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Urban History Review Revue d'histoire urbaine

"Said to be a very honest Jew" The R. G. Dun Credit Reports and Jewish Business Activity in Mid-19th Century Gerald Tulchinsky

Volume 18, Number 3, February 1990 Article abstract This paper examines the participation of members of Montreal's tiny Jewish URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1017716ar community in the city's economic development between the 1840's and the DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1017716ar 1870's. Based largely on the R. G. Dun & Co. credit reports, this study reveals that Jews concentrated mainly in the retailing of jewellery and fancy goods, See table of contents tobacco and dry goods and in clothing manufacturing. Most were petty traders; they were often transitory figures who succumbed to the vagaries of business fluctuations, or were incompetent, poorly financed or dishonest. Although his Publisher(s) Jewishness was always taken note of, a businessman's creditworthiness was apparently assessed as objectively as that of a non-Jew: there is no evidence Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine that antisemitism - of which there is plenty in these reports - by itself adversely affected Jewish business mobility or success to any significant extent. In this ISSN period Jewish businessmen tended to keep to trades or businesses with which they were familiar before immigrating; they often brought inventory with 0703-0428 (print) them, relied on family credit and kept largely to themselves. Most achieved a 1918-5138 (digital) modest living while a few successful tobacco and clothing manufactures emerged. Explore this journal

Cite this article Tulchinsky, G. (1990). "Said to be a very honest Jew": The R. G. Dun Credit Reports and Jewish Business Activity in Mid-19th Century Montreal. Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 18(3), 200–209. https://doi.org/10.7202/1017716ar

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This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ "Said to be a very honest Jew:" The R. G. Dun Credit Reports and Jewish Business Activity in M id-19 th Century Montreal

Gerald Tulchinsky

Abstract

This paper examines the participation Mark Samuel, who ran a men's hat shop The commercial community that of members of Montreal's tiny Jewish on Montreal's Notre Dame Street In the dominated the economic life of Montreal community in the city's economic early 1850s, probably did not know what had included since the Conquest, a development between the 1840's and was being written about him in the R. G. small number of Jews as well as a few the 1870's. Based largely on the R. G. Dun and Company credit report of 1852.1 Germans and Italians amidst the Anglo- Dun & Co. credit reports, this study The entry under his name read "Said to Celtic majority of Scots, Americans, reveals that Jews concentrated mainly be a very honest Jew," signalling to English and Irish, and the minority of in the retailing of jewellery and fancy potential creditors: 'here is one you can French-. Jews had been goods, tobacco and dry goods and in trust'.2 Not all Jewish businessmen in present in since 1760, when clothing manufacturing. Most were Montreal received such praise. Most got several arrived as sutlers with the British petty traders; they were often far worse, and might be described as: forces in the wake of the Conquest.4 A transitory figures who succumbed to "close fisted Jew," "trying to get the best few others filtered in during subsequent the vagaries of business fluctuations, of a bargain" or simply as "Jew, cannot decades, most apparently migrating or were incompetent, poorly financed trust." These descriptions, selected from from the and Britain. But or dishonest. Although his Jewishness the Dun reports on Jewish businessmen there were enough of them to found a was always taken note of, a in Montreal, went beyond the kinds of synagogue in Montreal in 1768, the businessman's creditworthiness was characterizations attached to local She'erith Israel, known as the Spanish apparently assessed as objectively as businessmen of other national or ethnic and Portugese. Because of its growing that of a non-Jew: there is no origins, like Irishmen, Scots, Americans, importance as the hub of trade on the evidence that antisemitism - of which and French-Canadians and, no doubt, St. Lawrence River and its commercial, there is plenty in these reports - by reflected anti-Semitism that was derived financial and industrial expansion in the itself adversely affected Jewish from a variety of sources. In business, 1840s, Montreal's population increased. business mobility or success to any Jews clearly had a reputation for The city's Jewish population, though significant extent. In this period shrewdness, toughness and dishonesty rising modestly in comparison to the Jewish businessmen tended to keep to that went far beyond the reputed huge increase in the number of Irish, trades or businesses with which they canniness of the Scot, or the sharpness grew significantly from about 80 persons were familiar before immigrating; of the Yankee trader. The prevailing in 1831 to about 650 in 1871. Montreal they often brought inventory with assumption seems to have been that one became the largest Jewish centre in the them, relied on family credit and kept really had to be on one's guard when province. By mid-century this community largely to themselves. Most achieved a dealing with a Jew, and those who possessed an impressive new modest living while a few successful reported confidentially to R. G. Dun and synagogue on Lagauchetiere Street, a tobacco and clothing manufactures Company made it their business to find "minister," the Reverend Abraham de emerged. out who was a Jew, to try to watch that Sola - a graduate of Jews College, person's dealings more closely than they University of London and a learned would otherwise. A check of merchants biblical scholar - and enjoyed an Résumé designated as Jewish by Dun reporters enviable status in the city. A Jew, Moses with those listed in the 1861 and 1871 Judah Hays, had become chief of the L'auteur s'intéresse à la participation manuscript census returns, which have Montreal police force. Others served as de la petite communauté juive de been carefully examined by Charles Cole magistrates, while others held Montréal au développement in an undergraduate thesis at McGill, commissions in provincial militia économique de la ville durant les indicate that the reporters had an regiments, and another had received an 3 années 1840-1870. Essentiellement accurate knowledge of who was a Jew. appointment to the medical school of 5 basée sur les dossiers de crédit de la But 'did anti-semitism matter?' If it had not Bishop's College. maison R. G. Dun & Co., l'étude existed, would Jews have fared better in montre que les Juifs exerçaient this business environment of mid-19th By about 1850, members of the Jewish surtout leur activité dans le commerce century Montreal? community of Montreal were listed

