Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

408 HISTORY OF THE BANKbe a branch of the bank, bound by all the stipulationsgoverning the issue and redemption of notes. This also was aconcession to the Treasury requirements, the practical difficultiesbeing overcome by having all the notes signed anddated at the head office. The section providing that thesuspension of specie payment for sixty days in any one yearshould involve forfeiture of the charter is another case ofcompliance with the British requirements. The total amountof notes payable on demand which might be issued was not toexceed the amount of the paid-up capital, while the amountof notes under one pound currency was not to exceed onefifthof the paid-up capital, and no notes under five shillings,or one dollar, were to be issued. The legislature also reservedto itself the right of placing a further limitation on the noteissue at any future time. This had reference to the desireof the Home Government and of a certain element in Canadathat one pound currency, or four dollars, should be theminimum denomination of the notes issued by the banks.This, it may be remarked, was the minimum adopted by theBank of British North America at the time of its going into1operation in 1838. The total debts of the bank were not toexceed three times the capital stock paid in, over and abovethe deposits made in specie and the government securitiesheld. The reference to government securities is a new featureand marks the beginning of a series of attempts to makethe expanding monetary requirements of the country servethe financial needs of the Government at critical periods.The detailed returns required by the Government from thebank were entirely recast, evidently also in response tothe suggestions of the British Treasury. The returnswere henceforth to be compiled monthly and sent in to theGovernment semi-annually. The nature of the informationrequired is shown in tabular form in schedule B of the Act,as follows:'In the Maritime Provinces the legal minimum was higher than in Canada (seepage 480).