Overly Sarcastic Productions is one of the better history content video series atm on YouTube, and given the current events it's a good crash-course on Hong Kongnese history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pEvthHlknk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pEvthHlknk)
Yeah. Clipper ships used to dock there. Used to be the silver, came from Mexico/Bolivia across the Pacific to Manila, and from there into the "other Hong Kong" aka Macau. This was to purchase porcelain (China) from Canton. This trade weakened when artificial porcelain was first invented in Dresden Germany, and later mass produced in Delft Holland. And since the British Empire, commercially, was based on the Pound Sterling (240 silver pennies from 750 CE), as in silver 92.5% pure ... Britain needed a lot of it. Not so much fiat cash yet, or Bitcoin. If you need money, you have to dig it out of the ground, or obtain it from those who have it. There was surplus silver in the US by the 1890s (Comstock lode and Aspen) but we simply hoarded it. The Brits had no easy way to pry it out of our hands (until it started to be deleted by WW I, WW II and LBJ in 1965). Britain was also on a gold standard, but only for foreign trade and central bank stability. Domestic trade in GB, India etc was in silver.
PS ... GB still issues ceremonial silver pennies. Maundy money ... 1, 2, 3 and 4 pence silver denominations. Handed out by the British monarch on Maundy Thursday to Christian senior citizens fit to be so honored. The silver three pence was regularly minted until 1945.