General view of shedsGeneral view of sheds
General view of sheds
Grain Elevator No. 2. First entire concrete elevator in the world. Capacity 2,622,000 bushelsGrain Elevator No. 2. First entire concrete elevator in the world. Capacity 2,622,000 bushels
Grain Elevator No. 2. First entire concrete elevator in the world. Capacity 2,622,000 bushels
King Edward Pier. Vessels loading and unloading grainKing Edward Pier. Vessels loading and unloading grain
King Edward Pier. Vessels loading and unloading grain
Duke of Connaught Pier and Floating Dry Dock. Capacity 25,000 tonsDuke of Connaught Pier and Floating Dry Dock. Capacity 25,000 tons
Duke of Connaught Pier and Floating Dry Dock. Capacity 25,000 tons
There were no steamboats, except those running to Quebec, clumsy things, with bluff bows, built on the model of sailing vessels, rigged with bowsprit, high mast and square sail; the deck flush, and cabins all below.
Their steam power was so small that they could not get fifty miles from Quebec unless they left with the tide; and oxen were frequently used in assisting them up the current, below the city. All the structure on the deck of the largest, called the “Car of Commerce,” was a square house over the stairway, which may still be seen, converted into a summer house, with gallery surrounding, at St. Catherines, that all may notice on the right side of the road, when riding round the mountain.
There were no tow boats then. Vessels from sea had to make their way to Montreal by wind which often took a month or more, the worst being the last mile where I have seen oxen used on a tow line, as otherwise the light winds would be insufficient to enable them to overcome the force of the strong current.
The “ship” of the period was the Everetta from London, which arrived some days after, and summer goods were advertised about the middle of June, there being no way of getting Spring and Summer “fashions” earlier, so that our ladies were always one year behind the age.
I have in my possession a bill of lading of goods by this ship, dated 25th of March, 1800. She brought the supplies to the “Northwest Company,” which then carried on the great Indian Trade, from Montreal, by canoes, up to Lake Superior, and onwards.
The Ship remained moored at the foot of St. Sulpice Street all summer, till the canoes returned with the year’s catch of furs, and carried them to England.
A traveller quoted by Mr. Sandham in “Ville Marie” as visiting the city in 1819 thus describes the activity of the water side:
“We crossed the river in a canoe hollowed out of a single log, and on landing we climbed a steep and slippery bank, and found ourselves in one of the principal streets of the city.”
“In the morning” continues the account “we witnessed a scene of considerable activity, caused by the carts and horses which are driven into the river as far as possible to obtain wood, etc, from the boats, and as they go out so far, the body of the cart is sometimes out of water and the larger sticks are drawn out with a rope.”
It would be hard to imagine a more hopeless outlook than existed in the Harbour of Montreal, as indicated on Bouchette’s plan of 1824. The first Lachine Canal was only completed in 1825, having a depth over the sills of 4½ feet, and is not shown on that plan.
Two stone windmills marked the progress of industrial development to the westward of what is now McGill Street. They were situated on top of the open beach.
The Grand Trunk Railway Company’s elevator now stands on the site of the water front of 1824.
A small wharf 200 feet long existed, providing a depth of water of 9 feet, in the position of the flood wall opposite the present Harbour Commissioners’ office.
Another irregular wharf known as Berthelette’s Wharf existed between the Harbour Commissioners’ office and the Custom House.
From the Little River, now the Custom House, downward, the beach was unimproved except by the construction of sloping roadways down to the water.
Shallow water, even points of exposed rocks, existed two-thirds of the distance across to St. Helen’s Island, in the early days before the Moffatt’s Island Wharf was built.
The size and type of the vessels trading to Montreal may be imagined from the fact that Lake St. Peter limited the draft to 11 feet, and even that depth was not available at any of the wharves in the Harbour.
The shipping trade of a whole season, eighty years ago, could have been carried in one or two of the modern ships which now frequent the port.
Sloping roadways down to the water where the river was so low as to permit of rocks showing above the current, a long stretch of beach where the children of those days romped and played, and the poorer women washed the linen using the big stones as washing boards, a long unbroken line of trees and shrubberies past Maisonneuve, where now the Harbour Commissioners’ powerful locomotives transport merchandise from vessels of 15,000 tons register to the various railway terminals, these were the features of the Port of Montreal long before Confederation had ever been dreamed of. In those days inland navigation commenced at Lachine. Goods for Upper Canada were carted to Lachine and from there taken up the Haldimand Canals in bateaux about thirty-five feet long and 5½ feet beam, built of the type of a modern raft boat with pointed bow and stern.
