Publications and Research

Summer 2004

The Efficiency of Canadian Capital Markets: Some Bank of Canada Research by Scott Hendry and Michael R. King The Evolution of Liquidity in the Market for Government of Canada Bonds by Stacey Anderson and Stéphane Lavoie Canada's Capital Markets: How Do They Measure Up? by Sheryl Kennedy The Canadian Experience with Counterfeiting by John F. Chant See also: Tables A1, A2, and Notes to the Tables Full Review (PDF, 494 kb)

Cover: Promissory Note, 1712

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Canadian merchants used various paper instruments to settle accounts among themselves. Official government issues, like card money, treasury bills, and bills of exchange, were common, but private instruments, such as bank drafts and promissory notes, were used as well. Promissory notes were handwritten promises to pay a sum of money by a specified date to the creditor named in the note. The debtor prepared and signed the document and gave it to the creditor, who kept it until the debt was liquidated, often noting payments received and amounts outstanding on the reverse.

The form of the promissory note was not regulated—any piece of paper at hand would do. Sometimes, the intended method of payment, whether cash or a commodity like beaver skins or wheat, was also indicated.

The example shown on the cover was issued in 1712 at Plaisance (Placentia), Newfoundland, the capital of French territory on the island until the area was ceded to English control following the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. According to the note, a party named Gaulin had borrowed, or received, goods valued at 269 livres, 10 sols, which he promised to pay for by October 1713. The note is made out to the creditors, De Lasson the younger and Dacarrette. The Dacarrette family were well-known entrepreneurs actively engaged in the fishing industry in the early eighteenth century. Michel Dacarrette, one of the most prominent members of the family, was a privateer, a shipowner, and an entrepreneur based at Placentia. He later moved with his brothers to Louisburg on Île Royale (Cape Breton), where he continued operations until he was killed in 1745 during a siege of the fort.

Notations on the face and back of the note indicate that M. Gaulin paid the debt in instalments, using flour valued at a set amount. Flour was an important commodity in New France. In 1711, just one year before this instrument was issued, the governor of New France complained in a letter to the king that returns from the sale of flour were the only source of funds for the colony.

The note measures 28 cm x 16 cm and forms part of the National Currency Collection, Bank of Canada.

Photography by Gord Carter, Ottawa