PRESENT OFFICE OF THE MANHATTAN COMPANY.
40-42 , Wall Street.
Building erected jointly in 1884 by the Manhattan Company and the Merchants' National Bank.
BANK
OF THE
MANHATTAN COMPANY
CHARTERED 1799
A PROGRESSIVE COMMERCIAL BANK
Chief of the Manhattans
40 WALL STREET
NEW YORK
On May 8th, 1799, the Committee of By-Laws reported "thatthey had devised a common seal for the Corporation, the description ofwhich is as follows:
"Oceanus, one of the sea Gods, sitting in a reclining posture on a rising ground pouring water from an urn which forms a river and terminates in a lake. On the exergue will be inscribed 'Seal of the Manhattan Company.'"
There are nine banks now in existence whose history reaches back intothe Eighteenth Century. Of these, two are in Massachusetts, two inConnecticut, one in Pennsylvania, one in Delaware, one in Maryland andtwo in New York.
Corporate banking in New York began with the organization of the Bank ofNew York by Alexander Hamilton in 1784, which received its charter in1792. For fifteen years this bank, together with the New York branch ofthe first Bank of the United States, were the only banks doing businessin either the City or State of New York. With Hamilton and the Federalsin control of the Legislature, new bank charters were unobtainable. Thismonopoly of banking facilities in the City and State was of greatstrategic value to the political party in control, and naturally arousedjealousy and resentment among the members of the opposition, whoseleader was Aaron Burr.
EXCERPT FROM CHARTERIn 1798 New York City suffered from a severe yellow fever epidemic,which was attributed to an inadequate and inferior water supply. Uponthe assembling of the Legislature in 1