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de détail (bijouterie, articles de among the local merchants who immigrants also entered into business, fantaisie, tabac, mercerie) et la dominated increasingly diverse business usually on a much smaller scale than fabrication de vêtements. La plupart affairs in the city. Jews owned shares in those of their Jewish predecessors. Most étaient de petits commerçants. the chartered banks; as early as the became retailers and petty traders in Figures souvent éphémères de 1810s and 1820s David David even sat various lines: peddlers, tobacconists, l'univers des affaires, ils résistaient on the boards of the pawnbrokers, tailors, and the like. mal aux fluctuations de la and the Company.6 Hays, conjoncture ou manquaient de the police chief, owned the Montreal What is interesting to historians of savoir-faire, de capital voire waterworks until he sold the company to business, however, is the discovery of d'honnêteté. Leur identité de juif the city in 1845.7 He was one of the few what lies behind such manifestations of n'était jamais passée sous silence, wealthy Jews who, besides owning economic activity. What sectors did mais leur solvabilité semble avoir été shares in all of these ventures and in these men - and a few women - enter? évaluée aussi objectivement que celle ships, both sail and steam, held What paths did they follow in the des non-Juifs. Rien n'indique que substantial quantities of real estate.8 Montreal business world and what does l'antisémitisme qui affleure dans les Thus, some were so successful that, this experience tell us that we did not dossiers consultés ait nui de façon except for being denied membership in know about the city's business notable à leur liberté d'action ou à the most elitist organizations of the rich environment in the last half of the 19th leur succès. Les hommes d'affaires Anglo-Celts, they could claim influence in century? In what ways, finally, was the juifs de l'époque avaient tendance à the city. Abraham de Sola, now known as Jewish experience in the Montreal s'en tenir à des activités qu'ils "rabbi," was appointed special lecturer business world unique, or at least connaissaient avant d'immigrer; in Oriental languages at McGill in 1853. substantially different from that of the souvent ils avaient emporté des Meanwhile, Jesse Joseph, the president Scots, Americans, English and French- stocks dans leurs bagages. Ils se of the Montreal Gas Company, and by far Canadians? That is, did they constitute a prêtaient de l'argent à l'intérieur du the richest Jew in Montreal, was separate business enclave, to a cercle de famille, dont ils ne sortaient amassing a vast amount of the first-class significant degree working apart from the guère. Si la plupart se sont fait une urban real estate.9 rest in a kind of Jewish business ghetto? existence modeste, quelques If so, did they separate themselves, or fabricants de produits du tabac et de By mid-century, in fact, there were really were they excluded by reason of anti- vêtements sont sortis du lot. two Jewish communities in Montreal. In Semitism from certain sectors of 1846, a number of the Jewish immigrants business? In business, did anti-Semitism arriving from England, Germany, and really matter, and, if so, in what ways did Poland over the preceding 20 years, it restrict Jews from progressing or from became so disenchanted with the style entering certain fields? of worship in the Spanish and Portugese synagogue where the Sephardic Until about ten years ago, the literature (Spanish) rite was followed. The on Jewish business activity was dissidents established their own surprisingly thin. In 1977, one scholar congregation called Sha'ar Hashamayim observed that while Jewish (Gates of Heaven), also known as the historiography included whole libraries of English, German, and Polish shul to works on the Jewish religious, reflect the origins of its founders.10 Here philosophical and cultural experience the familiar Ashkenazic (German) order over 4,000 years, there were few good of service was adopted and the studies of Jewish economic history.11 In customary cantillations of prayer of those most of the studies of Jewish communities could be used. Like their communities in the United States and Jewish predecessors in Montreal, these , there is usually only modest

