| 242 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE
Caton, John O'Donnell (directors); Samuel Sterrett, John and
Andrew Ellicott, Thorogood Smith (later mayor of Baltimore),
James Calhoun, (first mayor), John Eager Howard, and Charles
Carroll of Carrollton.2'3 Almost immediately the Bank began
declaring an average dividend of twelve per cent a year which
it continued to do until the creation of more banks in the city
lowered its profits a little.='¢
A few years later, there was a serious effort to augment the
capital of the bank because many in Baltimore felt that the
trade of the city could support a bank with a capital of $2,-
000,000 instead of $300,000. Even with the establishment of
a Baltimore City branch of the United States Bank in 1792,
with a capital of about $500,000, the agitation continued.
Those who feared that adding to the capital of the Bank of
Maryland would create a monopoly favored the establishment
of another bank in Baltimore."5
Before that was accomplished, the Maryland legislature
created a bank in Georgetown to aid in the preparation of
the District of Columbia for occupancy by the national gov-
ernment. The Bank of Columbia, incorporated in 1793, with
a capital of $100,000, was similar in structure to the Bank of
Maryland except that it possessed a charter, which could be
revoked by Congress when it assumed jurisdicition of the dis-
trict.z48 Allowed by the charter to subscribe to shares for the
benefit of the City of Washington, the City Commissioners
paid for one thousand fifty-three shares. Surviving until 1827,
the Bank of Columbia was used both as a public depository
and a public agent for making payments.241
Instead of doubling the capital of the Bank of Maryland,
the General Assembly issued a charter in 1795 for a new and
entirely separate institution which was to be known as the
Bank of Baltimore. Much discussion in newspapers and pam-
phlets pointed out the advantages of many banks for stimulat-
ing industry, extending commerce, making the balance of trade
more favorable to the United States, and lowering the interest
24$ B. Md. Gaz. Mar. 4, 1791 Md. J., Mar. 9, 1792.
244 Ibid., Mar. ~20, Sept. 7, 1792, Mar. 15, Sept. 10, 1793, Mar. 12, Sept.
5, 1794.
$4s Ibid, Mar. 23, Dec. 24, 1792. Bryan, p. 20.
$,1e Md. Sess., 1793 c. 30, 1795 c. 77, Md. J., Jan. 1, 1794.
247 Davis, 11, 97.
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