A 1862 envelope addressed to Agra and The United Service Bank & A 1865 Envelope to Agra Bank

Agra Bank was founded in 1833 in Agra. It primarily catered to military and the government officials. In the mid-1850s the bank established its head office in Calcutta. It had branches in Madras, Bombay and Lahore alongside a London agency. The bank moved to London in 1857 and was rechristened The Agra and the United Service Bank. In 1864 it took over a member of the London Bankers' Clearing House, Masterman, Peters, Mildred and Company, and renamed itself Agra and Masterman's Bank. It became a leading exchange bank by 1866. The collapse of Overend Gurney and Company, a wholesale discount bank, led to a banking panic. Consequently, Agra Bank was liquidated in 1900.

The Calcutta head office of the bank is now known as Currency Building and after restoration and renovation, acts as an art museum and is used for exhibitions.

The 1862  envelope above traveled from Jhansi (18 Mar) Via Gwalior (19 Mar) to Agra (20 Mar) and the 1865 envelope travelled from Jubbalpore (Jabalpur) via Mirzapore (Mirzapur) to Calcutta.

Philatelic Interest: The 1862 cancellation is Jal Cooper Type 9 (116) and the 1865 cancellation is Jal Cooper Type 9 (120) Jubbalpore. The Jubbalpore cancellation is scarce as it is not recorded / identified in the philatelic literature; the place that gave us the game of snooker.

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Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agra_Bank

https://www.incredibleindia.gov.in/en/west-bengal/kolkata/the-currency-building

Port Canning Land Investment, Reclamation and Dock Company (PCC) was incorporated, to undertake work essential to the Port Canning Municipality (PCM). PCC was granted exclusive concessions and rights as part of the deal. 

Port Canning Municipality (PCM), established in 1862 is the first and possibly the only municipality that went bankrupt in India. The municipality had grand plans for parks, wharves, jetties, tramways, railway stations, dockyards which didn’t materialise. 

The origins of PCM are interesting. In 1853, Bengal Chamber of Commerce feared that the silting of Hooghly River may result in Calcutta Port becoming unnavigable and a search for an auxiliary port ensued. Matla estuary, 45 kms south-east of Calcutta, amongst Sunderbans was chosen where the waters of Bidyádharí, Karatoyá, and Athárabánká rivers converged. Henry Piddington, a storm expert warned that the site is unsuitable for a port as a cyclone may destroy the port. Nevertheless, about 9000 acres of lands was acquired; 8260 acres in the first instance and 650 acres in the second. The port was named after than Governor General Charles Canning who subsequently became the Viceroy. The municipality had taken loans and issued debentures worth of INR 1Mn. A railway line from Calcutta to Port Canning was built for INR 6M. 

PCC issued equity which had a premium of INR 12,000 in Bombay and INR 10,000 in Calcutta; this was an era of another wild equity boom. A number of reasons made the port unviable, and the final nail was the cyclone of November 2, 1867, which destroyed the port. 

As a result PCC was put into liquidation in 1870 and PCM faced bankruptcy.

Philatelic Interest: The cancellation on the stamp is Jal Cooper Type 10 for Calcutta.

Source: Research Paper

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 The Bank of Western India opened in Bombay, India in 1842. Its purpose was primarily to finance trade and deal with different currencies. In 1845, the bank took the name of the Oriental Bank and set up branches in Colombo (1843), Calcutta (1844), Shanghai (1845), Canton (1845), Singapore (1846), and Hong Kong (1846). 

The bank became the first note-issuing bank in Hong Kong. In 1846 the bank issued currency for Ceylon, printed by Batho & Bingley, London. In 1849 The Oriental Bank took over the failed Bank of Ceylon which had printed currency notes in 1844. 

In 1851 it was granted a Royal charter in England as the Oriental Bank Corporation (OBC) focusing in Ceylon on providing loans to coffee plantations. The bank further expanded to Australia, Japan, Mauritius, South African and United States. In 1860s, it was considered a powerful and prestigious Eastern exchange bank.

However, in the 1870s the bank had ballooning non-performing loans from coffee plantations. The yields in Ceylon coffee plantations fell  due to rust disease caused by Hemileia vastatrix, a fungus. The plantation owners could not make good on their debts. 

Some banking analysts opine that the bank was hit by unhedged exchange  rate risk as it had borrowed sterling which was gold and loaned rupees  which was silver based. When silver/gold parity changed, it was exposed  to exchange rate risk. 

OBC was forced to be bailed out by the Government of Ceylon. In 1884 OBC suspended payment and was liquidated in a Chancery proceeding. Simultaneously, in 1885, Government took over the issue of currency.

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Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_Bank_Corporation

https://notes.lakdiva.org.lk/british/obc/

https://www.historyofceylontea.com/ceylon-publications/ceylon-tea-articles/colombo-to-haldummulla-sri-lankas-entres-of-free-banking.html