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treatment given to economic affairs, of the non-Jewish environment and notes companies in this era of economic though Moses Rischin's book on New that, while business contacts developed transformation. Therefore, the fact that York's Jewry, and Lloyd Gartner's work between Jews and non-Jews in Portland, the Jews, were characterized by the on the Jewish immigrants in England are anti-Semitic attitudes reflected in R. G. same features should not surprise significant exceptions.12 New scholarly Dun credit reports essentially forced anyone. Thus, the following examination works on Jewish life in Indianapolis, Jews to rely on themselves.16 David of Jewish business activity in Montreal Detroit, and Montreal devote relatively Gerber's scholarly study on the Jews of from 1850 to 1900 is intended to little detailed attention to business affairs, Buffalo argues that these reports reflect illuminate how the Jews fitted into the or to economic dimensions of Jewish life the persistence in America of the image business environment of that city in a generally.13 However, two recent histories of Shylock, the parasite, the predator, the period of rapid economic growth, of Jewish life in medium-sized American fraud, the arsonist, the seller of trinkets, diversification, and modernization. It is a cities during the 19th century, Steven in short the quintessential Jew and that report on research in progress based Hertzberg's on Atlanta, and William Toll's such anti-Semitism "may well have been essentially upon the census returns, on Portland, Oregon, reflect the influence significant for many Jewish Montreal city directories, and R. G. Dun of the new social history on American businessmen."17 He argues that reports for Montreal between 1846 and Jewish studies. They are of immense discrimination against these "Shylocks" 1876. It is part of a larger study on the interest to students of business history.14 forced the Jews to adopt alternative social and economic history of Montreal economic strategies, such as borrowing Jewry. Both works, which are based upon from within immediate family networks, intensive analysis of the manuscript creating partnerships and other means to Though increasing in numbers, Jews census data, Dun and Company credit circumvent a 'credit squeeze' forced constituted a very small minority, about reports, and the records of fraternal upon them by the prevalent negative one half of one percent, of Montreal's 18 orders, synagogues, diaries, and stereotype. population between 1840 and 188020, correspondence, evaluate the processes and most of them were in a limited array of chain migration from the old world to How well do these patterns apply to the of businesses. The profile of Jewish the new, and the creation of a context of Montreal? Students of business activity in Montreal was predominantly mercantile, Jewish business or Jewish history in Canada, decidedly focused in four sectors of the business class from which a small cadre would say that some of the themes in local economy; in jewellery, tobacco, of manufacturers later emerged. William American studies - migration, family drygoods (and textiles), and clothing Toll stresses the importance of family- connections, intercity networks and manufacturing. In all of these sectors the based commercial networks in which patterns of ethnic business association - connections among the individuals, Jewish single males from South German were well established patterns in the families and groups involved, the and Bavarian small towns moved to wider context of Canadian business in sources of capital and financing, and Portland in the 1850s to pioneer in petty the mid-19th century. Douglas McCalla's markets, were strikingly important. commerce, often as peddlars. When study of the Buchanan family's moderately successful, they brought out mercantile business, and numerous other There were relatively few Jewish members of their immediate and works, including my own on the business businessmen dealing with jewellery, or in extended families, as well as wives, from community in Montreal, illustrate that "fancy goods", which included trinkets 15 Germany. Relying on the accumulated strong patterns of family business and decorations. But the Dun reports savings, acquired commercial skills and linkages prevailed among Scots and reveal some fascinating information the credit generated from family or Americans in Montreal's commercial about their capital, connections and style fraternal institutions, they created world at that time.19 Borrowing from of business. Moses Ollendorf, a German commercial and industrial enterprises family and friends and forming business Jew, arrived with some capital in 1848, that generated considerable wealth. He partnerships were widespread practices and at age 44, and started by repairing stresses that the Jewish business class in mid-19th century Montreal despite the jewellery21 and small-scale retailing. After in Portland evolved largely independent increasing use of incorporated failing in 1852, he recommenced

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business on a modest scale as an joined by another young English Jew, down in October 1862, after holding an importer and wholesaler dealing mainly George Wolfe, one of two brothers who auction of its stock and settling up with Jewish peddlers. By 1862, after a had been partners in a small jewellery accounts in Montreal. Dinklespeil went to second failure in which he paid out his business since arriving in 1858 with an California, probably as his brother's creditors, he was reported to be worth $8,000 inventory that was supplied by his agent, while Bumsel returned to Europe, some $15,000 and described as "a sister-in-law.25 possibly to peddle jewellery in the Swiss shrewd cunning Jew (who) lives in great countryside. style." He assisted a brother, a local Gottschalk Ascher was another German- soap maker, and helped put his son-in- Jewish jewellery merchant in Montreal.26 Henry Davis and Julius Lander, both law, Lewis Anthony, a small-scale He had arrived from Glasgow in 1841 at Germans, began in 1861 to import clothing manufacturer, into business in age 50. He sold watches and jewellery jewellery and fancy goods through .22 As a member of the English, and, by 1857, the date of the earliest Dun Lander's connections in Germany.28 They German, and Polish congregation, reports on him, was thought to be doing sold mainly at wholesale to peddlers like Ollendorf was active in the campaign to well, though the reporter complained that Samuel Silverman, whose wife kept a build its first synagogue in the 1850s and it was difficult to get information about his millinery shop in the city, and to Herman gave handsomely enough to be elected obligations. By that time, he had already Danciger, a German who had migrated to its first president in I960.23 established a branch store in Toronto run Montreal from New York, where he had by his sons, Jacob and Albert. Ascher run a clothing store for several years. Abraham Hoffnung, another German bought merchandise in both New York They also supplied to Simon Hart who 29 Jew, arrived in 1855 at age 25 with and Glasgow and, despite severe also had an interest in a pawn shop with inventory worth about $8,000, enough to setbacks in 1857, possibly because of William Silverstone, also a German, and start selling watches; he had been in the sons' takeover of the Montreal store, with his son, Philip Hart, and his own wife, St. Louis, for several years, he was back in business within a few Matilda Waldheimer. Silverstone left the probably working with relatives or months on a much reduced scale. By partnership in February 1863 and set up friends.24 Like Ollendorf, Hoffnung was that time, his third son Albert - who had his own pawnshop with Louis Albert, a an importer and wholesaler, dealing married Rachel Joseph, the daughter of a former peddler. mainly with English suppliers. His very wealthy, Sephardic business prospered, and he was family - was the firm's travelling And finally, David Ansell, though not a estimated to have made a profit of salesman. The marriage into wealth did jeweller, might be included here because $5,000 to $6,000 within two years. He not help business, however, and by he imported various kinds of German benefitted from the excellent credit he 1861, it was sputtering. glassware and toys.30 An agent for enjoyed in London and, probably, from several German firms, he arrived in 1862 his marriage to the daughter of John The shortlived co-partnership of from Queensland, Australia, where he had Levy, a well-to-do local tobacco Dinklespiel and Bumsel, organized in served an apprenticeship in this line. He merchant. Hoffnung's business was well- 1859, was made up of Michael had excellent connections in Frankfurt, regarded, though the Dun reporter in Dinklespeil, another German, and where his father was an important glass October 1858 complained that he Michael Bumsel, a Swiss, both of whom manufacturer with outlets in London, Paris "belongs to a class regarding whom it is immigrated in the mid-1850s.27 This was and Hamburg. By 1869 Ansell was next to impossible to learn anything a wholesale house, and Bumsel - a reported to be worth from $8,000 to certain," meaning that Jews were jewellery peddler until he teamed up with $10,000 and enjoyed a good reputation. secretive about their business dealings, Dinklespeil - seems to have been its "He evidently knows how to make a complaint often registered about Jews. salesman. The leading partner was money," commented Dun's reporter after By March 1860, Hoffnung was estimated Dinklespeil, who was supported by a noting that Ansell claimed to have made to be worth $10,000 and his annual brother in New York, who became the $10,000 in 1868 alone: "a result few turnover $25,000 on a stock of about effective owner of the business in 1861. would expect from the quiet business he equal value. In August 1860, he was But, after starting well, the firm closed does." Besides knowing how to turn a

