CHAPTER XXXVI

COMMERCIAL HISTORY SINCE THE UNION

THE RISE OF MODERN MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIES

MONTREAL CENTER OF CANADIAN TRADE--LORD ELGIN’S OPINION OF THE CANADA CORN ACT--TRADE DEPRESSION BEGINNING IN 1847--SUGAR AND FLOUR INDUSTRIES--THE PANIC OF 1860--A PROSPEROUS DECADE--ANOTHER DEPRESSION--THE NATIONAL POLICY--PROSPERITY AGAIN IN THE EIGHTIES--ST. CATHERINE STREET--THE RISE OF FURTHER INDUSTRIES--THE RISE OF THE COMMERCIAL ASSOCIATIONS--THE COMMITTEE OF TRADE--ITS ACTIVITIES--THE BOARD OF TRADE--ITS ACTIVITIES IN CANAL, PORT, RAILWAY, CANADIAN AND EMPIRE EXPANSION--ITS INTEREST IN CIVIC GOVERNMENT AND GENERAL CIVIC BETTERMENT--ITS BUILDING--ITS SOCIAL FUNCTIONS--THE “CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE”--ITS ORIGIN--THE OTHER MERCHANTS’ ASSOCIATIONS OF THE CITY--A TRIBUTE TO THE MERCHANTS OF MONTREAL. NOTES: PRESIDENTS OF THE BOARD OF TRADE--CENSUS (1912) OF MONTREAL MANUFACTURES.

Trade at the time of the Union centered at Montreal. Quebec had been left behind. The Canada corn act brought in by Lord Stanley, the colonial secretary in Robert Peel’s cabinet, while it cheapened corn in England stimulated business in Canada, for the act lowered the duty on Canadian wheat and flour to one shilling in the quarter upon the condition that Canada should impose a duty of three shillings upon United States wheat. Montreal became the center of its distribution. This success was dashed to disappointment by Peel’s bill of 1846, described by Lord Elgin in writing to a friend shortly after, as drawing “the whole of the produce down the New York channels of communication, destroying the revenue which Canada expected to derive from canal duties and ruining at once mill owners, forwarders and merchants. The consequence is that private property is unsalable in Canada; not a shilling can be raised on the credit of the province.” To crown the disasters in 1847 there was the ship fever in the city. In 1848 the depression was continued, followed next year by the riots over the rebellion losses bill, so that many were ready in the same year for the annexation to the United States as a desperate remedy.

The year 1850 was not commercially satisfactory, but remains bright in the annals of trade on account of a most successful fair opened in Bonsecours Hall, October 17th, and attended by from 20,000 to 30,000 people. This fair was held in order to prepare for the great International Exhibition in London in the following year, and resulted in 200 packages being sent forward, by which the attention of Great Britain was called to Canada in a most practical manner. The war between Great Britain and Russia in 1854, while improving the demand for cereals, injuriously affected commerce in Montreal through stringent European money markets, etc., while American tourists, upon whom the retail trader then as now relied for no small portion of his summer trade, were deterred from visiting the city through the prevalence of cholera. This, coupled with the unusually late arrival of the spring importations, resulted in leaving large stocks on hand.

In 1854 the Canada Sugar Refinery business was established by Mr. John Redpath. The late Sir George Drummond was early connected with it as general manager.

An improvement in business characterized the following year, while the city was thronged in March with visitors to a fair held in anticipation of the Paris Exhibition, and which was very successful. In the same year Montreal was visited by Admiral Betveze to arrange for closer trade relations between Canada and France. The reciprocity treaty also of 1855, followed by the American Civil war, led to increased activity of trade in Montreal, her citizens, as well as those of other Canadian cities, supplying many of the needs of the army of 1,000,000 taken from pen and plough in those days of trial.

In 1858 a torchlight procession of about twenty thousand souls (including spectators), a general illumination and a military parade, expressed the jubilation of Montreal over the successful laying of the first Atlantic cable. The procession, composed of tradesmen and handicraftsmen, was a mile long and marched six abreast.

In 1859 the Victoria Tubular bridge was opened, but just before its completion in 1860, commercial panic struck the country, with disastrous effects.

The greatest disasters were those in the United States, where every bank but one suspended payment; but the calamity was sympathetically reflected in the Dominion.

The Bank of Montreal remained firm, thanks to Mr. Davidson, the cashier, who carried the Montreal merchants through that black time. It may be said that Mr. Davidson founded a school of banking.

Manufacturing made great progress in the ’60s, owing to the Civil war in the United States taking millions of men from the ordinary activities of the country to the battlefields, thus stimulating Canadians to manufacture sufficient to supply the resultant demand.

In the decade from 1860 to 1870, the investment in Montreal industries leaped from $800,000 to $11,000,000. Just about then, however, a period of depression set in, due to a variety of causes.

Chief among these were the inevitable slackening in Canadian outputs due to production being resumed in the United States, and the general stress caused by the financial losses incurred through wars both on this continent and in Europe. During this period the manufacturers of Montreal suffered possibly more than any other body; for the great population and easier developed natural resources of the United States, with other contributing factors, enabled nearly all lines of goods to be produced there at a lower cost; and with his goods barred from the States by high tariffs and his home market thrown open to American factories, the Montreal manufacturer suffered from his nearness to the American border, suffered, perhaps, more acutely than other Canadians. With the inauguration of the National Policy in 1879 conditions changed materially, and the beginning of 1880 found business booming again. Meanwhile St. James Street had become the chief business street. Morgan’s Colonial House was at the northeast corner abutting Victoria Square. When the head of the firm took an idea to open on St. Catherine Street, as yet an unimportant business thoroughfare, in the present location, it was a dangerous move according to the wiseacres, but instantly justified, being followed by other great departmental stores, such as Murphy’s, Hamilton’s and the rest. Substantial and steady progress was made in the ensuing twenty years, the products of the various factories doubling in value in each decade. Then came the remarkable development of the city, beginning about 1898, and in the ten years from 1900 to 1910 the production increased from about eighty-five million dollars to two hundred millions.