From 1824 to 1892 the development of the port progressed but slowly. Still, in the early days the development of the harbour was a very live question and it was on the 8th of May, 1830, that George Moffatt, Jules Quesnel and Capt. Robert S. Piper, R.E., were appointed commissioners under the Great Seal of the Province of Lower Canada and signed by His Excellency the Governor at the Castle of St. Louis; for the purpose of carrying into effect an Act of the Provincial Legislature, 10 and 11, Geo. IV., Cap. 28: “An Act to provide for the Improvement and Enlargement of the Harbour of Montreal.”
The first works undertaken were for the construction of wharves, ramps, slips for Durham boats, a revetment wall and a bridge to Oyster Island, which was to be the principal wharf.
In their first annual report the commissioners, who were called the Corporation of the Trinity Board of Montreal until 1855 when an act was passed changing the name to the Harbour Commissioners of Montreal and increasing the number of commissioners from three to five, stated that they confidently anticipated that the wharves undertaken, when completed, would be superior to any works of the kind in the Province, and would enable the City of Montreal to be advantageously contrasted with any other in North America for beauty, solidity and convenience of approach by water, and the present Harbour of Montreal rather justifies the modest boast of the commissioners of eighty years ago.
Writing in 1839, before the improvements had been made in the harbour by the commissioners, Mr. Newton Bosworth in “Hochelaga Depicta” quotes a New York traveller, who, on landing from a bateau which brought him from La Prairie, thus afterwards expressed himself:
“The approach to Montreal conveyed no prepossessing idea of the enterprise of its municipality; ships, brigs and steamboats lay on the margin of the river at the foot of the hill, no long line of wharves, built of the substantial free stone of which there is an abundance in the very harbour affording security to vessels and profit to owners; the commercial haven looked as ragged and as muddy as the shores of Nieu Nederlandt when the Guede Vrow first made her appearance off the battery.”
“Now,” remarks Mr. Bosworth in 1839, commenting on this “if he were to repeat his visit he would be constrained to make a different report, and find himself able to step ashore without more trouble than in walking across a room.”
The appropriation for the first three years amounted to $4,000, while at present the Harbour Commissioners have undertaken a series of improvements which are soon to be completed at an approximate cost of $6,000,000.
During the past ten years no less than thirty-eight million dollars has been expended to improve the local harbour and ship channel, nearly one-half of which immense sum has gone towards the establishment of harbour and terminal improvements.
Millions of dollars have been spent on lighthouses, light ships, submarine bell stations, whistling buoys, the dredging of the main ship channel from 27½ to 30 feet at low water, its widening and straightening have been carried out at a cost of $14,000,000, the reorganization of the pilotage system has cost $140,000, the establishment of fifteen land telephone stations between Quebec and Montreal has involved the expenditure of $150,000, while hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent for other important projects.
Since 1830 some of the best Engineers in Canada, the United States and Great Britain, have from time to time been called upon to investigate and submit plans for improvements.
Messrs. Gzowsky, Keefer, Forsythe, Trautwine, Legge, Nish, and Slippell all submitted plans up to 1873.
A picture of the results of the improvements during the intervening period is to be found in Mr. T.S. Brown’s retrospect, already quoted.
“I visited it (the harbour)” says the same writer, “at the end of fifty-four years, on the 28th of May, 1872. And what did I see?1
“A canal of the largest dimensions coming in at Windmill Point, and the old fields converted into basins, filled with steamers, schooners and barges, one side fringed by manufactories, and the other by lofty warehouses, and platforms filled with merchandise.
“From ‘Pointe à Blondeau,’ or Grey Nun Street, to the Barracks, there is a high stone revetment wall, supporting Commissioners Street, with Ramps at convenient distances, leading to a broad platform or wharf running down to below the barracks and Dalhousie Square, along which is a track for Railway Cars, and from which project many piers, one connecting with the Island before mentioned, and others lower down, extending further out.
“This platform or line wharf, and the piers, are covered and filled with merchandise, of all discriptions, in bars, bundles, casks, cases, boxes and bales, a part being covered with temporary sheds.