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handsome agent's profit in his various In Montreal's tobacco business, by in a small way. Ten years later, however, lines, Ansell speculated in property. In contrast, there were practically no using credits from New York city firms, he 1871, for example, he built a row of stone German Jews. Tobacconists owned was doing very well and according to the houses on Sherbrooke Street worth about mostly small-scale enterprises which Dun reporter, "making money...owns $20,000 and carrying a mortgage of only apparently enjoyed very few family or (real estate) and is said to be rich + $7,000. That year he employed six other credit connections abroad. There good."35 Thought to be worth from travelling salesmen, including one was one giant firm, that of the Joseph $18,000 to $22,000, he was doing $60- working exclusively in the United States. family, Sephardic Jews. They had settled $65,000 business annually. The Dun By 1874 he was reported still to be doing originally in Berthier in about 1800, then reporter noted that Levy put on "a well, though possessing a "peculiar style in Quebec in 1814 and, finally, in princely entertainment" for his daughter's of doing business," whatever that meant, Montreal in 1830.32 Their tobacco wedding in March 1858. But Levy died while estimates of his personal wealth business was so large, so well the following August, leaving his widow ran as high as $50,000. He had serious capitalized, and so sound, that in and ten children - and his creditors - with though unexplained reverses a year October 1858, the Dun report rated them a rat's nest of tangled finances. His wife, later, perhaps because of the depression "As good as the Bank. You may trust Gertrude, settled with creditors, most of and, in November 1875, was forced to them (for) all they will buy," and in them in New York, for 50 cents on the make an assignment with his liabilities February 1859, "Jews and 'Rich as dollar, and continued the business, totalling $130,000 against assets of Jews'."33 The firm, run by Jacob Henry though on a much reduced scale, and $40,000. Although we lose sight of him at Joseph, occupied huge premises in solely in retail. She opened a shop in this point in the credit reports, Ansell Montreal, where it manufactured various Quebec and gave it to one of her sons to went into other business ventures, tobacco products distributed across the manage; but it closed a few years later apparently with great success. He was Province. In October 1857, they also held and Mrs Levy was forced to take in one of the most important figures in other assets, possibly real estate, worth boarders to help meet expenses, while Montreal's Jewish community for nearly over $200,000. A year later Jacob Henry eking out a meagre living in her small another 40 years, taking a very active was reported to be building a house for shop. role in charitable work among the city's $40,000, and was believed to have a net numerous immigrants, the colonization of worth of at least $100,000. In 1866 he Samuel Davis, arrived in Montreal from Jews on the western prairies, and in the took in Alexander Hart as a junior New York, with some means, about 1864. bitter Quebec political issues that partner, because he was busy with other A cigarmaker by trade, he began affected Montreal Jewry.31 lucrative interests. These included real manufacturing "medicated" cigars and estate, as well as extensive holdings of opened two stores in Montreal, thus Summarizing, then, we note that nearly shares in local telegraph, railway, and doing both a retail trade and a wholesale 36 all of these Jewish jewellers in Montreal bank companies, as well as the Montreal business. He sold to good accounts were German. Most of them clearly Elevator Company. Joseph was also an only and, if some turned sour, he would arrived with some capital or inventory, as officer on the Montreal Board of Trade, sell off the debt at a discount. Though in well as business and family connections the harbour authority, and supported a good standing in Montreal, Davis did not 34 in Germany, Britain or the United States, number of charities. use his credit there, somewhat to the who supplied them with vitally important mystification of Dun's reporter, preferring agencies for specific lines of By comparison with Joseph, most of the instead to draw on his New York merchandise, credits and information. other Jews in the tobacco business were contacts. In August 1868, he brought Several were wholesalers who supplied much smaller fry. Of these, for awhile Lyon Silverman - who invested $4,000 - goods to local peddlers, or to upcountry during the 1850s, John Levy, whose into the firm as a partner. Eighteen traders, most of whom, apparently, were daughter married the jeweller, Abraham months later, however, despite their also Jews. But, clearly, not all of them Hoffnung - was apparently one of the preference for "good accounts," the firm prospered; about half operated most successful. An immigrant from was forced to bankruptcy as a result of a enterprises which were short-lived. Manchester, he began business in 1843 failure of one of their major creditors, with

