Hugh Allan

Sir Hugh Allan ( born September 29, 1810 in Saltcoats, Strathclyde, Scotland, † December 9, 1882 in Edinburgh, Scotland ) was a Scottish- Canadian banker, ship owner and railroad magnate. He was one of the most influential entrepreneurs in Canada in the second half of the 19th century.

Biography

Hugh Allan was born into a seafaring family, which owned several ships sailing from Glasgow to Saint - Lawrence River. At thirteen, he began to work as a clerk in the family business. In 1826 he emigrated to Canada. In Montreal, working for a fast growing trading company and soon rose to the partner. By 1840, the company already controlled 12 percent of the total overseas trade to Montreal.

From 1851 to 1854 he was president of the Chamber of Commerce of Montreal and sat through the establishment of a regularly scheduled shipping line to Britain, which was subsidized by the state. In 1863 he took control of the whole company, which officially Although Montreal Ocean Steamship Company was called, but was simply in the vernacular Allan Line.

Since the late 1850s, Allan was also active in the railroad business. In 1871 he became president of the Montreal Northern Colonization Railway, which operated a lucrative route from the Laurentians to Montreal. Also in other companies he was financially involved - always with the aim to draw as many export goods on his steamboats. The business success and the close relationships with high-ranking politicians Allan made ​​one of the most influential entrepreneurs in Canada.

1871, plans were announced to build a transcontinental railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific. To be able to apply for the execution of the lucrative project, he founded the consortium Canada Pacific Railway (not identical to the present Canadian Pacific Railway). The second candidate for the concession was the Inter -Ocean Railway Company. Before the general election in 1872 he bribed Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald and other members of the Conservative government and paid a substantial sum in the election campaign fund to secure the order.

But in 1873 flew on the Pacific scandal, which eventually led to the fall of the Macdonald government. Allan had to retreat under pressure from the public opinion of the project, but remained with other railway companies in the business. He also owned several factories and was involved in five insurance companies.

Already from 1847 to 1857 he was director of the Bank of Montreal. In 1861 he founded his own bank, the Merchants' Bank, which rose rapidly to become the second largest financial institution in the country. After the company had almost gone bankrupt in 1877, Allan resigned as president. In 1882 he was able to regain control of the Merchants' Bank. But few months later, when he visited his relatives in Scotland, he died of a heart attack. He was buried in Montreal in the cemetery of Mont- Royal.

Family

Allan was the second of five sons of Alexander Allan (1780-1854) and Jean Crawford ( 1782-1856 ). In 1844 he married in Montreal Matilda Caroline Smith ( 1825-1881 ) and had with her thirteen children, including the shipowner Sir Montagu Allan.