COMMERCIAL HISTORY BEFORE THE UNION

MONTREAL’S EARLY BUSINESS FIRMS—A PROPHECY AT BEGINNING OF NINETEENTH CENTURY—CULTIVATION OF HEMP—ST. PAUL STREET—SLAVES IN MONTREAL—DOCTORS AND DRUGS IN 1815—WHOLESALE FIRMS IN 1816—FIRST MEETING OF COMMITTEE OF TRADE—NOTRE DAME STREET—M’GILL STREET—FRENCH CANADIAN BUSINESSES—SHIP CARGOES—THE SHOP FRONTS IN 1839.

The early struggle of Montreal to assume the mastery of the commercial supremacy has been indicated by its continuance of the great fur trading industry which became amalgamated in the North West Company, and by the establishment of its general merchant class. After the American war of 1775, business began to flourish. One of the earliest of the firms of this period was the tailor business founded by Benaiah Gibb, whose son, also Benaiah, became a benefactor to the Art Association of Montreal. Benaiah Gibb, who came in 1774, at the age of twenty years, succeeded to a Mr. McFarlain. In 1782 there came Mr. John Molson, who started a brewery in the east end, and in 1809 pioneered the steamship lines of Canada. About 1800 was established the retail drug firm of (George) Wadsworth & (Lewis) Lyman. This became a wholesale business, also, in 1829, and today the Lyman Drug Company is the direct lineal descendant. The great Montreal Ogilvie flour milling business was begun in 1801 by Mr. Ogilvie at Jacques Cartier near Quebec. Shortly afterwards, perceiving that Montreal was to rise superior in the commercial world, he erected a mill on the Lachine Rapids. The Glenora Mills on the Lachine Canal were erected in 1852 by his grandsons, A.W., John and W.W. Ogilvie. The Ogilvie mills have since spread over the Dominion.

There were far-seeing men, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. A few years after its opening a visiting traveler had the following prophetic view of Montreal as the emporium of the northern world:

“The City is that subdivision which is enclosed by the ancient fortifications, the ramparts, fosse and glacis of which are suffered to go to decay. Its form is that of a trapezium, or quadrilateral figure whose sides are unequal. It is situated on an incline plane, gently descending towards the eastern branch of the St. Lawrence River, in whose ample bosom the Island itself, with all its villages, gentlemen’s seats, and cultivated farms, reposes. The following was the population about this time:

Houses.Males.Females.
City of Montreal4851,5411,642
St. Lawrence suburbs5141,2921,488
St. Antoine do.144348346
Recollet do.187552620
Quebec do.256783784
Grey Nunnery do.13894

“The return of men able to bear arms give an aggregate of 3,392; but as little or no attention is given to their exercises and discipline, even that number is contemptible in the estimation of a military man, who in war justly considers an undisciplined mob as an encumbrance rather than help. Should Montreal ever be attacked it can only be defended by British troops. Without these the inhabitants would not be likely to irritate a powerful assailant by ineffectual resistance. As a military position, the place would not be worth a contest, as it would remain no longer in the hands of the garrison than they would keep possession of the high level ground that commands the city. But its local advantages for commercial purposes and manufactures are so great and various that it will inevitably become the Emporium of the Northern World.

“At the head of ship navigation, on the waters of the majestic St. Lawrence, like the heart in the human body, it will be the grand reservoir into which all the streams connected with that immense river must pour their contents. The inhabitants bordering on these waters on the lakes in the northern part of Vermont and western part of New York must necessarily make it the depot for whatever articles of export their labours may produce, and take in return whatever merchandise they consume.

“Those countries, particularly New York and Vermont, are populating so fast that the commerce of Montreal must increase rapidly unless the mechants’ inattention to their own interests should neglect to import goods in such quantity and variety as will render it unnecessary for the country traders to have recourse to the markets of New York and Boston. At present the commerce of Montreal is principally confined to the fur trade, and collateral relations, under the direction of a company of wealthy, independent, enterprising merchants, whose immense capital and judicious arrangements have set at defiance every kind of competition. But the other mercantile departments remain unoccupied, and men of industry and property might, with a well grounded prospect of success, establish houses for conducting those branches of commerce which are less expensive, troublesome and hazardous than the fur trade.”