“The quantity and weight is so immense that one wonders where it comesfrom, and where it goes to, but the immense mass extending along Harbour and Canal for a mile, is but a small portion of what is passing into or through the port, for while countless carts and cars, are daily removing from one side, steamers and ships fill up every space by discharging on the other, with steam power and regiments of laborers. The taking in of the cargo is going on at the same time and elevators alongside the ships are taking from propellors alongside from the west and far west thousands of bushels of grain. Instead of the half a dozen brigs of 1818, with an aggregate tonnage of twelve to fifteen hundred tons discharging slowly with skids on a rough beach, there lays one steamer that will measure more than the whole put together.
“In all there is in port, stretched along the wharves and piers from Grey Nun Street to below the Barracks, 21 Ocean Steamers, 22,612 tons; 20 Ships, 17,710 tons; 22 Barques, 12,409 tons; 3 Brigs, 760 tons; 4 Brigantines and Schooners, 278 tons, in all 70 Vessels with an aggregate tonnage of 53,769 tons.
“The shore (I have often seen it bare), below the foot of St. Sulpice Street has been dredged and wharfed to accommodate ships drawing twenty feet of water. A Quebec Steamer, not stumpy, low and flush deck, but long, built on a skiff model, with two stories of staterooms raised above the deck, is at a pier at the bottom of Jacques Cartier Square, stretching out beyond the limits of the old firewood rafts, brought down by farmers from Chateaguay and neighbouring regions, to be sold in June, when they were impatient to get home, for $2.00 a cord.
“Directly below is a fleet of ‘Market Boats,’ really elegant steamers, of modern build, that navigate to all ports down to ‘Three Rivers.’
“Mixed with these are a fleet of ‘Wood Barges,’ rigged on the principle of a ‘Chinese Junk’ (which some of them resemble on a small scale), with a very high mast, and very long square-sail yards.
“These bring up firewood, hay, grain, lumber, etc., from below, a trade little dreamed of in old times.
“Further down are piles of boards, planks, and other lumber, and ships being loaded with it for the South Atlantic, or perhaps Pacific, and work is in progress for continuing the wharves to Hochelaga where I have seen many ships launched.
“Where stood the ‘Mansion House’ (in 1818 our great hotel), a former residence of Sir John Johnson, and dwelling houses with small gardens, there is now the Bonsecour Market. The old walls and sheds, along the ‘front’ to ‘Pointe à Calliêre,’ are replaced by tall warehouses. An elegant Custom House on the Pointe replaces an old potash store. Other warehouses are built on the old ship yard, and the Grey Nuns having removed to their new establishment on Guy Street, their buildings are disappearing, St. Peter Street being continued to the harbour by cutting directly through their old church.
“Such was the aspect of the harbour of Montreal in 1818, and such it is today (1872) and I sincerely hope this article may be preserved to be republished half a century hence, accompanied by a description of the harbour as it then was.”
To continue the story of the developments of the harbour for the greater part of fifty years. In 1875 Mr. Robert Bruce Bell, Major General Newton and Mr. Sanford Fleming drew up a report and plan for the improvement of the Habour. Mr. John Kennedy, for so many years Chief Engineer of the HarbourCommissioners, has not only designed but carried out many of the improvements now existing.
Ten years ago there was no Alexandra Basin or wharf to speak of, there was no level harbour front, no permanent sheds, over a dozen of which have only been finished within the past four years.
Magnificent concrete wharves with corrugated iron sheds built on solid concrete foundations have been built opposite the plants of some of Montreal’s largest industries.
The Harbour Commissioners’ tracks pass behind the sheds affording direct communication all over the harbour, while excellent wharfage facilities permit of the circulation of any amount of traffic.
The greatest addition to the port in recent years, however, and urged by the Montreal Board of Trade since 1887, has been the huge floating dock, the “Duke of Connaught,” which was successfully towed across the Atlantic in the fall of 1912. It was dedicated by H.R.H., the Governor General on 18th of November, 1912.
H.R.H. the Governor General in replying to the Commissioners’ address well said that “by the arrival and installation of this great floating dock, the great reproach against the St. Lawrence trade route has been removed, and the largest vessels can now run up to Montreal, secure in the consciousness of entering a port which is in possession of a competent modern equipment for repair and examination.”
The dock is capable2of accommodating vessels of Olympic size or largerand necessitates the employment of a staff of 500 men, the majority of them skilled workmen. The dock can accommodate thirty vessels at present operating on the St. Lawrence route which are too wide of beam to be taken into any existing dock between here and Halifax, 1,000 miles away.