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liabilities totalling $17,700 against assets peddlers within a year. Rebecca Warner older child to manage while the father of only $8,500. operated a retail store in the 1850s for peddled merchandise door to door in her husband, an undischarged bankrupt, town, or in the countryside. Others After settling his debts at 40 percent, with the backing, according to Dun's bought goods in Montreal, either from Davis returned to business two years somewhat suggestive report, "of parties local hatters, or from importers, and later with the help of his creditors in New who take a peculiar interest in her" In peddled them, often with other items, in York. He had a new partner in Jacob L. November 1858, with heavy debts rural Quebec. Some furriers sold at retail Moss, a former pawnbroker, who put outstanding, Rebecca and her husband and wholesale in stores in Montreal. $20,000 into this business and became suddenly left town for parts unknown, Such a pair was Bernard Levin and the dominant partner. By October 1874, never to be seen again in Montreal. Then Moses Davis, Germans described as the firm was thriving and employed 75 there were Zacharias and Delapratz, "decent men of their class", who had a workers producing cigars. They received German Jewish cigarmakers from substantial store on Notre Dame Street orders from advertisements, sold at retail Connecticut, who blew into town in where, since 1859, they also had sold from their store in St Lawrence Hall, and August 1866, ran up substantial debts, clothing.42 Some bought up furs for were extending their business into and hightailed it out of town two years export. Abraham Brahadi, an Englishman Ontario. Less than a year later, Davis and later leaving their creditors high and - formerly a professional singer who Moss claimed to be doing $300,000 dry.40 Samuel Brahadi, an English Jew abandoned his wife and son in London - business a year, while being supported and a cigar maker, set up a small shop in arrived in Montreal in the late 1840s, and by substantial lines of credit at both the 1861 and did a reasonable trade until he gradually developed an active business City Bank and Molson's Bank. The firm was forced out of business in 1869 as a which became so fashionable that it had thus made a transition from sole result of debts accumulated by his attracted "the better kind of French Retail reliance on New York to at least partial brother (of whom more later) for whom he Custom" trade.43 integration into the Montreal financial was guarantor.41 system. The business prospered, mainly Given the prominence of Jews in the because of the effective direction given Thus, in the tobacco business, aside Monteal clothing trade by about 1900, it by Sam Davis' son, Mortimer, who, as from one large firm and another of is surprising that there were far fewer president of the American Tobacco medium size, there existed a group of Jewish clothiers than hatters, capmakers, Company of Canada and Imperial very small-scale Jewish retailers and and furriers. The most prominent clothier Tobacco Company of Canada in the cigar makers who were characterized by from the mid-1830s until 1868 was 1890s, was the country's "tobacco king" financial weakness and transiency. In the William Benjamin who, with his brothers, 37 and a multimillionaire. clothing business, a traditional Jewish Samuel and Henry, owned three distinct area of enterprise, in its various branches but interconnected businesses: clothing, Next to these large businesses, most - retailing, wholesaling, manufacturing dry goods, and carpets. Each was Jewish tobacconists were small retailers, and importing - the pattern of Jewish operated by one of the brothers.44 By the or peddlers. Essentially transient, they participation was much different. end of the 1840s, their aggregate worth set up, struggled for a few years and, was estimated at about $200,000 and finally, disappeared like so many others. There was considerable Jewish activity in their thriving dry goods and clothing In 1860 Henry Jacobs and Michael the clothing trades, mostly in the outlets were rated as the best retail Michaels, formerly of Guelph, Ontario, manufacture of caps, hats, and furs. This stores in town. They enjoyed a high opened a small retail and wholesale business had several dimensions. Some rating with creditors in New York and 38 shop in Montreal. They struggled for operators like Mark Samuel, the "very England, especially with a family firm in years with a small stock-in-trade and honest Jew" whom we met in the Manchester. By 1860, however, they had limited credit. Abraham Levey and introduction, simply made hats and caps tumbled into serious trouble. Their trade Humphry Michaels did the same in their of various designs and quality in their had declined over the previous year or 39 firm which began in 1858. But shops and sold them at retail. These so, according to one report in November circumstances forced them to become shops were often left to the wife or an 1860, "on account of the prejudice felt

