Then comes the Royal Bank—its head office in Montreal—qualifying it for recognition as a Montreal institution. The great business now controlled by the Royal Bank of Canada had its beginning in Halifax in 1864. According to the “Historical Sketch” of this bank, by J. Castell Hopkins, a co-partnership institution called the Merchants Bank was established that year with J.W. Merkel as president and George Maclean as cashier. In 1869 it was transformed into a joint stock institution, and received a charter under the name Merchants Bank of Halifax. The capital was $300,000, the reserve fund $20,000, and total assets $729,163. In 1887 the bank opened a branch in Montreal, Mr. Edson L. Pease as manager. Since then the bank’s business in this city has rapidly increased. In 1901 the bank’s name was changed to Royal Bank of Canada, as the business had assumed nation-wide proportions. And on March 2, 1907, the head office was transferred from Halifax to Montreal. Mr. Pease had assumed the general management in 1900, and the establishment of the general manager’s office in Montreal dates from that year.
La Banque d’Hochelaga was organized by French-Canadian capitalists, and received its charter in 1873.
The story of Montreal’s banking institutions would be incomplete without a reference to the Montreal City and District Savings Bank. Although it does not belong to the list of chartered banks, the City and District, in the sixty-eight years of its existence, has taken a prominent and very useful part in the financial life of the metropolitan city. It now has fourteen branches in Greater Montreal; and its total resources are well above the thirty million dollar mark.
Also it should be remembered that various other banks, having head offices in other cities, have taken a very important part in the work of developing Montreal on the financial side. This is shown by the record of branch offices operated in the city. According to Houston’s Bank Directory for December, 1914, the banks with head offices in Montreal, and other banks, had branch offices in the city as follows:
BANKS WITH HEAD OFFICES IN MONTREAL
| Offices. | |
| Banque d’Hochelaga (1874) | 28 |
| Bank of Montreal (1817) | 17 |
| Royal Bank of Canada (1869) | 21 |
| Molsons Bank (1855) | 10 |
| Montreal City and District (1846) | 15 |
| La Banque Provinciale (1900) | 12 |
| Merchants Bank of Canada (1864) | 8 |
| Bank of British North America (1836) | 3 |
| — | |
| Total | 114 |
BANKS WITH HEAD OFFICES ELSEWHERE
The Bank of New Brunswick, established in 1820, the oldest of the list, existed until 1913 when it was merged with the Bank of Nova Scotia. The Canadian Bank of Commerce is the most important, the total of its resources having risen to an equality with the resources of the Bank of Montreal, and the number of its branches being considerably greater than the number of Bank of Montreal branches. The Commerce was incorporated originally as the Bank of Canada in 1858. From the beginning of Canadian banking, until a comparatively recent period, the Bank of Montreal occupied a dominating position in regard to the other banks. At Confederation the Bank of Montreal had roundly one-fourth of the total capital of the banks, and more than one-fourth of the total assets.
GROWTH THROUGH ABSORPTION