The Savings Bank of Prince Edward Island: Philanthropy and Self-Interest in the Nineteenth Century

The creation of the government-owned Savings Bank of Prince Edward Island in 1864 reveals the complex interplay between self-interest and philanthropy in the nineteenth century. The Savings Bank was initially conceived in the late 1840s as a humanitarian institution designed to promote thrift, sobriety, frugality, and hard work, but the bank was not created until 1864 when the politicians became convinced of its wider economic utility. In addition to providing needed funds for the government, the Savings Bank was viewed as a means for solving the Island’s perennial absentee landlord problem. The Bank was an economic success. Within four years it was self supporting and, at its peak in the 1890s, 7 per cent of the Island’s population had invested over two million dollars.