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toward them as Jews." though another they had about $250,000 invested in their limited means," a practise which the report stated that "the retail business in fixed and working capital and had reporter deemed to be "a little too which they are engaged is not expanded so much that they were selling sharp." Gutman left the firm in 1871, successful owing to competition."45 Not merchandise on doubtful credit, to "a while Lesser carried on. By September having made the grade for whatever weak class of customers," as Dun's 1874, however, he was in serious reason, in 1861 they closed out all their reporter put it. But they were willing to financial trouble."This state of things," it operations, except for a wholesale dry take these risks because handsome was reported, "has been occasioned by goods outlet in Quebec, which they left profits on good accounts more than the many rapid changes of fashion with William. They moved back to compensated for losses on a few bad entailing losses to this customers and Manchester where Samuel and Henry set ones. By 1876, Samuel had become the ultimately on him by which his capital 50 up a dry goods export business. principal partner in the firm. was used up." After the partnership ended, Gutman teamed up in 1874 with Only a handful of Montreal Jews were Finally, there was Moses Gutman, an two other partners, Edward Morris and involved in the manufacture of ready- American, who, though trained as an Alexander Saunders, to manufacture made apparel. As early as the mid- engraver, gave up the trade a few years gloves, and opened an outlet for them in 51 1840s, the Moss brothers - David and after he emigrated to Canada in 1857 to Toronto.52 Edward - who had been in the importing work for the Mosses for about nine clothing business in Montreal since 1836, months as an invoice clerk. He then Reviewing the activity of Jews in the were manufacturing clothing - men's joined the Benjamins in their Quebec clothing business, one is led to conclude work clothes, it appears - on an outlet as a bookkeeper, meanwhile that, with one or two noteworthy 46 enormous scale. They began getting to know something about the exceptions, there were few sparkling production in their own factory next to the clothing business. Mona Lesser, a performances. The exceptions, those of Lachine canal, where, by 1856, they salesman for a major New York hoop skirt the Mosses and the Benjamins, were employed 800 people. By that time they manufacturer, moved to Montreal in 1860 either well-supported by continuous were exporting $200,000 worth of and formed a partnership with Gutman in credits from family abroad, or were clothing to Melbourne, Australia, where 1863. They manufactured goods in based upon substantial cash and their two brothers had wholesale and Montreal for the local city and country merchandise in hand. Even in clothing 47 retail outlets. They were known to be markets. Gutman served as production manufacturing where Jews later were so rich, not only from their lucrative clothing manager; he started off employing 28 successful, a few were only beginning to business, but also because of their girls to manufacture low-priced lines. establish inroads at mid-century. Apparel highly profitable sideline of private Lesser was the salesman, and sold in the production in Montreal was booming by banking, in which they lent out money countryside more than in the city, the early 1870s.53 But all the major and "shaved notes," as the Dun reporter probably because their cheaper goods Montreal manufacturers, aside from disparagingly described it, by were more marketable there. He soon Moss's, were owned and operated by 48 discounting commercial paper. This emerged as the principal partner and, Anglo-Celts like Hollis Shorey, Edward sideline was so lucrative that, in March even though he was an undischarged O'Brien, Edward Small, and the Peck 1858, the Mosses announced that they bankrupt, he commanded substantial brothers. intended to give up manufacturing to credit in New York, where the firm bought concentrate on banking. Instead they almost all of its supplies. Dun's reporters, Overall then, Jews, were essentially scaled down and retired to England in therefore, were cautious about this firm marginal men in the world of Montreal's March 1864 giving the business to their even though its owners were deemed to business from the 1840s to the 1870s sons, Samuel and Jacob, (Edward's) and be hard-working and steady men, who when all economic sectors were 49 Jacob and Hyam, (David's.) The two apparently did not seek credit in experiencing massive, if uneven, growth. pairs of brothers, with occasional Montreal. By May 1869, Gutman and With a few notable exceptions, they were guidance from their fathers in London, Lesser were "selling goods at cutting small, very weak retailers and peddlers expanded operations. By January 1873, prices and pushing trade too hard for of jewellery, fancy goods, tobacco and

