1811.102: Petition seeking a Chartered Bank in Norfolk.
Published: 1811
Full Title: To the Honorable the speakers and members of the Senate and House of Delegates of the commonwealth of Virginia, in General Assembly convened, the petition of the subscribers, inhabitants of the borough of Norfolk, respectfully represents, …
Author: Inhabitants of the Borough of Norfolk.
Place Issued: Norfolk
Issuing Press: Uncertain
Description: 1 sheet [2 pgs.]; 26 cm. x 21 cm. (broadside, printed recto & verso).
Notes
Petitioners ask that the Assembly enact legislation to incorporate a bank at Norfolk with a capitalization of $1 million; this request came at a time when other Virginia market-towns were asking for similar charters, all emphasizing the need to facilitate agricultural commerce; these efforts were partially successful, as the Assembly passed "An act "Incorporating the 'Farmers' Bank of Virginia'," (Chap. VII of Acts of December 1811 Assembly) on February 13, 1813; this new bank was organized in the same manner as the antecedent Bank of Virginia (1805), with a centralized board of directors meeting at Richmond, and subsidiary managing committees attached to the various branch locations situated across the state, here Norfolk, Lynchburg, Winchester, Fredericksburg, Petersburg, and Staunton; however, with a total state-wide capitalization of just $2 million, this new bank fell short of what the petitioners in Norfolk had sought originally. Sheet lacks colophon; while clearly a Norfolk imprint, given its overtly local focus, title could have issued from any one of the three presses then operating there; most of the signers are known Federalists, so this most likely printed by John Cowper & William Davis (Publick Ledger); but it is also possible that it was issued from press of James O'Connor (Norfolk Herald), so the indeterminacy here.