The origin of some further of our chief industries may now be recorded.

The cotton industry originated in the old Hudon Mill at Hochelaga, which was started in 1874. When founded there were employed at this mill some three hundred hands, and the buildings and plant were quite small. As the mill stands today, the ground covered is about four times that originally built upon and the number of men employed is upwards of eleven hundred.

The four other cotton mills of Montreal, all of which are under the ownership or control of the Dominion Textile Company, provide employment for between five thousand and six thousand persons in this city and must therefore be accounted amongst its very greatest industries. Some idea of the magnitude of the industry may be formed from the fact that the capitalization amounts to $13,500,000, including bonds. It may be noted in passing that the Dominion Textile Company, the chief offices of which are in this city, controls many other mills, some of them at considerable distances from Montreal.

Prior to 1883 there were no metal bridges manufactured in Montreal or vicinity and practically no structural steel work for buildings.

Since 1883, bridge and structural steel manufacture has developed greatly in Montreal. And there are now three large concerns engaged in this line of business: the Dominion Bridge Company, Limited, the National Bridge Company, Limited, and the Phoenix Bridge and Iron Works.

It is estimated that the combined output of these companies for 1912 was between seventy-five thousand and eighty thousand tons of bridge and building work, having a value of about four million and a half dollars.

It is also estimated that the number of hands employed in the shops and offices of these companies is about eighteen hundred, with a pay roll of about a million and a quarter dollars.

NATURAL ADVANTAGES

Of the great variety of natural advantages for manufacturing possessed by Montreal, it would be difficult to say which is the most important. With cheap transportation, it can assemble raw material and ship finished product with far greater facility than any other city on the American continent. Other cities have possibly equally good railway facilities, others have lake transportation; and other manufacturing cities, but not many, are ocean ports. No other city on the continent, however, combines all three advantages.

Coupled with these, Montreal has an important and rapidly expanding tributary territory in the Dominion, for products of its factories find their way all over Canada; it has a large class of skilled labor to draw on; and it commands cheaper power. Every requisite for successful manufacturing is found here. The cheapness with which power can be secured is a very important factor and with the development of important hydro-electric properties in the immediate vicinity industrial power costs are likely to be materially reduced in the near future. With both ocean and lake navigation at its disposal, Montreal taps both the Nova Scotia and the American coalfields and thus has unlimited supplies of fuel to draw on, which can be delivered here at a very low cost. Some of the largest ocean-going bulk cargo carriers in the world are running between the St. Lawrence ports and the Sydneys, freighting coal here at the lowest figures achieved anywhere for ocean transportation.

As far back as 1859 Sir William Dawson, the principal of McGill University, referred to Montreal’s position for commerce in words as apropos today as they were then:

“In its situation at the confluence of the two greatest rivers, the St. Lawrence and Ottawa; opposite the great natural highway of the Hudson and Champlain valley; at the point where the St. Lawrence ceases to be navigable for ocean ships, and where the great river, for the last time in its course to the sea, affords a gigantic water power; at the meeting point of the two races that divide Canada, and in the center of a fertile plain nearly as large as all England: in these we recognize a guarantee for the future greatness of Montreal, not based on the frail tenure of human legislation, but in the unchanging decrees of the Eternal, as stamped on the world he has made. We know from the study of these indications that were Canada to be again a wilderness, and were a second Cartier to explore it he might wander over all the great regions of Canada and the West, and, returning to our mountain ridge, call it again Mount Royal, and say that to this point the wealth and trade of Canada must turn.”

At this time of writing the industries have grown so numerous that the chronological method of relating their rise is impossible. We shall present a brief indicaton of their number and scope besides adding in tabulated form various statistical facts which will sum up the variety of the industries engaging attention in Montreal in 1912. Probably the most important industry of the city is the manufacture of clothing, both custom and factory. Nearly ten per cent of the factory workers of the city are engaged in this trade and they furnish two-thirds of the annual Canadian production.

But apart from this industry, manufacuring in Montreal covers a very wide range, embracing the chief Canadian car and engine manufactories, structural works, cotton factories, sugar refineries, rubber manufactories, rolling mills, cement works, and leather manufactories. In extent and value of output it easily heads the list of Canadian cities, having double the output of its two nearest competitors, Toronto and Hamilton. The extent to which manufacturing is carried on is strikingly shown by the per capita valuation of its product, which is $360 annually.

Tobacco is a principal single industry, while boots and shoes come next in importance. As to textiles, cotton takes the first place. Among food products, slaughtering and meat packing rank with flour, the largest flour mill in the British Empire being situated in Montreal. Of the miscellaneous industries, electric light and power and electrical apparatus and supplies are the chief.

Immediately outside of Montreal is a large business in iron and steel products. Among the largest are the Dominion Bridge Company’s works at Lachine and the Montreal Locomotive Works and the Structural Steel Company’s works at Longue Pointe. Again, in Montreal are to be found the great car and repair shops of the two chief railways: the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Grand Trunk Railway System.

The city is also the center of several industries, which though not actually situated in Montreal, are yet managed from it. The pulp industry is an example, yet there is not actually a single pulp mill in Montreal.

In the president’s address to the Canadian Manufacturers Association in September, 1912, it was pointed out that in the ten-year period Canadian exports showed an increase of $110,000,000, while manufactured articles showed an increase of $683,000,000. Probably no other country in the world can show such a satisfactory record as this. And when it is considered that more than one-sixth of all the manufactures in the Dominion come from Montreal, the part which the city has taken in this great industrial evolution will be appreciated.

