The silver standard was again adopted and codified in 1914 by the newly established republic, with one yuan still being equal to 0.72 tael of 900 fineness silver. After the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) unified the country in 1928, the yuan was again announced as the standard unit in 1933, but this time the relationship of the yuan to the tael was abolished, as one yuan was now equal to 26.6971 grams of 880 fineness silver. In the same year, 1933, while most of the Western countries (especially Britain and USA) had left the gold standard because of the Great Depression, it was said that China almost avoided the depression entirely, mainly due to having stuck to the silver standard. However, the US silver purchase act of 1934 created an intolerable demand on China's silver coins, and so in the end the silver standard was officially abandoned in September 1935 in favor of the four Chinese national banks' "legal note" issues. China would be the last to abandon the silver standard, along with the British crown colony of Hong Kong.