A ship building plant which is to be operated in connection with the dock is to give employment to about two thousand men.
The type of Port of Montreal is a combination of a protected tidal basin, riverside quays and pier jetties.
There is no rise and fall of tide, but the river level fluctuates to an extent of about 12 feet from high water in the spring to low water in the autumn.
During the winter, due to ice shoves, the water occasionally rises to an extreme of 28 feet above the low water level. An artificial embarkment, parallel to the shore, about one and one-third miles long, protects the whole of the upper part of the harbour, including the entrance to the Lachine Canal, from not only the currents of the river but from ice shoves. This constitutes the protected tidal basin in which the water rises and falls with the river level.
It has not been necessary to purchase any land above the high water mark on the beach, as all piers and wharves have been made artificially by building out into the shallow water and the berths formed by dredging.
From the entrance to the protected basin for about two and one-half miles downstream, to Hochelaga, the river channel is too much contracted to permit of the construction of piers or jetties, and this part of the harbour is developed as riverside quays, sufficient width for harbour purposes being obtained by building the quay-walls in deep water and filling in the area behind to give a width from 100 to 250 feet. Below Hochelaga, where the river section is larger, piers have been built out into the river, inclined so as to give an easy angle of approach from the ship channel.
The success of the port is due primarily to its early development, before any of the water front had been alienated from the crown, and to its geographical, physical and trade situation.
No rights or franchises stand in the way of further extensions, and the sentiment of the country is in favour of a continuance of the policy of retaining the whole harbour area in the public interests.
The facility of approach both by ocean vessels, inland vessels and railways to a convenient point of transfer makes Montreal almost unique, there being nothing in the way of close connection for traffic from all points, and almost in the heart of a large and growing city.
Montreal Harbour is also the terminus of the St. Lawrence Canal System, which affords navigation between Montreal and Lake Erie, a distance of 300 miles, for vessels of 14 feet draft and a carrying capacity of 2,500 tons. From Lake Erie to this head of Lake Superior vessels are able to navigate with a draft of 20 feet and a carrying capacity of 10,000 tons. The inland navigation centering in Montreal therefore commences either by the all lake route of 1,600 miles and vessels of 14 feet draft, or by the lake-and-rail routes, using the 10,000 ton boats to Georgian Bay ports or Port Colborne, and connecting with Montreal either by short-haul rail route or the St. Lawrence canals.
The following figures give the total trade in the Harbour from 1901 to 1914:
Total Trade
About two-thirds of the grain comes to Montreal in steamers carrying 2,500 tons on the 14 foot draft. These vessels cannot afford to wait, but must be unloaded at once if they are to be attracted to Montreal. The rest of the grain coming from the Georgian Bay ports by rail must also be unloaded quickly, as during the grain rush there is a constant railway car shortage. The storage and rapid handling of grain has thus become, in the last few years, a new factor in the problem of harbour economy. There are three modern grain elevators at present in the harbour and none of the older type. Of the modern elevators, one belongs to the Grand Trunk Railway. It had a capacity of 1,000,000 bushels, but has been enlarged to a capacity of 2,100,000. The others belong to the Harbour Commissioners. No. 1 in 1915 will be capable of storing 4,000,000 bushels; while No. 2, recently erected opposite Bonsecours Market, has a capacity of 2,600,000, and can handle 1,000,000 bushels a day. It is entirely built of reinforced concrete, and is the largest of this kind in the world.
It is easy to see that Montreal Harbour, being the farthest inland ocean port of the Northern Continent and also the terminus of the inland Canadian canal and railway routes, is an important factor in the grain carrying trade of the Northern part of the Continent.
In 1914 about two million dollars have been expended by the Harbour Commission in dredging, renovating piers and wharves, building new sheds and wharves, and other work incidental to the five-year program of development undertaken by them at a total cost of $15,000,000. All this work has been under the direction of Mr. W.G. Ross, chairman, Mr. Farquhar Robertson, and Colonel A.E. Labelle, commissioners.
The great desire is now to lengthen the shipping season. Professor Barnes, of McGill University, has made the study of ice his specialty and he is at present carrying on experiments for the Canadian government. He is of the opinion that winter navigation is a possibility. At present the government has, on the St. Lawrence, two ice-breakers, which extend the time of navigation by a few days. The ice difficulty arises where the river widens into a lake, as at Lake St. Peter. Ice forms on the sides of the lake and is blown into the current. When the banks again converge, this ice jams, soon forming a solid ice-bridge. The ice-shoves which occur in the spring are caused in the same way. The solution of the problem is to have ice-breakers always suitably situated to break these bridges as soon as they form.
