Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

DEVELOPMENT OF CANADIAN BANKING 431name of the manager or of a local director; otherwise, at thisperiod, "by law all the proprietors or shareholders for the timebeing of the said company ought .... to sue and be sued, andprosecute by their several distinct names." The province ofNova Scotia took the opportunity afforded it by this legislationto bring the bank under certain provincial regulationsas to note issue. In 1847, when the charter of the Bank ofNova Scotia was1renewed, a new and more detailed form wasprescribed for its statement of liabilities and resources, whichresembled that in use by the Bank of Montreal. No otherchanges of importance occurred until after Confederation.A Royal charter granted to the Bank of British Columbiain 1862, and renewed with amendments from time to timeuntil 1901, when the bank was taken over by The CanadianBank of Commerce, contributed rather unique features to thelegal history of Canadian banking. The bank was establishedto meet the exceptional conditions that prevailed during thegold-mining boom in British Columbia, at that time verysparsely settled, and deprived of any connection with theeastern provinces of British North America. Of necessity,therefore, the bank originally depended upon the HomeGovernment for its legal sanction and the supervision of itsoperations. The original subscribed capital was 250,000,but the Deed of Settlement, reflecting as it did the optimisticconception of the possibilities of gold mining in BritishColumbia, provided for a possible expansion of the capitalwithin the period of twenty-one years which constituted thelife of the charter to 2,000,000 sterling, an amount beyondthe dreams of any Canadian bank of the period.To a much greater extent than the Bank of British NorthAmerica, the Bank of British Columbia was an institutionnative to Great Britain, deriving no capital from its field ofoperation. Its head office was in London, from which it wascontrolled by a Board or Court of Directors. They had powerto establish branches in British Columbia and Vancouver'sUO Viet, N.S.. 1847, c. Ivii.