Montreal is most favourably situated with regard to obtaining cheap power. Canada is essentially a land of rivers and lakes, and her water-power is undoubtedly her greatest asset. In 1911 the total electrical energy developed from Canada’s water-power was 1,016,521 horse-power, of which the province of Quebec developed 300,153 horse-power. At twenty-two tons of coal per horse-power per annum, this is the equivalent of about six and one-half million tons of coal. Eighty per cent of the power used in the province of Quebec is water-power.

The wood pulp and paper industry have contributed very largely to the development of this kind of industry, but other industries have taken advantage of it, such as lumber mills, textile mills and rubber factories.

The following companies supply power in Montreal:

1. The Montreal Light, Heat and Power Company, Limited, act as distributing agents in the City of Montreal for the Shawinigan Water and Power Company, whose plant is situated at Shawinigan Falls, on the St. Maurice River, eighty-four miles from Montreal. There is a fall of 135 feet, and 107,000 horse-power has been developed. The electricity is transmitted to Montreal and the Eastern Townships; a large portion supplying the asbestos mines with power. Thirty thousand horse-power is used in Shawinigan itself for the production of aluminum and carbide.

The company also obtains power from Chambly on the Richelieu River, and from the Lachine Rapids and the Soulange Canal.

2. The Montreal Public Service Corporation act as distributing agents in the City of Montreal for the Canadian Light and Power Company, which has a plant at St. Timothée, where 30,000 horse-power has been developed. Electrical and other power is also obtained from the Lachine Canal, where there is a total fall of thirty-five feet, to the extent of 4,642 horse-power. This is used for flour mills, rolling mills, and many others.

There are, in addition, one or two other power plants in process of development.

The manufactures carried on in Montreal are very varied, but of these we cannot speak in detail.[1]

OFFICIAL BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS

Before closing this chapter showing the rise of many of the individual conmercial enterprises of our merchants we must refer to them again in a collective fashion. We have already indicated their combined effort in securing advanced governmental and municipal action. This has been carried on by the great official bodies or associations of commercial men organized during the last few decades of the commercial expansion of the city. The first of such organizations to arise was the Committee of Trade.

COMMITTEE OF TRADE

(1822)

Early in the last century, the merchants of Montreal realized that a country’s trade and progress are to be measured by its transportation facilities, and that until these are secured, there can be little advance. Accordingly, when on July 19, 1821, the first sod of the Lachine Canal was turned by one of their number, the Hon. John Richardson, a vista of a future inland waterway system and consequent commercial progress was unfolded. Individual action had prevailed so far, but now the value of union among the merchants was seized upon. A few months later, on April 11, 1822, the Hon. John Richardson presided at a preliminary meeting held in the Exchange on St. Joseph Street (St. Sulpice) of merchants and others interested in commerce, which gave birth to the “Committee of Trade.”

At this meeting a resolution was adopted stating “that the ruinous consequences now apprehended from the growing embarrassments of Canadian commerce can no longer be averted or even delayed by the solitary exertions of individuals or by the occasional hasty and inadequate deliberations of public meetings, and that the present alarming crisis demands the establishment of a standing committee of merchants to be authorized by their constituents to watch over the general interests of the trade of the country.”

The subscription of the members of this organization was placed at three guineas per annum, and the original subscribers numbered fifty-four, who elected the following thirteen gentlemen as the first committee of trade: Horatio Gates, George Auldjo, George Moffatt, Henry McKenzie, Campbell Sweeney, John Forsyth, Peter McGill, F.A. Larocque, John Fleming, Samuel Gerrard, Thomas Blackwood, Charles L. Ogden, James Leslie. This committee began its operations in a very humble way, for at its second meeting Mr. Auldjo was authorized to finish the proposed agreement with Mr. A.L. Macnider for a room for the accommodation of the committee, including fuel and attendance at the rate of thirty pounds per annum. The population of Montreal at this time was 18,767, increasing to 27,997 by 1831.

From the records we possess of this Committee of Trade, it is clear that Montreal recognized early its vocation as the commercial metropolis of Canada, for its rules “authorized and required the Committee to make to His Majesty and the Legislature of the United Kingdom, and others in authority, such representations on Trade matters as might be deemed advisable in the defence of such suits as involved the General Trade of the country.”

The securing of the construction of the Lachine Canal warranted this assumption of authority by the merchants of Montreal, who were not unopposed in Upper Canada through mistaken motives of jealousy. The Committee of Trade foreseeing that Montreal was to become the commercial port of Canada, set to work at once to encourage large vessels to come to the St. Lawrence. In 1825, it made strong efforts to induce the Government to deepen the channel in Lake St. Peter so that “vessels of nearly 250 tons burthen, might reach Montreal fully laden during the whole season.” It is a far cry from such vessels to the magnificent steamers which now perform the service between Great Britain and Montreal, some of which are nearly fifteen thousand tons.

Steadily the Committee of Trade began to prepare for the future destiny of the port. One of its number, the Hon. James Leslie, presented in Parliament a petition praying for aid to deepen the channel to sixteen feet. In spite of the cholera outbreaks of 1832 and 1834 and the rebellion of 1837 and 1838, the Committee of Trade went on, until 1839, effecting further improvements.

THE MONTREAL BOARD OF TRADE

(1842)

In April, 1840, when the Union was in the air, at a meeting under the chairmanship of the Hon. Peter McGill, the more active members of this committee took steps to reorganize as a Board of Trade, an act of incorporation being procured in 1841, but as in those days all important bills were “reserved,” it was not till March 2, 1842, that the Royal assent was signed by proclamation and the present Board of Trade came into existence, the number of original members being 106. On April 1st of that year the first meeting of the newly incorporated board was held, at which Mr. J.T. Brondgeest was elected chairman; Mr. Thomas Cringan, vice president; and Mr. J.W. Dunscomb, treasurer.