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cheap clothing - many of them driven sectors of the local economy; while patterns are noticeable among from their trades by the ill winds of the French-Canadian businessmen seem to Montreal's Scottish businessmen up to business cycle, bad luck, have operated largely in their own the 1840s and 1850s - Jews did carry a mismanagement, incompetence, or sphere. These business networks unique history of persecution. In undercapitalization. Throughout this continued to exist and immigrant Jews - Germany and Poland, Jews had long period there also were some 16 Jews or other outsiders - would not likely have suffered from disabilities inflicted by the who operated various small businesses been invited into the potentially profitable authorities, one of these disabilities being as butchers, bankers, agents, railway stock floatations and other the virtual confiscation of accumulated restaurateurs, auctioneers. They too were lucrative ventures that were promoted by wealth through impositions and special transitional figures who drifted into Montreal's established, rich, and Jew taxes.54 Secretiveness, therefore Montreal for a few years and then, blown politically well-connected businessmen. was a hallmark of this sub-culture. over by a bad season or two, moved on Everyone, Jews included, understood Authorities and institutions were seen as to try their luck somewhere else. that was the way business was done. real or potential oppressors. It was Who, except those under duress, would perfectly natural that such attitudes Was this because of anti-Semitism? share such deals with perfect strangers - should be conveyed into new locations Except in one case, that of the and with Jews, to boot? Montreal Jewish and continue to prevail among Jewish Benjamins, there is no evidence that it businessmen could not have been immigrants, notwithstanding the fact that mattered significantly enough to have unacquainted with anti-Semitism before Montreal's economy was undergoing dictated business failure. In the they immigrated and were likely not gradual modernization which created competitive, if not cut-throat, world of surprised to encounter it in Canada. pressures for conformity, structures of Montreal business in the mid-19th uniformity, and mechanisms for century, a Jew appears to have been as Besides, it appears that most immigrant impersonal collaborative action. Yet, welcome a creditor or client as anyone Jews even preferred doing business with modernization was clearly neither else - provided, of course, he was good fellow Jews, and some of their firms were uniform nor comprehensive in all sectors for his commitments. That is what the family affairs, a few even transatlantic in of business and to all cultures operating Dun credit reports were for. If no one scope. The Dun reports time and again within it. Older patterns survived wanted to do business with Jews, it is complained that it was extremely difficult because they were needed and because unlikely that they would have been to get information about Jewish they continued, however imperfectly, to reported on along with all the others. businessmen and that, when possible, work for those who adhered to them. Not Clearly, non-Jews did business with Jews seemed to prefer using their credit everybody conformed to the Anglo- Jews despite the existence - possibly with British and New York connections - Saxon norm of the "modern" even the prevalence - of attitudes that thus often eschewing opportunities for businessman, as historians Paul-Andre held Jews in contempt, fear, or mistrust. credit in Monteal - and that some Jews Linteau and Jean-Claude Robert have To the Anglo-Celts and to the French- were living better than their assumed pointed out in their study of vigorous Canadians they were, after all, an alien volume of business would allow, a sign French Canadian entrepreneurial cultural element, most of them relatively that their real business situation was success in the 19th century Montreal new to the scene. In the 1840s and unknown. Jews may have operated on urban real estate market.55 1850s and for a long time to come, the assumption that credit supplied by Montreal business was characterized by family or friends was more reliable than Despite the persistence of traditional a considerable degree of the ethnic bank loans, which could be withdrawn practices, Jews were partly being drawn segmentation which had existed since without notice, and that relatives and into the modernization and diversification the late 18th century. Suspicion was not partners were more trustworthy than of Montreal's economy, but only on its limited to Jews. Irish and American strangers. periphery. Their past shaped - if it did not businessmen in Montreal deeply rigidly govern - their business attitudes resented dominance by the Scottish Yet, while such attitudes were certainly and behaviour. They were mostly "old-boy" network of practically all not confined only to Jews - the same marginal to the major transformations in

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the city's economic life underway or peddled through the rural areas of context in order to understand the between the mid-1840s and the 1870s. Upper and . The sale of behaviour of businessmen. Profit Aside from the Josephs in the tobacco clothing, both wholesale and retail, maximization cannot proceed efficiently business and the Mosses in the apparel provided a major springboard for Jewish in a political and social environment that manufacturing trade, Jews were simply entry into what was already by 1871 one is antithetical, or even lukewarm, to such not present in the dynamic sectors of of Montreal's leading industries, the a goal. The history of Jews in Canada - Montreal's industrialization like manufacture of men's and boys' apparel, and their business behaviour in particular shipbuilding, flour milling, sugar refining while tobacco merchandising created - were byproducts of both culture, or and the flourishing and multi-faceted iron another major manufacturing opportunity. memory, and of context, or environment. fabrication shops located in the industrial Nevertheless, the efflorescence of the In mid-19th century Montreal, we are quarters along the river and the Lachine Jewish presence in these sectors lay able to see a snapshot - maybe canal. Nor were they involved in the some 20 years in the future. somewhat smudged in places - of a city's flourishing financial sector of banks group of Jewish immigrant petty and insurance companies; they were not Besides the context of Montreal's mid- bourgeois in the processes of adapting among the promoters of the ambitious 19th century business world, there is to an environment that was itself railway and steamboat companies. In another context for this inquiry. Those changing. The importance of this story commerce, Jews in this period were seeking to explain Jewish history must lies not so much in its uniqueness, as in absent from businesses which imported look for the major points where the the insights it might provide into both iron goods, wines, liquors, and textiles Jewish past intersected with that of its culture and context, and in the ways in and from those exporting grain and surrounding cultures. The historian, which both were being jostled and partly timber. But their absence from them all Yosef Chaim Yerushalmi, while transformed by the interaction. was not because of anti-Semitism, but addressing the dilemmas of Jewish principally because of their lack of history in the modern world in his experience and connections in those trenchant work Zakhor (Memory), Notes businesses. suggests that the secularization of this subject is essential if it is to be rationally 1 Harvard University. R. G. Dun and Company. Virtually all the adult male Jews of understood.56 As opposed to Credit Ledgers Montreal 1845-1876, 3 vols.

