During the REBELLIONS OF 1837, the bank annoyed local commercial
interests and, partly as a result, the Commercial Bank of the
Midland District expanded more rapidly in the 1840s. During the
1850s, the bank held the government account, provided
significant short-term capital for railway development and, in
the boom years, recklessly speculated in land and railways. The
bank never recovered from the 1857 economic collapse, losing the
government account in 1864 and entering trusteeship in November
1866. Despite its great contribution to the development of
Canadian commerce, it became a casualty of the very process it
had helped facilitate: the transition from MERCANTILISM to an
industrial economy. Author PETER A. BASKERVILLE