Farmer's Joint Stock Bank

The Farmer's Joint Stock Bank was a bank that operated in Upper Canada, and later in the Province of Canada, from 1834 to 1854.

History[]

Following the 1821 legalization of small notes and bills of exchange in Upper Canada,^[1][2] the Bank was formed in 1834 as a private bank by George Truscott and John Cleveland Green in Toronto, Upper Canada.^[3] Francis Hincks, a journalist and colonial administrator, was invited to become its first cashier.^[a] In 1835, it was taken over by a group of Reformers^[b] and constituted as a joint-stock company called the Farmers' Joint Stock Banking Company by deed of settlement.^[3] The first board of directors appointed John Elmsley, a member of the Family Compact,^[c] to be its first president, which forced Hincks and other Reform investors to leave and found the Bank of the People in December 1835.^[d] When Upper Canada moved in 1837 to restrict the ability of institutions other than incorporated banks to issue their own banknotes, the Bank was exempted.^[7]

A financial crisis that affected Upper Canada in 1837 resulted in a suspension of the Bank's activities for two months at the end of that year.^[8] In 1838, it was barred from issuing banknotes that were not payable on demand.^[9]

Economic conditions, together with poor management and political intrigue, led to a move by the board to wind up the Bank in January 1844,^[10] which was not completed until December 1848 with its sale to new owners.^[10] William Brown Phipps, who had been Manager since 1841, returned to become Manager of the revived Bank in March 1849.^[10] In June 1849, it flooded Toronto and Buffalo with new issues of its banknotes, which were subsequently boycotted by merchants.^[11] It was finally closed in 1854.^[11]

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  $5/25s. note, as valued under the Halifax rating, from 1835

• 

  $5 note issued in 1849 from its Green Bay, Wisconsin office

Sources[]

• "Deed of Settlement of the Farmers' Joint Stock Banking Company" (PDF). torontopubliclibrary.ca. 1835.
• Breckenridge, Roeliff Morton (1895). "The Canadian Banking System, 1817-1890". Publications of the American Economic Association. American Economic Association. 10 (1): 13–476. JSTOR 2560443.
• Ryan, Christopher D. (2004). "William Brown Phipps, Private Banker" (PDF). Canadian Revenue Newsletter. Canadian Revenue Study Group, British North America Philatelic Society (44): 2–3, 6. ISSN 1488-5255.

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• "Value of Old Banknotes from The Farmer's Joint Stock Banking Company in Toronto, Canada". canadacurrency.com. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
• Ormsby, William G. (1982). "Hincks, Sir Francis". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. XI (1881–1890) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
• Pilon, Henri (1976). "Elmsley, John (1801-63)". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. IX (1861–1870) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
• In collaboration (1985). "Truscott, George". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. VIII (1851–1860) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.

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