This paper examines debt and credit in Qing Mongolia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through a case study of Prince Wutai (烏泰) from the Jasaght banner (扎薩克圖旗) in Inner Mongolia. Through Wutai's case in the early 20th century, it examines how changes in Mongolian – Chinese lending were connected to the intertwined politics of land reclamation (開墾) and Russian expansion into Mongolia and Manchuria. Concerns over economic sovereignty (利權) brought Mongolian debt to the attention of of officials in Beijing, resulting in the transfer of Mongolian debt from Beijing- and Shanxi-based firms to the Great Qing Bank (大清銀行). The paper argues that in China's borderlands, in which many non-Han subjects were not legislated as economic actors, specific cases and their unintended outcomes must be examined alongside more commonly-read legal codes in order to understand the delineation of "public" (公) and "private" (私) economic transactions.