Simon McTavish
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Simon McTavish (born circa 1750 - died July 6, 1804) was a Scots-Quebecer entrepreneur and the pre-eminent businessman in Canada during the second half of the 18th century.
Born near Loch Ness, Inverness, a remote area of the Scottish highlands, his father had been a lieutenant in Fraser's Highlanders, a Scottish unit fighting the French and Indian War in what was then British North America.
Though his family was well-connected in the Highlands, prospects there were poor, and in 1764, at the age of thirteen, young Simon accompanied his sister and brother-in-law to the colony of New York. Once there, he quickly recognized the opportunity offered by the fur trade at Detroit, made a few key contacts, and by 1769 was actively involved in the industry. It was later said of him that he traded first in deerskins and muskrats, and only later became involved with the more valuable furs.
Over the next few years, McTavish prospered in the trading of furs, and in 1773, with a new partner, James Bannerman, he extended his operations to Grand Portage on Lake Superior. At that important fur trade rendezvous, he understood that he would have access to fur pelts that were found in much greater quantity and were of better quality in the colder climate north of the Great Lakes.
Although at the time the Hudson's Bay Company controlled the prime north-westerly areas for fur trapping, there was still a relatively lucrative route from Montreal westward via the Ottawa River and out across Georgian Bay and the Great Lakes Region and into Manitoba. Most of the trade at Grand Portage went through Montreal.
In 1775-76, McTavish had the great fortune to winter at Detroit, well stocked with trade goods for the next season. The American Continental Army occupied Montreal that winter, preventing the Montreal traders from getting their goods to Grand Portage in the summer of 1776. McTavish, with little competition, was able to trade a large amount of valuable furs that summer, which he took to England and sold in a high market. In the meantime, the Americans had withdrawn from Canada, and McTavish transferred his operations to Montreal. He continued to trade on his own through the Revolutionary War, supplying goods both at Grand Portage and Detroit, and speculating in rum for the British soldiers at Detroit and Niagara. By the end of the war, he was able to put together a group of business investors and trapper/explorers to create the North West Company. With the Frobisher brothers he owned 37.5% of the company's shares and upon the death of Benjamin Frobisher in 1787 McTavish became the man in charge of the business.
A restructuring of the company a few months later saw the shrewd McTavish gain control of eleven of the company's twenty shares. Most important, he was managing partner of a new Montreal firm, McTavish, Frobisher and Company, which imported the North West Company's goods and forwarded its furs to the London market, taking commissions on all transactions. The vertical integration of the business was extended in 1792, when the firm of McTavish, Fraser and Company was established in London itself, to procure the trade goods at source and sell the furs. From his headquarters in Montreal, over the next sixteen years McTavish built a business empire that stretched from the Labrador coast to the Rocky Mountains and in the process made himself a wealthy man.
In October 1793 Simon McTavish married Marie-Marguerite Chaboillez, daughter of an established French Trader. Directly after the marriage, they moved to London, where McTavish hoped to live permanently. They returned to Canada in the spring of 1795, however, Marie-Marguerite having apparently become seriously depressed. The couple had six children, two of whom died as infants, and the rest in their twenties.
During his time in Britain, Simon McTavish had befriended the chief of Clan McTavish, and on the chief's death, Simon brought one of the sons into the North West Company. In 1799, McTavish did something that gave him great personal satisfaction: the acquisition of the Dunardary estate in North Knapdale, Argyll, which had been the ancestral home for the heads of the McTavish (MacTavish) clan for several hundred years. Although Simon's own family had been closely associated with clan Fraser, it is believed that his ancestors were a branch of the McTavish clan of Dunardary, who had settled in Stratherrick some generations before.
As an astute businessman with great vision, McTavish recognized the need for industrialization of Montreal and that need presented opportunities to make more money. In 1802 he purchased the seigneury of Terrebonne where he built two modern flour-mills and a bakery and established a sawmill, encouraging other entrepreneurs to begin the manufacturing of wooden barrels.
Simon McTavish died in Montreal in 1804. In his will he bequeathed funds to a number of people as well as the Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu de Montreal and the Montreal General Hospital. McTavish Street, bordering the westerly side of McGill University was named in his honor.