Montreal in this era were petty metahistory, memory, nostalgia, and 2 Ibid, \, p. 251. merchants in the four fairly specific myth, he writes, "the Jewish past unfolds business sectors discussed above. With before the historian not as unity but, to an 3 Charles Cole, "The Montreal Jewish Community in only a few exceptions, notably the extent unanticipated by his nineteenth- 1861 and1871: Its size, occupational and ethnic Joseph brothers, none were involved in century predecessors, as multiplicity and composition, relative to comparable Jewish relativity."57 Part of that historical communities in the United States" (Honours Montreal's great financial, transportation, undergraduate thesis, Department of Geography, and manufacturing sectors - and investigation is the appreciation of the 1983 (See Appendices A (1861) and B (1871). numerous powerful incorporated contexts in which Jews lived. Whatever companies - for which the city became may have been continuous in Jewish life, 4 Benjamin G. Sack, History of the Jews in Canada famous and through which it was to no matter where it was experienced, (Montreal, 1965). See chapters four and five. shaped, or mutated by conditions of its dominate the national economy that 5 Ibid emerged towards the end of this period. new environment. The argument here is Jews began as marginal men in the that business history provides an 6 Elinor Kyte Senior (in collaboration with James H. sense that they engaged mostly - there important point of intersection of Jews Lambert), "David David," DCB, VI, 179-181; were a few exceptions - in the petty and the various urban milieux in which Gerald Tulchinsky, "The Construction of the First Lachine Canal, 1815-26," (McGill University, MA, they lived. commerce of jewellery and fancy goods, 1960)36. tobacco, dry goods and cheap clothing, much of it sold to fellow Jewish The business historian must seriously storekeepers living in towns and villages, consider culture as well as the material

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7 Carman Miller "Moses Judah Hayes," DCBIX, 19 D. McCalla, The Trade, 1834-1872: 44 Ibid. I, 28,137; II, 38. See also Sack, op. cit., 379-381. See also Christopher Armstrong and H. A Study of the Buchanans' Business (Toronto, 115-116. V. Nelles, Monopoly's Moment: The Organization 1979). Gerald Tulchinsky, The River Barons: The and Regulation of Canadian Utilities, 1830-1930 Montreal Business Community and the Growth of 45 Ibid. (Philadelphia, 1986) 13,14,15. Industry and Transportation 1837-1853 (Toronto, 1977). 46 Tulchinsky, River Barons, 219-220. 8 Miller, op.cit, 380; G. Tulchinsky, "Studies of Businessmen in the Development of 20 Cole, op. cit. 47 Montreal in 1856,46. Transportation and Industry in Montreal, 1837 to 1853," (University of Toronto, PHD, 1971) 465. 21 Dun, Montreal, 1,193. 48 Dun, Montreal, 1,84.

9 Armstrong/Nelles, op.cit, 78. 22 /£>/d.,262. 49 Ibid.

10 See Congregation Sha'ar Hashamayim, 1845- 23 Sack, op. cit., 154,156. 50 Ibid. 1946 (Montreal, 1946) for the history of this congregation. 24 Dun, Montreal, 1,232. 51 Ibid., II.

11 Benjamin Braude, "Jewish Economic History - 25 /o/d, 231. 52 Ibid. Review Essay," Association for Jewish Studies Newsletter, 19 (1977), Feb., 25-29. 26 /b/d.,255. 53 Gerald Tulchinsky, "Aspects of the Clothing Manufacturing Industry in Canada, 1850s-1914," 12 Moses Rischin, The Promised City: New York's 27 Dun, Montreal, 1,125. (unpublished paper delivered to Business History Jews, 1870-1914 (New York, 1970). See chapters Conference, Trent University, 1984), 18-20. four and five. Lloyd P. Gartner, The Jewish 28 Ibid. II, 105. Immigrant in England, 1870-1914 (London, 1973). 54 Samuel Ettinger, "The Modern Period," in H. H. See chapters two and three. 29 /5/d. I» 138, 256 Ben Sasson (éd.), A History of the Jewish People (Cambridge, Mass., 1976), 717-1096. 13 Judith E. Endelman, The Jewish Community of 30 Ibid. 11,217. Indianapolis, 1840 to the Present (Bloomington, 55 Paul-Andre Linteau and Jean-Claude Robert, 1984); Robert A. Rockaway, The Jews of Detroit 31 Sack, op. cit., passim. "Propriété foncière et société a Montreal: une From the Beginning, 1762-1914 (Detroit, 1986); hypothèse," Revue d'histoire de l'amerique Michael Brown, Jew or Juin Jews, French 32 A. D. Hart (ed.) The Jew in Canada française," 28, no. 1, Juin, (1974), 45-65. Canadians and Anglo-Canadians, 1759-1914 (Montreal, 1924). (Philadelphia, 1987). 56 Yosef Chaim Yerushalmi, Zakhor: Jewish History 33 Dun, Montreal, 1,192. and Jewish Memory (Seattle, 1982), 89-91. 14 Steven Hertzberg, Strangers Within the City: The Jews of Atlanta, 1845-1915 (Philadelphia, 1978). 34 Hart, op. cit., 330. 57 Ibid, 96. William Toll, The Making of An Ethnic Middle Class: Portland Jewry over Four Generations 35 Dun, Montreal, 1,192. (Albany, 1982). 36 Ibid. 15 Toll, op. cit. 37 Hart, op. cit., 123. 16 Ibid. 38 Dun, Montreal, II, 84. 17 David A. Gerber, "Cutting Out Shylock: Elite Anti- Semitism and the Quest for Moral Order in the 39 Ibid., 1,409. Mid-Nineteenth Century American Marketplace," David A. Gerber (éd.), Anti-Semitism in American 40 Ibid, 1,12. History (Urbana, 1986), 201-232, But, see Elliott Ashkenazi, The Business of Jews in , 41 /o/d., 1,177. 1840-1875 (Tuscaloosa, 1988). 42 Ibid., 1,434. 18 Ibid., 223. 43 Ibid., I, 434.

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