The board under its new name, pursued the same policy as hitherto. Realizing the value of Montreal’s water position, that all trade had to follow the waterways and that all the waters of the West flowed past Montreal, the merchant members of the board secured the fastest ships to Montreal and early controlled the import trade. The Lachine Canal had been opened in 1825 and in the first decade of the new board they had the satisfaction of seeing the whole magnificent St. Lawrence system of inland water communication fully opened up through the foresight and initial push of Montreal merchants.

In 1853 the first ocean steamer, the Genova, arrived, the new channel having been deepened to fifteen feet two inches and later to sixteen feet six inches. But in 1854 and 1855 this prosperity experienced a check, for during those years no ocean vessel reached Montreal; its rival, New York, with its navigation open all the year, had greater attractions for shipping. Trade became alarmingly bad, but the Montreal merchants were not supine, they rose to the occasion and determined to deepen the channel to twenty feet, and (in 1856) the Allan Brothers came to the rescue, establishing the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company, which commenced a fortnightly service with four steamers. Since then the shipping trade has prospered continuously. The Board of Trade has continuously urged and secured improvements along the St. Lawrence route, the channel depth having been gradually increased to thirty feet and a further increase to thirty-five feet has been promised by the Dominion Government.

A few other activities of the board, which are synonymous with those of the representative merchants of the city, may be here mentioned in connection with the port. The office of port warden was established through the board and its work of overseeing the loading of vessels sailing from this port has entirely prevented the sad loss of life and property which at one time so frequently resulted from the faulty loading of cargo. The question of harbour improvement and development has always received the earnest attention of the board and the council’s representations to the Government in 1906, urging that instead of eleven commissioners there should be three, were instrumental in securing such reduction. The result of the work of the smaller board has exceeded all expectations. The Board of Trade for many years agitated for the relief of the Harbour Commissioners from the cost of the channel through Lake St. Peter on the ground that it was a national work for the national waterway, and this agitation resulted successfully, for in 1888 the Dominion Government assumed the debt, which action relieved the Harbour Commissioners from the burdensome charge for interest on such expense. Similarly the board has succeeded in its efforts to induce the Dominion Government to free the canals from tolls. But while so much improvement has been obtained, there is at present one most urgent need, viz.: the establishment on the St. Lawrence of the dry dock now constructed in which the largest vessels trading on our river can be repaired in case of emergency.

Montreal has yet to become a free port. The Board of Trade hopes that its ceaseless representations to the Government on this matter will ultimately be successful.

It would be interesting similarly to trace the efforts of members of the Board of Trade and other Montreal merchants towards the provision of the great railways emanating from our city as their center. Space limit will only allow us to indicate, that when shortly before the canal system was perfected it began to be seen that the waterways would not be sufficient to accommodate the ever growing trade of Canada, Montreal men faced the railway transportation problem and greatly contributed to its present success. In this they were largely helped by the Grand Trunk Railway which, originally backed by English money, made splendid sacrifices for Canada. The Grand Trunk Railway has not always received its just need of appreciation, but it is now a great national institution stretching its arms across the Dominion and receiving its just reward. The enterprise of Montreal merchants, is, however, mostly to be discerned in that wonderful system of railroads, with its headquarters in Montreal--the Canadian Pacific Railway, which, conceived by Canadian brains, was started by Montreal men and carried out by Canadian executive force and capital. Men of wonderful courage, skill and judgment, prominent members of the Montreal Board of Trade, concluded a contract with the Government in 1880 to complete the whole road by May 1, 1891. On the 28th of June, 1886, the first through train to the Pacific Coast left Montreal for the Pacific terminus, Vancouver. On the first board of directors (1880) of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company we find the names of Mr. George Stephen (now Lord Mount Stephen), president; Mr. Donald A. Smith (Lord Strathcona), vice president; Messrs. R.B. Angus, Duncan McIntyre, and C.B. Rose; leading members of the Board of Trade.

With regard to the water transportation of the Dominion the Georgian Bay Canal prospect has been for some years the object of the Board of Trade and on March 14, 1912, a large deputation of boards of trade and municipal councils urged upon the Dominion Government an immediate commencement of work upon the Georgian Bay Canal.

The Premier promised his earnest consideration of the great question involved but said that the Government must have time for a full investigation.

In the spring of 1914 an immense delegation organized by the Chambre de Commerce of Montréal also approached the Government to the same effect.

All praise to the merchants of the Board of Trade, who by their undaunted push, character and political foresight have written their names in the history of the development of Canada, and have bound the Mother Country, through Montreal, by bands of steel and water to the extreme ends of the Dominion. Their influence extends even further, for it is a matter of record that the congresses of the chambers of commerce of the Empire are the result of a suggestion made by the Council of the Board. The last congress was held in September, 1909, in Sydney, Australia, where the board was represented by Mr. H.B. Ames, M.P., and its secretary, Mr. George Hadrill. Nothing but good for Empire trade can come of such conventions.

Again the Board of Trade looks far and wide. Apart from its present trade working relations between South Africa and Mexico it is looking for a larger and most interesting exchange of business, for a year ago an Imperial Royal Commission sat in the board’s rooms taking evidence regarding the trade between Canada and the West Indies.

By its internal constitution, as we have noticed, the Board of Trade is ever on the alert watching Dominion, Provincial and Civic legislation.

In the municipal life of the city it has urged improvements in the fire service, the water supply, the lighting service and the betterment of streets and interested itself in various other spheres of municipal government reform, among them the securing of the great modern amendment of the city charter which has necessitated the reduction of the number of aldermen to one for each ward, and the creation of a board of five commissioners for the disbursement of money, the awarding of contracts and the purchase of material.

