Manitoba as I saw it, from 1869 to date : with flash-lights on the first Riel Rebellion . o, however, and early in the seventies the needof more extensive banking facilities began tobe felt. Mr. Alex. McMicken, who is still a leadingcitizen of Winnipeg, was the first to open anoffice devoted wholly to banking. In a buildingformerly occupied by the Hudson Bay Com-pany, about what is now the corner of Portageavenue and Fort street, he established a busi-ness that for a considerable time afforded allthe facilities that were at the time required bythe rapidly growing population. It was in Sep-temb
Manitoba as I saw it, from 1869 to date : with flash-lights on the first Riel Rebellion . o, however, and early in the seventies the needof more extensive banking facilities began tobe felt. Mr. Alex. McMicken, who is still a leadingcitizen of Winnipeg, was the first to open anoffice devoted wholly to banking. In a buildingformerly occupied by the Hudson Bay Com-pany, about what is now the corner of Portageavenue and Fort street, he established a busi-ness that for a considerable time afforded allthe facilities that were at the time required bythe rapidly growing population. It was in Sep-tember, 1871, that the convenience of issuingcheques first became known to Winnipegers,and so well was the business managed that in avery short time all the banking of the futurecity was in Mr. McMickens hands. The first chartered bank in Winnipeg wasthe Merchants Bank of Canada, which, underthe management of the late Mr, Duncan Mac-Arthur, in December, 1872, opened an officenearly opposite the building till recently occu-pied as the Post Office. The premises were most unpretentious, con-. ALEXANDER McMICKEN The Hudson Bay Company. 137 sisting of a very ordinary frame building, withrooms for the manager in the upper story, novault, and very insufficient accommodation forthe clerks. Such as they were, however, theysufficed for several years to supply all the wantsof the people. No single fact shows more clearly the gi-gantic strides that the Canadian West hasmade than the development of banking businessin Winnipeg. In 1871 one branch of a charteredbank in a wretched shack on Main street, to-gether with a private banker, supplied all thebanking facilities required for not only the Cityof Winnipeg but for the whole of the North-west. To-day a line of palatial buildings onMain street house the institutions that, aidedby hundreds of branches through the Province,keep a staff of employees many times morenumerous than the whole population of Winni-peg in 1872, busy in supplying the needs
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