Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

CHAPTER IV.1901 TO 1914.The dawn of the twentieth century marked an epoch inthe history of The Canadian Bank of Commerce, for in theyears which immediately followed the opening of the newcentury there took place the transition of the bank from apurely provincial to an all-Canadian institution, with establishmentson both oceans, linked together by many branchesat strategic points in the vast intervening territory. Thehistory of the bank has already been traced from 1867 to 1900,and it has been pointed out that it came into existence at Confederationto meet an urgent need for improved bankingfacilities in the newly-created province of Ontario, and thatits growth kept pace steadily with the expansion of trade andpopulation in that province. The process by which its fieldof action became transcontinental began, as the nineteenthcentury drew to its close, when the business of the Bank ofBritish Columbia was acquired; but this stroke of enterprisestill left not only a blank east of Montreal, but also an enormousgap of prairie country between Winnipeg and the RockyMountains. The first decade of the new century saw thebank reaching out into new fields of usefulness, power andinfluence, and perhaps the most important part which itplayed was in the great drama of western development.About the time that this was beginning, The Canadian Bankof Commerce also made its entry into the Maritime Provincesby acquiring the extensive business of the historic HalifaxBanking Company, which dated from 1825. In 1906, itcompleted its occupation of the Atlantic Coast field by theacquirement of the Merchants Bank of Prince Edward Island,and a few years later the chain was completed by the purchaseof the Eastern Townships Bank in the province of Quebec.