Banking and Finance Law Commons^™

Private Banknotes In Canada From 1867 (And Before) To 1950, Muharem Kianieff

Law Publications

This article outlines the legal and historical experience of the rise and fall of privately issued paper money in Canada against the backdrop of the development of paper currency in Europe, and it reviews the reasons why the right to issue currency was ultimately transferred from private banks to the Bank of Canada. The article opens with a discussion of the monetary regime that developed in Europe and was imported into Canada well before Confederation. The value of medieval coins was based on the value of the precious metals in them, and fluctuations in the price of those metals led …