The first record in Canadian business history of a bank providing a service specifically for miners was in the Caribou district of north-central British Columbia in 1863.
The bank involved was the former Bank of British Columbia which was later taken over by the Canadian Bank of Commerce. The prospectors and miners had migrated northward when the activity brought about by the great California gold rush of 1849 started to subside.
The extent to which banking services were required is revealed in an excerpt of a letter written at the time by British Columbia’s Governor, James Douglas, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He wrote:
“Much anxiety has been expressed by the miners generally upon the subject of banks of deposit, which are greatly needed in every district of British Columbia, the miners only alternative at present being to bury his gold dust for security, which is known to be the general practice in Fraser’s River; but were banks of deposit established, they would willingly pay a monthly percentage on any sums they might deposit.”
The concept of negative interest on bank deposits is foreign to modern day bankers and their customers alike. It is enough to make a banker yearn for the good old days.
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