Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

DEVELOPMENT OF CANADIAN BANKING 395to impair the capital of the company. The term of the charterended on June 1, 1831, but with an interesting reminiscenceof the attempt to establish a provincial bank in 1808 it wasprovided that if a provincial bank should subsequently beestablished by Act of the legislature, the corporation of theBank of Montreal must be dissolved within seven years. Thisclause and the one limiting the rights of alien stockholderswere inserted by the Legislative Council. There is still noreference to the right of the bank to establish branches,although it actually had a branch at the time. When it wassubsequently proposed, at the time of revising the charter, toprovide for the establishment of branches, the objection wasraised that to specify this power in the Act might imply thatthe bank had not previously the right to exercise it.It willbe observed how slight were the changes made in transferringthe Bank of Montreal from a private corporation to achartered bank by Act of the legislature.Two other banks of Lower Canada, the Quebec Bank andthe Bank of Canada, which as already indicated had beenestablished as private corporations under articles of associationcopied from those of the Bank of Montreal, also receivedcharters from the legislature in 1822. Allowing for differencesin name, location and amount of capital, these charters werevirtually transcripts of that of the Bank of Montreal.In Upper Canada the first bank charter which passed thelegislature and became law was that for the Bank of Kingston. 1This was not simply an incorporation of the private Bank ofUpper Canada, at Kingston, established in 1818, although itwas expected that it would either absorb or supplant it. TheAct was a practical reproduction of the bill to charter the Bankof Montreal. There were necessarily a few variations due tothe differences in amount of capital stock, size of shares,location of bank, and the addition of details regarding theoriginal subscription of the stock and the payments to be madebefore starting business. The directors must all be subjects*59 Geo. mf 1819, c. xv.