Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

DEVELOPMENT OF CANADIAN BANKING 391attitude of the British public towards their own monetaryaffairs, rather than on the danger or safety of the particularcolonial measure or practice. Neither the banks nor thecolonial Governments took very kindly to these evidencesof paternal solicitude for their welfare. Nevertheless, not afew features hi the Canadian banking system owe theirinclusion to the insistence of the Home Government on certainrequirements as a condition of obtaining the Royal sanctionfor the provincial legislationon the subject.In the articles of association of the Montreal Bank thefollowing are the leading features. The bank began as aprivate corporation with an authorized capital of 250,000currency, 1 equivalent to $1,000,000. The shares were for 50each, and the shareholders might be either individuals orcorporations. Only twenty shares could be subscribed for inthe first instance, but subscriptions might be doubled if thewhole capital stock were not subscribed within three months.Fifty shares, however, constituted the limit of subscriptionby any individual or corporation. The object was, of course,to permit and encourage as broad a basis as possible forthe ownership of the shares, without unduly restrictingthe supply of capital. As soon as the bank should be infull operation there was to be no limit to the purchase or saleof shares, but all transfers of stock had to be registered on thebooks of the company. The subscriptions were to be paid ingold or silver coins current in the province. What these coinswere could be ascertained by a reference to the list of coinsgiven in the Currency Act. A limit was set for the amountof any one instalment on the shares, and for the intervalbetween calls. When 5,000 had been received from thedeposits of ten per cent, accompanying the subscriptions forstock, a meeting might be called for the election of directorsfor the first year, and when 25,000 in gold or silver had beenpaid in, the bank might open its doors for the discounting ofbills and the issue of notes.Halifax currency. See Vol. 1. p. 4.