It would be tedious to enumerate further the home activities of the Board of Trade, but this feature should not be omitted, viz.: that its work has made this city a manufacturing center of ever increasing possibilities. Montreal, as a manufacturing center, is hardly sufficiently advertised; Montreal should be made known not only as a gateway for export and import transportation, but also as the busy center of headquarters of numerous and constantly growing industries of its own. It is a distributing source of cheap power, light and heat. All that goes towards the making of a great and successful commercial metropolis has been planned by the merchants of modern Montreal, whose predecessors began humbly in 1822, and ever conscious of the future destiny of their city, were always led by visions of its future greatness as the commercial metropolis of Canada.

It has made representations to the Dominion and Provincial governments on the subject of industrial and technical education for the workers and has taken a lofty and ideal stand in more recent philanthropical and civic betterment schemes.

The Board since 1893 has occupied quarters in its own building, though the first building was destroyed by fire on the 23d of January, 1901. The present building which was entered into in May, 1903, while built on the same site and on a similar plan to the first, is of fireproof construction and, like the former building, faces on four streets. The board occupies the greater portion of the fourth floor, its premises consisting of a handsome exchange hall, branch association room, reading room, secretary’s office, council chamber and committee room. It has a membership of 1,400 and there are daily gatherings of various of its affiliated commercial associations.

In addition to being the center of the commercial life of Montreal, the building has been the locale of several important social functions, the most notable being its inauguration of the evening of 17th August, 1903, by the Rt. Hon. Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, G.C.M.G., which was attended by the members of the board and the delegates to the Fifth Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire (which was held in Montreal that year) and the president of the congress, the Rt. Hon. Lord Brassey, K.C.B.; the reception of Their Excellencies the Rt. Hon. Earl Grey, G.C.M.G., and the Countess Grey on the evening of the 24th of January, 1905, to welcome them on their arrival in this country, which, attended by over twelve hundred guests, was pronounced one of the most brilliant social functions in the history of the city.

CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE

(1887)

The next great commercial association was the “Chambre de Commerce,” of French business men. Up to 1886 the Board of Trade had been alone, though with individual French citizens, as at present, among its members, but in this year Mr. J.X. Perrault, not without opposition even among his compatriots, took the initiative of forming a second board to group together French-speaking citizens. An act of incorporation was applied for from the government at Ottawa and was granted on January 1, 1887. On February 2, 1887, the first reunion of French business representatives took place under the chairmanship of Mr. Jacques Grenier, the mayor of the city, and then president of “La Banque du Peuple,” in the offices of G.W. Parent, at the corner of St. Lambert and St. James streets. Its few hundreds of members have now surpassed a thousand. Its activities are similar to those of the Board of Trade with which there is mutual cooperation in points of common, civic, provincial and federal import. It has taken a great interest in the future commercial education of the merchant by promoting the “Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales” recently erected.

CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE FRANCAISE DE MONTREAL

There is also at present the “Chambre de Commerce Française de Montreal” for the promotion of trade by merchants of France settled here. It was originally proposed at a meeting in Montreal of French traders on May 27, 1886, by M.G. Dubail, the Consul General of France, and on June 26th of that year the projected constitution was received for approval. Since then its purpose of intercommunication and trade relations with France have been sustained under its presidents.

OTHER BODIES

There is also a Federation of the Chambers of Commerce of the Province of Quebec with its offices in this city and among the many mercantile bodies now promoting the trade and industries of Montreal may be mentioned the Montreal branch of the “Canadian Manufacturers’ Association,” the “Montreal Stock Exchange,” the “Montreal Mining Exchange,” the “Canadian Mining Institute,” the “Builders’ Exchange,” the “Corn Exchange Association,” the “Montreal Business Men’s League,” the “Association Immobiliére of Montreal,” the “Milk Shippers’ Association,” the “Wholesale Grocers’ Guild,” the “Wholesale Dry Goods Association,” the “Metal and Hardware Association,” the “Wholesale Hardware League,” the “Montreal Lumber Association,” the “Montreal Produce Merchants’ Association,” the “Retail Merchants’ Association of Canada,” with its office of the Provincial Board for the Province of Quebec at Montreal, the Province of Quebec Association of Architects, the “Licensed Victuallers’ Association,” the “Federation of Licensed Wine and Spirit Dealers of the Province of Quebec,” the “Dominion Association of Chartered Accounts,” the “Canadian Bankers’ Association,” with numerous other trade organizations, all cooperating and making for the commercial growth of Montreal and Canada.[2] To all these may be applied in their degree the words of tribute spoken at the Board of Trade building in 1908 by the Governor General Earl Grey:

“I am glad to be able to stand here as the representative of the King and to signify by my acceptance of your hospitality His Majesty’s appreciation of the benefits you, the Montreal Board of Trade, have conferred by your energy, by your spirited enterprise, and by your imperial aspirations, not only on the Province of Quebec and the Dominion, but upon the population of the United Kingdom of the whole British Empire. * * * Thanks to the brains, energy and public spirit with which your board have met the requirements of a trade which is being borne in ever increasing volume to your doors, over the continuous bands of steel and mighty waterways which you have harnessed to your city, the doors of the great treasure house of the West, containing illimitable riches, have been unlocked for the benefit of impoverished mankind.

“I am aware that the proud consciousness of your past achievements has not made you indifferent to future improvements and that you are still busily engaged in honourable emulation of your predecessors, in promoting plans which will increase the Commercial strength and prosperity of Montreal and further advance the general welfare of the Dominion.”

