With the date of 1829 we may associate a note on the Montreal lines of stages which were conducted as follows: “between Montreal and Prescott, every week day except Saturday, proprietors H. Dickerson & Company, St. Paul Street; between Quebec and Montreal, every week day except Saturday, proprietors H. Dickerson & Company, of St. Paul Street, and John Cody, Quebec; between Montreal and Bytown (Ottawa), twice a week, Tuesday and Friday morning, proprietor E. Cushing, Haymarket, Montreal; between Montreal and Albany, twice a week, proprietor, E. Cushing; between Montreal and Albany, thrice a week, proprietor, John Esinhart & Company (St. John).”
The railway era started in 1831, when the charter for the first railway in Canada between La Prairie and St. John was granted. All this was to mean great extension to Montreal business. To the date of 1833 is to be attributed the original foundation of Kenneth, Campbell & Co., wholesale druggists, through D. Michael McCulloch, Alexander Urquhart, Dr. William McDonald, John Birks (for Carter, Kerry & Co.), and Johnson & Beers, passing to Kenneth Campbell in 1850.
At this time the grocery business of Hudon Hebert, established on St. Paul Street near Jacques Cartier Square since 1839, and that of Chaput, Fils, on Youville Place in 1842, mark early French-Canadian enterprise.
McGill Street before the ’40s was considered in the country, when Samuel Mathewson started his present grocery business there. For a long time the street as it grew up was a frowsy affair, till the Grand Trunk offices set the way to higher ideals. The street has begun its transformation period during the last four years. Mathewson & Co. was established by Samuel Mathewson on May 1, 1834, on St. Paul Street. In 1840 he moved to McGill Street and was thought to be moving into the country.
It has been found difficult to trace the history of the chief French-Canadian firms. The advent of the Banque du Peuple originally established in 1835 as a private bank under the title of Viger, DeWitt & Cie, shows that this portion of the population was becoming financially stronger. In 1843 the Banque du Peuple as such was started. The petitioners for incorporation were Messrs. Louis Viger, Jacob DeWitt, John Donegani, Pierre Beaubien, Augustin Tulloch, Hosea Baillou Smith, Ronald Trudeau and Pierre Jodoin, Esquires, of Montreal; Alexis Sauvageau, Esquire, of La Prairie; Timothée Franchère, Esquire, of St. Mathias; Joseph Frederick Allard, Esquire, of Chambly; and Alexis Montmarquet, Esquire, of Carillon. It will be noted that we have not treated of the banks and insurance businesses which are so closely connected with the commercial growth of the city. These are treated separately in another place.
The state of commerce about this time will appear from the following scale of vessels and their tonnage, which arrived at Montreal:
| Date. | No. of Vessels. | Tonnage. |
| 1832 | 117 | 27,713 |
| 1833 | 137 | 30,864 |
| 1834 | 89 | 20,105 |
| 1835 | 108 | 22,729 |
| 1836 | 93 | 22,133 |
| 1837 | 91 | 22,668 |
| 1838 | 63 | 15,750 |
Of these vessels and their cargoes, by far the greater part were from England and Scotland. A few came every year from Halifax and other British ports in North America and sometimes cargoes of grain, etc., from other ports in Europe.
The state of the store fronts of this period immediately preceding the Union will afford a picture of the commercial streets of the city.
In 1839 Mr. H. Greig wrote in his History of Montreal: “Both in Quebec and Montreal the windows in many of the old stores and shops are small, not larger than those of ordinary dwelling houses, very little calculated for display and not giving indications of the extensive depositories of goods that may be found within.