II
HARBOUR COMMISSIONERS
The following is a list of the Boards of Harbour Commissioners that have executed the duties of the Trust from 1830 up to the present time showing the interest represented by each member:—
* Indicates the President of the Board.
The members not indicated as representatives of the Corn Exchange, Board of Trade, City of Montreal, Chambre de Commerce or Shipping interest have been appointed by the Government of their time. From 1907 the members have been exclusively appointed by the Government.
List of Secretaries of the Board of Harbour Commissioners of Montreal, from its establishment in 1830 up to the present time (1914).
List of Engineers and Superintendents in charge of the deepening of the Ship Channel between Montreal and Quebec, or otherwise prominently connected with the execution of the work up to 1914.
III
CUSTOMS AND EXCISE
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS—EXCISE DUTIES
THE PRESENT CUSTOM HOUSE—A MEMORIAL OF 1790 FOR A CUSTOM HOUSE INDEPENDENT OF QUEBEC—THAT OF 1799 RECANTING THE FORMER MEMORIAL—THE MONTREAL COMMITTEE OF TRADE OF 1831—STEAM VESSELS CHANGE CONDITIONS—FIRST CUSTOM HOUSE PROPER AT MONTREAL—THE COLLECTORS’ NAMES—THE SHIPPING FEDERATION—STATISTICS—EXPORTS AND IMPORTS SINCE 1842—TRADE OF PORT OF MONTREAL—CUSTOMS DUTIES SINCE CONFEDERATION—EXCISE DEPARTMENT OF MONTREAL.
The business of the Customs was conducted before 1840 in a building on Capitol Street. In 1836 the building now used by the Inland Revenue on Place Royale was commenced and opened for the customs office in 1845. It is of the Tuscan order and was designed by Mr. Ostell.
In 1790 in the fall the merchants of Montreal presented a memorial desiring the establishment of a custom house separate from that of Quebec on two grounds: (1) the necessity of having the goods landed at Quebec; (2) the want of authority in the surveyor of the ports to grant certificates for the exportation of pot and pearl ashes. This was strenuously objected to by the naval officers, on the ground that were the prayer answered the passage between Quebec and Montreal would be taken advantage of by the country merchants, shop keepers, publicans, etc., to carry on an illicit trade “to the injury of the revenue and the fur traders.” The complaints in the memorial state that the landing at Quebec of cargoes for Montreal“must be attended with very heavy expense for agents, wharfage and labourers, besides the waste that will happen on cargoes of liquor by landing. What is of still greater consequence, is the loss of time which may arise, it being well known that the delay of a few hours waiting for a clearance upwards has occasioned vessels to be many weeks in performing a voyage of sixty leagues.” This is, of course, an allusion to the sailing vessels then solely used. These inconveniences were removed and the application was not repeated. A further memorial, dated from Montreal the 21st of October, 1799, represents that certain modifications are all that are required and that “a separate and independent custom house may introduce intricacies, difficulties, delays and expense beyond what at present exists and can be foreseen and if so render the means of redress extremely tedious, not to say impracticable.” The names attached to the memorial are Isaac Todd, Forsyth, Richardson & Company, Auldjo, Maitland & Co.; Leith, Jameson & Company; John Gray; Samuel David; James and Andrew McGill; David David; McTavish, Frobisher & Company; J. Laing; Parker, Gerard & Ogilvie; Richard Dobie.
The introduction of steam vessels made new regulations necessary. In 1831 vessels coming to Montreal continued to report at Quebec. In consequence of remonstrances the superintendent of customs residing at Montreal was authorized by a provisional act to collect the provincial revenues there, but this was only a partial relief, as the crown duties had still to be settled for at Quebec, to the great loss of merchants, shippers and consignees. The Committee of Trade of Montreal represented in their memorial of 1831 that the navigation of the St. Lawrence between Quebec and Montreal was rendered speedy and certain by the employment of steam towboats, but the necessity of entering the vessels at the Quebec custom house caused a delay of one day and sometimes two days in unloading. The burdens laid upon the shipping coming to Montreal, the memorial states to have been exceptional for that city, no other instance being known of a merchant being compelled to pay duties on his importations at a distance of 180 miles from the port of discharge, the expense and inconvenience thence arising being equivalent to an extra tax. The memorial reveals the difference of the two ports today. It states that the vessels resorting to Montreal bore a small proportion to those entering Quebec, but the memorials already anticipated that by improvements in the river, vessels from sea would land at Montreal the whole of the goods for its own district, Upper Canada and the adjoining frontier of the United States.