CHAIRMEN OF COMMITTEE OF TRADE, MONTREAL

From Its Inception in 1822 to 1841 When It Was Changed into the Montreal Board of Trade

1822-25 Thomas Blackwood 1825-33 George Auldjo 1833-34 James Miller 1834-35 T.M. Smith 1835-36 George Auldjo 1836-37 J. Quesnel 1837-38 A. Cuvillier 1838-39 Adam Ferrie 1839-41 A. Cuvillier

PRESIDENTS OF MONTREAL BOARD OF TRADE

1842-43 J.T. Brondgeest 1844-45-46 Hon. George Moffatt 1847 Thomas Gringan 1848 Hon. Peter McGill 1849-50 Thomas Ryan 1851-52-53-54 Hugh Allan 1855 Hon. John Young 1856-57-58 E.H. Holton 1859 Thomas Kay 1860 Hon. John Young 1861 Edwin Atwater 1862 Hon. E.H. Holton 1863 Thomas Gramp 1864-65 Peter Redpath 1866 John McLennan 1867-68 Thomas Rimmer 1869 J.H. Winn 1870-71 Hon. John Young 1872-73 Hugh McLennan 1874-75 William Darling 1876-77 Andrew Robertson 1878-79 Henry Lyman 1880-81-82-83 T.W. Henshaw 1884-85 John Kerry 1886-87-88 Hon. Geo. A. Drummond 1889-90 James P. Cleghorn 1891 Robert Archer 1892 G.B. Greenshields 1893-94 W.W. Ogilvie 1895 James A. Cantlie 1896 Robert Bickerdike 1897 John McKergow 1898 James Crathorn 1899 Charles F. Smith 1900 Robert Mackay 1901 Henry Miles 1902 Alexander McFee 1903 Arthur J. Hodgson 1904 George E. Drummond 1905 William I. Gear 1906 F.H. Mathewson 1907 George Caverhill 1908 T.J. Drummond 1909 F. Robertson 1910 George E. Cains 1911 Jeffrey H. Burland 1912 Robert W. Reford 1913 Huntley R. Drummond 1914 Robert J. Dale

SECRETARIES

1842-49 Fred’k A. Wilson 1849-50 Charles Lindsay 1851-54 Alex. Clerk 1854-63 John Dinning 1863-86 Wm. J. Patterson 1886 George Hadrill

NOTE

PRESIDENTS OF LA CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE

1887

D. Parizeau, Ex-M.P.P. l’ex-Maire J. Laporte Joseph Contant Damase Masson L.E. Geoffrion H.A.A. Brault C.H. Catelli Isaie Préfontaine O.S. Perrault Frédéric C. Larivière Armand Chaput le Lieut.-Col. A.E. Labelle A. Fortier

PRESIDENTS OF LA CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE FRANCAISE

1886-90 M. Schwob 1890-92 C.H. Chouillon 1892 A. Girard 1892-95 E. Galibert 1895-97 G. Herdt 1897-1900 E. Galibert 1900-04 H. Jonas 1904 J. Helbronner 1904-08 C.H. Chouillon 1908-09 M. Chevalier 1910-11 A.F. Revol 1912-14 J. Obalski

THE CENSUS RETURNS OF 1912 ON MONTREAL’S MANUFACTURES

The Industries of Montreal City (Not Greater Montreal); the Capital Invested, Output, Hands Employed and Wages and Salaries Paid.

Employees Name or kind Establish- on salaries. No. of industry. ments. Capital. No. Amt.

