ploying the capital
of the Company."

The committee reported on June 3, 1799, in favor of opening an office of
discount and deposit, and a house was bought on the site of the present
No. 40 Wall Street, in which, on September 1, 1799, the "Bank" of the
Manhattan Company began business.

The following is one of the earliest advertisements, reproduced from the
Mercantile Advertiser, October 9, 1799:

MANHATTAN COMPANY.

The Office of Discount and Deposit will open for the
transaction of business, for the present, at 10 o'clock in
the forenoon, and continue open until 3 o'clock in the
afternoon, when the business of the day will be closed.

HENRY REMSEN, Cashier.

September 24.

[Illustration: WALL STREET IN 1803
Present No. 40 Wall Street]

The first action of the Directors after the opening of the Bank was:

RESOLVED, That this Board will hereafter meet twice
a week, to wit, on Mondays and Thursdays of each week, at 11
o'clock.

The policy of semi-weekly meetings still prevails in the Manhattan
Company, and its Board of twelve Directors keeps in close touch with all
its affairs.

[Illustration: MANHATTAN COMPANY CURRENCY]

Two months after the Bank was opened the Directors

RESOLVED, That a committee be appointed to visit
the vaults and examine the cash and look over the effects of
the Manhattan Company deposited therein.

Thus, at the outset, the Manhattan Company required its Directors
periodically to examine its cash and securities, a safeguard which, 106
years later, the State of New York made compulsory for all State banking
institutions.

The Bank of the Manhattan Company was profitable from the start and
commenced paying dividends in July 1800. The total dividends to and
including January, 1913, have aggregated $19,726,000.

[Illustration: FRACTIONAL CURRENCY USED IN UTICA]

Although the main office of the Bank has always been at the present No.
40 Wall Street, in the autumn of 1805 all the banks moved temporarily to
the Village of Greenwich to escape the usual autumn fever epidemic. The
Directors then determined to provide a country office for use during the
"sickly season." Many persons offered sites; among them "Mr. Astor
proposed verbally to cede eight lots of ground near Greenwich, being
part of his purchase from Gov. Clinton." Finally land was acquired
between the "Bowery Road" and the East River. From 1809 to 1819
branch