order ever placed by the company at the time.
In March 1939, Westall went to Chongqing and agreed with Kung that DLR would set up a print work in Shanghai. A factory was secretly built in the French concession of Shanghai with a backup plant constructed in Rangoon, Burma. When France fell, De La Rue succeeded in moving its operations to Rangoon, and when Rangoon fell, to Bombay, India. To hide it from the Japanese checkpoints, equipments and materials were smuggled out of Shanghai disguised as tools for making playing cards.