CITY OF MONTREAL Totals 1,093 $135,044,782 6,863 $7,258,810 1. Aerated and mineral waters 15 1,017,900 73 85,819 2. Axes and tools 6 351,550 19 21,790 3. Awnings, tents and sails 5 57,510 21 15,827 4. Bags, cotton 4 1,106,000 33 35,740 5. Baking powder and flavoring extracts 7 174,585 26 24,224 6. Blacking 5 95,582 14 15,016 7. Blacksmithing 5 94,000 5 6,576 8. Boilers and engines 8 2,909,729 143 131,987 9. Boots and shoes 39 10,386,852 346 380,461 10. Boot and shoe supplies 5 363,536 24 26,762 11. Boxes and bags (paper) 10 963,100 67 77,481 12. Boxes (wooden) 3 376,500 10 10,012 13. Brass castings 6 901,238 30 61,288 14. Bread, biscuit and confentionery 48 2,326,662 161 132,158 15. Brooms and brushes 5 29,200 18 13,114 16. Buttons 3 61,600 5 3,076 17. Car repairs 3 -- 25 20,340 18. Carriages and wagons 33 1,351,078 67 70,096 19. Cars and car works 4 3,867,000 166 142,850 20. Clothing (men’s custom) 64 1,244,917 139 156,131 21. Clothing (men’s factory) 84 4,525,551 447 591,969 22. Clothing (women’s custom) 48 843,548 123 93,254 23. Clothing (women’s factory) 22 737,225 182 178,112 24. Cocoa and chocolate 3 269,000 23 16,515 25. Coffees and spices 6 563,150 34 33,488 26. Cooperage 3 114,346 7 15,840 27. Cottons 6 9,502,973 74 98,219 28. Drugs 7 614,558 48 39,158 29. Dyeing and cleaning 12 479,609 51 45,418 30. Electrical apparatus and supplies 13 4,828,667 157 199,274 31. Electric light and power 3 3,753,392 16 21,356 32. Elevators 3 266,353 31 32,610 33. Flour and grist mill products 3 3,424,500 61 128,900 34. Foundry and machine shop products 43 3,804,137 305 325,776 35. Fruit and vegetable canning 3 75,500 8 11,500 36. Furnishing goods (men’s) 9 1,597,500 162 157,930 37. Furniture and upholstered goods 15 828,700 57 53,079 38. Furs (dressed) 3 134,000 13 15,220 39. Glass (stained, cut and ornamental) 4 109,500 6 6,250 40. Gloves and mittens 3 485,588 40 30,052 41. Hairwork 3 59,500 2 3,380 42. Harness and saddlery 8 1,527,153 104 124,800 43. Hats, caps and furs 59 3,468,671 231 222,406 44. Hosiery and knit goods 5 1,072,093 35 28,096 45. Housebuilding 15 504,070 30 30,398 46. Interior decorations 9 185,768 16 12,585 47. Iron and steel products 8 4,092,900 197 187,929 48. Jewelry and repairs 14 1,644,387 141 105,405 49. Leather goods 9 1,000,287 83 59,508 50. Leather (tanned, curled and finished) 4 770,163 23 41,250 51. Liquors (malt) 7 2,939,223 46 68,552 52. Lime 3 134,100 12 14,980 53. Log products 3 877,000 17 24,906 54. Lumber products 34 3,460,328 137 164,971 55. Mattresses and spring beds 7 159,000 30 33,808 56. Mirrors and plate glass 5 335,000 48 42,201 57. Monuments and tombstones 7 257,800 12 15,991 58. Musical instruments 4 220,500 26 34,750 59. Oils 4 423,200 19 22,194 60. Optical goods 3 34,150 24 20,707 61. Paints and varnishes 7 3,829,538 155 175,576 62. Patent medicines 6 89,803 14 10,903 63. Picture frames 4 101,500 19 12,980 64. Plumbing and tinsmithing 26 3,796,433 209 203,363 65. Printers’ supplies 3 34,207 7 8,640 66. Printing and bookbinding 64 2,414,200 255 252,650 67. Printing and publishing 15 5,323,991 473 419,905 68. Roofing and roofing materials 6 499,500 44 55,254 69. Rubber clothing 8 383,750 30 30,498 70. Signs 5 76,700 21 22,300 71. Silversmithing 4 30,500 6 4,916 72. Slaughtering and meat packing 12 2,414,000 116 115,348 73. Soap 4 360,000 23 31,300 74. Stationary goods 4 166,668 24 25,282 75. Stone (cut) 3 386,074 6 6,864 76. Tobacco (chewing, smoking and snuff) 5 2,874,489 22 41,346 77. Tobacco (cigars and cigarettes) 30 10,068,784 322 425,327 78. All other industries* 105 14,442,976 629 632,579

Employees Cost of Name or on wages. raw Value of No. kind of industry. No. Amt. material. products.

CITY OF MONTREAL Totals 60,390 $26,779,657 $88,862,420 $164,698,761 1. Aerated and mineral waters 325 165,140 150,260 575,330 2. Axes and tools 118 67,974 155,649 301,059 3. Awnings, tents and sails 67 28,153 85,587 167,553 4. Bags, cotton 250 105,000 1,632,000 2,982,000 5. Baking powder and flavoring extracts 55 27,398 97,248 449,425 6. Blacking 28 8,084 97,472 162,494 7. Blacksmithing 34 16,536 21,500 77,000 8. Boilers and engines 1,184 831,997 1,389,527 3,267,873 9. Boots and shoes 5,291 2,228,701 6,377,823 11,462,566 10. Boot and shoe supplies 253 112,838 134,933 303,177 11. Boxes and bags (paper) 792 250,226 457,934 1,087,119 12. Boxes (wooden) 167 70,654 120,000 250,000 13. Brass castings 245 113,303 822,766 1,329,006 14. Bread, biscuit and confentionery 1,095 457,435 1,808,552 3,270,525 15. Brooms and brushes 40 13,882 25,880 66,500 16. Buttons 76 17,600 13,000 49,000 17. Car repairs 433 217,997 223,464 465,985 18. Carriages and wagons 649 340,286 719,317 1,594,787 19. Cars and car works 3,348 1,649,889 4,064,832 7,710,430 20. Clothing (men’s custom) 1,562 706,087 1,428,123 3,226,234 21. Clothing (men’s factory) 5,378 2,442,810 6,306,479 11,358,192 22. Clothing (women’s custom) 967 425,908 994,836 2,176,924 23. Clothing (women’s factory) 1,976 609,821 1,232,304 1,857,493 24. Cocoa and chocolate 190 53,856 300,000 443,480 25. Coffees and spices 85 45,241 501,826 748,599 26. Cooperage 50 16,907 41,800 84,992 27. Cottons 3,435 1,292,493 4,531,282 6,480,698 28. Drugs 116 51,274 291,130 627,488 29. Dyeing and cleaning 630 268,314 213,750 883,103 30. Electrical apparatus and supplies 1,929 898,951 3,026,228 6,841,124 31. Electric light and power 94 54,558 -- 396,850 32. Elevators 97 52,990 58,797 315,170 33. Flour and grist mill products 255 10,900 4,791,000 5,686,000 34. Foundry and machine shop products 1,919 1,002,673 2,269,868 4,735,357 35. Fruit and vegetable canning 44 13,900 85,000 123,500 36. Furnishing goods (men’s) 1,823 467,144 1,007,831 2,820,816 37. Furniture and upholstered goods 725 383,144 409,671 1,358,310 38. Furs (dressed) 183 73,612 854,700 1,255,000 39. Glass (stained, cut and ornamental) 49 23,184 15,900 386,000 40. Gloves and mittens 327 112,431 358,234 707,449 41. Hairwork 43 28,400 30,200 107,000 42. Harness and saddlery 429 207,340 688,600 1,173,750 43. Hats, caps and furs 1,268 500,155 2,598,029 4,388,918 44. Hosiery and knit goods 586 192,137 553,298 1,016,901 45. Housebuilding 462 251,932 390,566 1,053,583 46. Interior decorations 148 75,720 128,555 294,342 47. Iron and steel products 1,224 794,416 1,908,666 3,880,597 48. Jewelry and repairs 574 312,244 477,348 1,184,351 49. Leather goods 228 101,038 817,710 1,112,035 50. Leather (tanned, curled and finished) 276 126,914 735,795 1,300,141 51. Liquors (malt) 410 238,326 638,615 1,627,311 52. Lime 57 28,000 8,600 149,000 53. Log products 84 41,429 478,000 630,400 54. Lumber products 1,618 877,271 2,272,876 4,904,573 55. Mattresses and spring beds 274 129,327 307,509 572,475 56. Mirrors and plate glass 123 54,022 173,132 342,830 57. Monuments and tombstones 114 65,998 74,182 237,032 58. Musical instruments 159 92,100 112,167 283,400 59. Oils 60 25,019 744,068 864,674 60. Optical goods 55 19,882 45,271 121,771 61. Paints and varnishes 516 299,019 2,822,706 4,722,477 62. Patent medicines 38 17,705 23,074 136,803 63. Picture frames 61 33,106 28,975 104,000 64. Plumbing and tinsmithing 1,952 691,537 1,416,917 2,767,034 65. Printers’ supplies 21 9,328 10,000 23,500 66. Printing and bookbinding 1,484 703,392 740,770 2,367,655 67. Printing and publishing 1,144 631,994 742,956 2,595,180 68. Roofing and roofing materials 307 161,167 526,695 886,450 69. Rubber clothing 291 136,885 384,100 869,744 70. Signs 76 41,000 36,400 140,797 71. Silversmithing 28 17,036 9,200 51,128 72. Slaughtering and meat packing 650 310,638 5,059,000 6,123,125 73. Soap 99 34,660 269,878 495,862 74. Stationary goods 191 56,522 84,159 235,980 75. Stone (cut) 270 100,760 25,060 324,418 76. Tobacco (chewing, smoking and snuff) 787 255,999 2,596,356 3,564,736 77. Tobacco (cigars and cigarettes) 3,108 1,107,464 4,809,173 10,292,144 78. All other industries* 4,812 2,280,479 8,995,320 15,677,928

