Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

DEVELOPMENT OF CANADIAN BANKING 433be raised within three years was revoked by the supplementalcharter granted in 1864. By the Deed of Settlement theCourt of Directors was empowered to appoint local committeesof persons, either shareholders or not, and delegateto them powers of inspection and control, with such instructionsas the Court might see fit to give. The Court mightalso purchase, take over, or amalgamate with any other bankor banks, and make payment in shares of the company, providedthe number of shares so issued did not exceed thenumber authorized at the time. The Deed also called forhalf-yearly returns of the operations of the bank, showingthe liabilities and assets, and including the amount of notesin circulation and of coin on hand. By the third supplementarycharter of 1884, which extended the existence of the bankanother ten years, the British Treasury was relieved of thesupervision and control of the bank, as this was now sufficientlyprovided for in the Canadian Bank Act, to which thecharter made the bank subject. In 1894 the charter was againextended to 1901, with an intimation that another renewalwould probably not be forthcoming. The detailed regulationsof the banking operations, which are contained mostly in theDeed of Settlement, covered the usual requirements of soundbanking, and present few features calling for special remark.On its absorption by The Canadian Bank of Commerce, theBank of British Columbia passed out of existence as a separateinstitution.The period from 1866 to 1871 was an anxious, and attimes, a very critical one for the economic interests of BritishNorth America. It covered the abrogation of the ReciprocityTreaty with the United States, the inauguration of Confederation,and the establishment of a new Governmentover the whole of the Dominion, which had to face new problemsof commerce, banking, and finance. Nearly all the bankcharters expired in 1870, and it was necessary for the Governmentto consider what should be its general policy towardsrenewing them. As we have seen, the way had been prepared