Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

1867 TO 1901 121shareholders that the directors had deferred opening inWinnipeg because of the fluctuating character of the prosperityof the West, but that the growing interests of the bank'seastern customers in that part of Canada made itnecessaryto delay no longer. The report for the year shows that, inaddition to the newly-organized Winnipeg branch, the bankhad forty-nine offices, one in New York, three in Montreal,and the remaining forty-five in the province of Ontario.The period from 1888 to 1892 was one of slow and tediousrecovery from the depression of previous years and fromthe commercial and bank failures that marked the year 1887.In 1888 business was at a low ebb.In the early summer ofthat year, owing to the placing of large loans abroad, thecondition of the Canadian money market changed suddenlyfrom gradually relaxing stringency to great ease. The ratesat which money ^was lent fell very low, and deposits in thebanks increased largely. Early the previous summer, duringthe unsettlement produced by the bank failures of that year,the leading banks had increased the rate of interest paid ondeposits to four per cent, per annum, and they now foundthis rate very burdensome. A rapid rise took place in realestate values in Toronto and other cities, and was accompaniedby active speculation in suburban property. The crops of1889 in Ontario were poor, and the following year businessconditions in the Dominion, as elsewhere, were adverselyaffected by the embarrassment of the London banking houseof Baring Brothers and Company. In spite of easy moneyand low rates the Post Office and the Dominion GovernmentSavings Bank continued to pay four per cent, per annum fordeposits, and the banks were compelled to meet this competitionor to face the danger of losing their deposits. A measure ofrelief was obtained in the autumn when the Dominion Governmentreduced its rate to three and one-half per cent. Therewas little change experienced in the following year. Theharvests were again poor and adverse tariff legislation in theUnited States, and depression in the lumber market, made 1890