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.