page_title: Hugh Allan
section_title: Rise of the Allan Line at Montreal
hierarchical_section_title: Hugh Allan / Rise of the Allan Line at Montreal
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Au centre-droite&#160;: Édifice Allan, 333, rue de la Commune Ouest, Montréal Vieux-Montréal À gauche&#160;: Édifice des Commissaires, 357, rue de la Commune Ouest, Montréal (Québec, Canada) vieux.montreal.qc.ca
context_page_description: Sir Hugh Allan was a Scottish-Canadian shipping magnate, financier and capitalist. By the time of his death, the Allan Shipping Line had become the largest privately owned shipping empire in the world. He was responsible for transporting millions of British immigrants to Canada, and the businesses that he established from Montreal filtered across every sphere of Canadian life, cementing his reputation as an empire builder. His home, Ravenscrag, was the principal residence of the Golden Square Mile in Montreal.
context_section_description: Returning to Montreal in 1831, Allan became a commission merchant with one of the city's leading importers, who had also acted as the Montreal agent for his family's company, J & A Allan, back in Scotland. Concentrating on shipping, shipbuilding and purchasing grain, Allan advanced rapidly, aided by capital raised and contacts gained through family connections, as well as social bonds he developed himself in the predominantly Scottish business community at Montreal. By 1835, Allan was made a partner in the firm that from then was known as Millar, Edmonstone & Co. With his father's encouragement and capital, Allan expanded the company's shipping operations, and J & A Allan (then headed by his elder brother, James, in Glasgow) became closely involved with building of the merchant fleet. By the time (1839) Hugh's younger brother, