memberships reinforced the oligarchic nature of power in the colony and allowed the administration to operate without any effective elective check. Henry John Boulton, the solicitor general, author of the bank incorporation bill and the bank's lawyer, admitted the bank was a "terrible engine in the hands of the provincial administration." William Lyon Mackenzie, the Reform politician and newspaper publisher, was the first to demonstrate the nature of that oligarchic power by showing that the government, its officers, and legislative councillors owned 5,381 of its 8,000 shares. Once elected to the House of Assembly, he criticized the Bank's lack of transparency and accountability to the legislature. Bank officers of the Family Compact William Allan (1822–1835) William Proudfoot (1835–1861) Thomas Gibbs Ridout, cashier (general manager) (1822–1861) Henry John Boulton, lawyer (1825-1833) The directorate of the bank was dominated by government officers. Forty-four men served as bank directors during the 1830s, eleven of them being executive councillors, fifteen of them were legislative councillors, and thirteen were magistrates in Toronto. The "Pretended Bank" (at Kingston) and the Commercial Bank of the Midland District The Bank of Upper Canada at York (Toronto) had obtained its charter at the expense of the larger, more economically developed town of Kingston. Deprived of their charter, they established an unchartered bank in 1818 supported with American capital. The government refused to accept its notes given its American ties, and it went bankrupt in 1822. After its failure, the Bank of Upper Canada used all of its influence to prevent any other bank from being chartered in the province. The monopoly was crucial to keeping its notes in circulation and boosting its profits. It succeeded only until 1832, when the Commercial Bank of the Midland District was chartered finally giving Kingston the bank it desired. Banknotes Paper currency was a banking innovation in the era. It had been experimented with to fund the American Revolutionary War but had devalued badly, leading to general distrust of banknotes. Banknotes then were not legal tender, issued by a state bank. They were, rather, similar to cheques written by the bank promising to pay the bearer with "real" (usually metallic) money, or specie, if they returned the cheque to the bank. Any bank that could not redeem its banknotes with specie was forced to close for good. The Bank of Upper Canada was able to lend out many more banknotes than it had