Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

424 HISTORY OF THE BANKVery few innovations of any importance were introducedinto Canadian banking between 1861 and Confederation,although a considerable volume of banking legislation wasMost of it dealt with the establishment of new bankspassed.on already existing lines, or with amendments to chartersincreasing or reducing the capital stock, or granting extensionsof time, especially for the subscription and payment of shares.In 1863 the Acts of incorporation of several banks which had1become insolvent and had ceased operations, were repealed.The difficulties into which some of the older banks had fallenled in the case of the Bank of Upper Canada to several amendmentsof its charter in order to afford temporary relief. Inan Act of 1862, reducing the capital of that bank, 2 amongother things, it was provided that stockholders were not tobe allowed to transfer their shares before their debts to thebank were paid. This, which was already a standard provisionin the Maritime Provinces, became general in subsequentCanadian charters.Before dealing with the first banking legislation of theDominion, it is necessary to refer to the development ofbanking legislationConfederation the banks inin the Maritime Provinces. Soon afterthese provinces came under theprovisions of the general Bank Act for the Dominion.The first bank to be established in the Maritime Provinceswas the Bank of New Brunswick, which received its charterin 1820. 3 The charter conferred on the president and directorsof the company the power to make such laws and ordinancesfor the good government of the corporation as were not contraryto the laws of England or of the province. The capital stock,in shares of fifty pounds each, was fixed at 50,000 in currentgold or silver coins, one half to be paid in in specie within sixmonths of the granting of the charter, and the remainder*By 27 Viet., 1863, c. xlv. This Act applied to the Colonial Bank of Canada, theInternational Bank of Canada, the Clifton Bank, formerly the Zimmerman Bank,And the Western Bank of Canada.25 Viet., 1862, c. Ixiii.HJO Geo. Ill, N.B., 1820. c. xiii.