Description
Book SynopsisBased in Glasgow and Toronto and later Hamilton, the trading business of Peter and Isaac Buchanan became one of Canada’s largest. The crash of 1857, which abruptly ended an Upper Canadian boom, brought its growth to a halt, and increasing financial problems led to its failure in 1867 and gain in 1872. This history of success and failure reveals much about the Anglo-Canadian trading system and the Upper Canadian economy of the period.
The Buchanans’ timing was excellent in 1834 they began operations in Glasgow and Toronto, early in the prolonged era of growth which by the mid-1850s had transformed Upper Canada from a frontier wilderness to a relatively developed agricultural society. In 1840 they added a large branch in Hamilton. Over the years a number of new partners were admitted, and branches were established in Montreal, New York, Liverpool, and London (Canada West). By 1845 the firm dealt in all the major categories of the colony’s imports. By 1856 P