* All other industries comprises:--2 wire, 1 cutlery and edge tools, 1 oxygen gas, 1 time recorder, 1 window fixtures, 1 coffins and caskets, 2 glass, 2 vinegar and pickles, 1 wall paper, 1 paste flour, 1 pins, 1 washing blue, 1 sausage casings, 1 bells, 1 shoddy, 1 glue, 1 boats and canoes, 1 cement (Portland), 1 fertilizers, 1 paper, 1 batting, 2 brick, tile and pottery, 1 cordage, rope and twine, 1 malt, 1 plaster, 1 foods (prepared), 2 railway supplies, 1 refrigerators, 1 safes and vaults, 1 saw, 1 typewriters, 1 cement blocks and tiles, 1 lasts and pegs, 2 stone (artificial), 1 vaseline, 1 sewing machines, 2 silk and silk goods, 1 spray motors, 2 stamps and stencils, 1 sugar (refined), 2 umbrellas, 2 vacuum cleaners, 2 washing compounds, 1 woodworking and turning, 1 costumier and hairdresser, 1 cotton and wool waste, 1 paper (blue print), 1 stove polish, 1 automobile repairs, 1 bicycles, 2 gas (lighting and heating), 1 inks, 2 photographic materials, 2 stereotyping and electro-typing, 1 artificial limbs, 2 asbestos, 1 babbitt metal, 1 bridges (iron and steel), 1 butter and cheese, 2 corks, 1 fringes, cords and tassels, 1 gas machines, 1 miscellaneous, 2 plumbers’ supplies, 1 typewriter’s supplies, 1 dyes and colors, 1 typefounding, 1 fancy goods, 1 laces and braids, 1 scales, 1 church ornaments, 1 macaroni, 2 prepared flour, 2 statuary, 1 boxes (cigar), 1 corsets and supplies, 2 dies and moulds, 1 jewelry cases, 1 metallic roofing and flooring, 2 patterns, 1 showcases, 1 textile (dyeing and finishing), 1 window blinds and shades, 1 pipe and boiler covering.

THE MANUFACTURES OF GREATER MONTREAL

Capital. Wages. 1910. 1900. 1910. 1900.

Montreal $132,475,802 $57,148,661 $34,270,835 $17,810,356 Laprairie 112,000 -- 31,940 -- Longueuil 75,000 -- 55,300 -- Maisonneuve 7,919,080 4,147,533 4,856,496 912,789 Lachine 7,496,612 3,913,846 1,301,545 565,432 Outremont 187,993 -- 51,780 -- St. Henri -- 4,303,362 -- 1,154,383 St. Lambert 191,638 -- 58,496 -- St. Louis -- 101,053 -- 52,988 Verdun 426,051 -- 102,547 -- Westmount 1,441,288 48,947 374,562 26,394 ---------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Total $150,325,464 $69,663,402 $41,103,501 $20,522,342

Production. 1910. 1900.

Montreal $166,296,972 $71,099,750 Laprairie 17,500 -- Longueuil 145,750 -- Maisonneuve 20,813,774 6,008,780 Lachine 6,295,716 2,909,847 Outremont 190,506 -- St. Henri -- 4,139,391 St. Lambert 185,119 -- St. Louis -- 200,140 Verdun 229,299 -- Westmount 1,541,802 102,500 ------------ ----------- Total $195,716,438 $84,460,408

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See the supplemental chart at the end of this chapter.

[2] It is worthy of record that within the past few years there has been also on the part of these great organizations great interest and active concurrence shown in the civic betterment and good government schemes as well as in general humanitarian movements for the common good.