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Canadian Business History
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Early Business History
1779 - Montréal Fur Traders and Merchants Found the North West Company
These traders, some of them allied with American Fur Company head John Jacob Astor, came to be know as the Norwesters, after their chief organization, the North West Company. Every year they would assemble capital and trade goods for that year's "outfit," and reap the profits in the fall or a year later when the canoes laden with furs reached Montreal from the west.
Another Norwester was Simon McTavish, who in 1775 backed trader Peter Pond in an outfit across the Mississippi river and up the Missouri. In 1776, the Montrealers joined forces and struck deep into the HBC territory when Thomas Frobisher built a trading post at Ile a La Crosse on the Churchill (Misnipi) River. In 1778, McTavish sent Peter Pond north-west from Cumberland House on an exploratory trip; in August, he crossed the 19 km Methye Portage separating Hudson Bay and Arctic watersheds, and was the first white man to enter North America's richest fur trapping area, the Athabasca region. In September, he built the 'Old Establishment' post 48 km south of Lake Athabasca.
On May 24, 1779, in Montreal, fur trade partners Benjamin and Joseph Frobisher, John Ross and Peter Pond met with Montreal merchants Isaac Todd, James McGill, Simon McTavish, James McBeath and Lawrence Ermatinger and founded the North West Company as a formal body, whose goal was to spread their risk and break the Hudson's Bay Company monopoly over the fur trade in the west. The NWCo issued 16 shares held by the 9 different partnerships.
On December 13, 1786, they were joined by Montreal merchants Gregory & McLeod, who merged with the North West Company on 20-share basis. In 1785, the North West Company partners founded the Beaver Club in Montreal; membership was restricted to those who spent at least one winter in the North West.
As the business of the partners increased, they began to ship more and more furs west, and worked on a larger scale shipping route that involved freight boats that navigated the St. Lawrence canals to the upper lakes. In 1787, they paid the Royal Engineers £12,000 for a portage road north from Toronto; called Yonge Street, the road ran 33 miles north to the Holland River & Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. Ten years later, on Nov. 28, 1797, the North West Company started to build the Sault Ste. Marie Canal. Completed in 1801, the Sault canal was destroyed by American raiders at the outbreak of war in 1812.
1781 - William Twiss Builds North America's First Lock Canal
Soldiers of the King's Royal Regiment of New York, a colonial unit made up of Loyalists, dug the canal between Lacs Saint-François & Saint-Louis, through solid rock using rudimentary tools and techniques. It was more than 100 m long and 2.5 m wide. Each of the three locks was 12 m long and 1.8 m wide, with draft measuring close to 80 cm. The locks compensated for a drop of about 2 m between the head and the bottom of the rapids.
The Coteau-du-Lac canal went into operation right away, charging a toll on boat traffic. Over the next two years, three further canals were built upstream at Faucille, Trou-du-Moulin and Rocher-Fendu.
1809 -John Molson Launches Steamboat Accomodation
Accomodation carried 10 passengers in comfort down the St. Lawrence to Quebec and back, normally a seven day round trip, in less than three days.
North America's first regular steamship service charged $8 for the 36 hour trip from Montreal to Quebec.
Molson's St. Lawrence Steamboat Company lost money on the Accomodation. They dismantled the vessel, purchased two steamship engines from England, combined the two engines and the remains of the 'Accommodation' to create a much grander ship, the 'Swiftsure', the largest steamboat in the world, which travelled the same route in 24 hours.
During the war of 1812, Molson and two of his sons, enlisted in the force and dedicated his steamships to the service of the Crown. The Swiftsure was the first steamship to be used in war.
Molson's steamboats let shippers bring goods between Montreal and Quebec City on schedule and in relatively short time, despite the St. Lawrence’s harsh currents. By 1833, Molson's St. Lawrence Steamboat Company had expanded to the Ottawa River and Rideau Canal.
1817 - Founding of Bank of Montreal
- May 19, 1817 - Montréal business leaders adopt articles of association for the Bank of Montreal; officially founded May 23, 1817, with a capital of £250,000; opens for business on November 3, 1817. Montréal, Québec
1877 - Bell Installs World's First Business Telephone Service
- June 20, 1877 - Alexander Graham Bell 1847-1922 installs the world's First commercial telephone service in Hamilton. Hamilton, Ontario
1947 - Vern Hunter Strikes Oil at Leduc
Before that date, Canada had to rely almost fully on oil imports from other countries. Some crude had been found in Western Canada at Turner Valley, Alberta, [1], but nothing big enough to spark a new oil boom. But Imperial Oil, using new seismic technology and portable, diesel powered rigs, persevered, starting in Saskatchewan. In 1946, they drilled 133 consecutive dry holes in the province. Finally, they gave driller Vern Hunter orders to move his rig, Wilson #2, to the Leduc, Alberta, area, where the seismic crews had found an interesting anomaly.
Vern, now known as 'Dry Hole' Hunter, spudded in Imperial-Leduc No.1 on November 20, 1946. The well was a wildcat - no drilling had taken place within an 80-km radius. All through the bitterly cold winter, the crew drilled down through the earth and rock, until on February 12, they saw some activity in the bit samples. At first, Hunter and his assistant George Tosh thought they had a gas discovery, but past 1,500 metres, the drilling speeded up. Finally, at 1,544 metres the samples started showing free black crude oil!
The company decided to celebrate the "bringing in" of the well in a big way. They invited dignitaries, reporters and company people to the well site for an official ceremony at 10 am the following morning, but the swabbing equipment broke down and Tosh had to spend all night fixing it. Many of the 500 invited guests and local farmers left.
Finally, at about 4:00 pm, the pipe coughed up some mud and water and stated to rumble. As Hunter later wrote, they "could hear it like a train approaching when you put your ear to the pipe". The well came in with a roar, spurting oil into the sump pit. At 4:10 pm, Hunter gave the signal, and Alberta mines minister Norman Tanner turned the valve to start the oil flowing at an initial rate of about 155 cubic metres per day. Then they flared the gas, one of the roughnecks ignited the line, and out puffed "the most beautiful smoke ring you ever saw," followed by a column of flame. People drove in from as far away as Calgary to witness the spectable at the Leduc No.1 derrick.
Alberta oil frenzy hit hard, and the Toronto Stock Exchange was soon listing 40 new Western Canadian oil and gas companies.
The following March 6, 1948, Atlantic Leduc No. 3 oilwell became so saturated and weak that the land cratered in, swallowing the drilling rig and causing a fire that burned for 3 days until it could be put out. The well blew wild for 7 months.
On August 17, 1948, Imperial Oil opened its refinery at Clover Bar.
Leduc No. 1 kept producing until 1974 after giving up some 317,000 barrels of oil and 9 million cubic metres of natural gas. The Leduc field still has natural gas, and Imperial Oil's exploration and production arm, Esso Resources, began producing the field as a gas reservoir on November 1, 1989.
References
