Alexander Allan Shand
Alexander Allan Shand (11 February 1844 - 12 April 1930) was a British banker most known for his work in the development of accountacy and early proposal of a central bank in the Japanese banking system during the meiji period. Biography. Shand was born in the town of Turriff to James Shand the surgeon, and Margaret Allan. Shand began work first in a Scottish bank in 1859, moving onto London to the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China, which obliged him to move to Hong Kong in 1863. In 1864 he was promoted to a managerial  position and moved again to Yokohama where he also hired Takahashi Korekiyo as an assistant. In about 1870 Alexander Shand married Emmeline Christmas (d.1913), who gave birth to twins in 1871, totalling 8 children (Margaret, Helen, Ida, Winifred, Norman, Evan, and Hubert). In August 1872 he was given a position as an Oyatoi in the Japanese Ministry of Finance as a financial advisor, which aspects such as Double-entry bookkeeping were incorporated into the 1872 National Bank Act, which became important later on for Japanese commercial and industrial operations. Here his work Ginkobokiseiho or "Detailed Accounts of Bank Book-Keeping