Date Published:
February 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Quebec Bank

Quebec Bank, a bank founded in 1818 by a number of merchants and residents of the city of Quebec who did not consider the newly-organized Bank of Montreal sufficient for the needs of the province. The bank had an initial capital of £52,000. Its first president was J. W. Woolsey, and its first cashier, Noah Freer. The bank was incorporated in 1822 under a very lax charter and, at first, experienced quiet progress, but Suffered severely in the great revulsion of 1826-7. The paid-up capital of the bank was a million dollars in 1860 and $2,500,000 in 1890. Until a few years before 1916, its operations were confined to the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, principally to Quebec. In 1916 the Quebec Bank was absorbed by the Royal Bank of Canada, which had formerly possessed few branches in the province of Quebec . The 15 branches of the Quebec Bank closed by the Royal were chiefly in western Canada.

Source : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. V, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 401p., p. 205