208 ASSIXXIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



cent, was paid, and from 1832 to 1837 a dividend of five 

 'per cent., with an average bonus of six per cent. The 

 distribution of profits to the shareholders for the years 

 1847 to 1856, both inclusive, was as follows : — 



1847 — 1849, ten per cent, per annum ; 1850, twenty 

 per cent, per annum, of which ten per cent, was added 

 to stock ; 1851, ten per cent. ; 1852, fifteen per cent., of 

 which five per cent, was added to stock ; 1853, 18Z. 4s. 6d, 

 of which 8/. 4s. 6d. was added to stock ; 1854 to 1856, 

 ten per cent, per annum dividend.* Of 268 proprietors 

 in July 1856, 196 have purchased their stock at from 

 220 to 240 per cent.f 



* Letter from R. G. Smith, Esq., Secretary to the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, to H. Merivale, Esq. — Appendix to Report from the Select Committee 

 on the Hudson's Bay Company. 



t The capital employed by the Hudson's Bay Company is as follows : — 



June 1st 1856. 



£ s. d. 



Amount of assets , 1,468,301 16 3 



Amount of liabilities .... 



Capital ...... 1,265,067 19 4 



Consisting of, £ s . d. 



Stock, standing in the names of the proprietors . 500,000 0 0 

 Valuation of the Company's lands and buildings, 



exclusive of Vancouver's Island and Oregon . 318,884 12 8 

 Amount expended up to 16th September 1856, 



in sending miners and labourers to Van- 

 couver's Island, in the coal mines, and other 



objects of colonization, exclusive of the trading 



establishments of the Company, and which 



amount will be repayable by Government if 



possession of the island is resumed . . 87,071 8 3 

 Amoimt invested in Fort Victoria and other 



establishments and posts in Vancouver's Island, 



estimated at 75,000 0 0 



Amount paid to the Earl of Selkirk for Red 



River Settlement 84,111 18 5 



Carried forward . . 1,065,067 19 4 



