John Richardson

John Richardson (c. 1754–1831) was a prominent Scottish-Canadian merchant, statesman, and politician in Lower Canada who served as the first president of Montreal Bank upon its founding in 1817. A senior partner in the influential fur-trading firm Forsyth, Richardson & Co., Richardson recognized that the colony's reliance on foreign silver coins and army bills severely hindered industrial commerce. He spearheaded the drafting of the bank's original Articles of Association and rules of governance, modeling them after Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States. Richardson's disciplined conservative oversight established the bank's credibility, ensuring that its banknotes were redeemed at face value in gold and silver, which stabilized the colonial financial system and enabled the commercial development of Montreal.