Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

68 HISTORY OF THE BANKwith Great Britain in the United States.All contracts madeafter January 1, 1874, on the basis of the old par of exchangewere declared null and void. This enactment resulted in acomplete change in the method of quoting sterling exchange inNew York, the modern method of quoting the pound sterlingby its equivalent in dollars and cents being adopted.Importers had become so accustomed to the old methodthat for months after the adoption of the new system dealerswere obliged to give both old and new quotations. Neverthelessthe new method soon grew in favour and had a very markedeffect in reducing the margin between buyer and seller.Bankers had often great difficulty in explaining that a differenceof one cent in the rate was not a difference of one per cent.,but merely about one-fifth of one per cent. The older methodof quoting sterling persisted in Canada until quite recent daysand has even now not entirely died out in country districts.The Canadian Bank of Commerce was the first bank inCanada to make use of the modern method, adopting it forits bulletin advices to Canadian branches on March 15,1906, and the practice soon became common. Another relic ofcolonial days in New York in 1871 was the law which providedthat, if a sterling bill was protested for non-payment,the bona fide holder had the right to collect from the drawernot only the face value of the bill but damages at the rate often per cent. This law remained in force until 1897, althoughfor many years before its repeal the damages of ten per cent.1were rarely exacted except in cases of fraud.In 1873, the work of improving and enlarging theWelland Canal was in progress, and early in that year thedirectors decided to open a sub-branch at Thorold, underthe supervision of the St. Catharines manager, "partly with aview to cultivating a deposit business during the contemplatedlarge expenditure of public moneys in canal improvements."The office at this point was kept open until May 31, 1897, andwas reopened in October, 1916. In December, 1873, the!J. C. Brown, A Hundred Yearn of Merchant Hanking, p. 283.