The first Custom House building situated at Place Royale was begun in 1836 and finished in 1838. Montreal, accordingly obtained its own completed Custom House in 1838. In 1870 the Government purchased from the Royal Insurance Company the present Custom House building at 1 Common Street. A newly erected Custom House is now (1914) in course of completion on Youville Square.
The Collectors of Customs at the Port of Montreal have been:
Wm. Hall, from 1838 to 1849: Tancrède Bouthillier, from July, 1850, to November, 1863; Benj. Holmes, from December, 1863, to May, 1865; John Lewis, acting, from May, 1865, to September, 1866; A.M. Delisle, from September, 1866, to October, 1873; W.B. Simpson, from November, 1873, to June, 1882; M.P. Ryan, from July, 1882, to January, 1893; W.J. O’Hara, acting, from January, 1893, to December, 1895; R.S. White, from January, 1896.
Montreal became a port of entry in 1842.
THE MONTREAL PILOTAGE AUTHORITY
In the early part of the eighteenth century an official knowing the navigation of the St. Lawrence boarded the king’s ships and brought them to Quebec, andin 1731 the first official pilot was appointed, and sent each season thereafter to Isle Verte, to await ships arrivals. This appears to have been the beginning of the St. Lawrence Pilotage.
After the British occupation, and during the term of General Murray’s governorship, in 1762, an order was issued requiring a number of pilots to be stationed early in each season at Bic, and to remain until the middle of October, also a further number at Isle aux Coudres. No person was to act as a pilot, unless he had passed a satisfactory examination, and had a certificate signed by the governor.
In 1805 there was passed an act entitled “An Act for the better regulation of pilots and shipping in the Port of Quebec, and in the harbours of Quebec and Montreal and for improving the navigation of the River St. Lawrence, and for establishing a fund for decayed pilots, their wives and children.”
This was the beginning of the Trinity House of Quebec and its jurisdiction then included the harbour of Montreal. Further acts were passed in 1807, 1811, 1812, 1822 and 1834, amending and extending the provisions of the preceding acts. By an act passed in 1832, a separate Trinity House was constituted for Montreal. This arrangement continued until the passing of the act in 1873, which made the Harbour Commissioners of Montreal the authority. They continued to be the authority till the passing of the Act of 1903, when the Minister of Marine and Fisheries became the authority, which he still continues to be.
THE SHIPPING FEDERATION OF CANADA
Montreal is the headquarters of the Shipping Federation of Canada. In 1903 in order to amalgamate those interested in the shipping business of Canada a charter of incorporation (3 Edward, VII Chap.), was granted to “Hugh Andrew Allan, representing the firm of H. & A. Allan; John Russell Binning, representing Furness, Withy & Company, Limited; James Thom, representing the Hamburg-American Packet Company; William I. Gear, representing the Robert Reford Company, Limited; Frank A. Routh, representing the firm of F.A. Routh & Company; David W. Campbell, representing the Elder-Dempster Company, Limited; James Gordon Brock, representing J.G. Brock & Company; Charles McLean; McLean, Kennedy & Company; and John Torrence, representing the Dominion Line of Steamships; and the Leyland Line of Steamships respectively, and such others as hereafter become members of the association.”
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
Statistics of Imports and Exports since Montreal was made a Port of Entry in 1842:
In its fiftieth annual report the Montreal Board of Trade in 1892 presented tables of statistics showing as nearly as possible the development of trade in Montreal since 1842, when this city was made a port of entry.
The accompanying figures portraying conditions every ten years, were taken from that report and give an excellent summary.
Prior to 1850 the government did not publish blue book information of trade conditions, and the statistics referring to trade before that time were obtainedfrom various sources. What early figures were obtained are accurate so far as could be determined, but there are unavoidable gaps where information could not be secured.
EXCISE DEPARTMENT
Previous to the confederation of the provinces, the excise duties, the canal tolls and the harbor dues were collected under the management of the Customs Department. The revenues from the other public works were collected either by the Department of Public Works or by the Crown Lands Department and the issue of bill stamps was managed by a Board of Stamps and Excise.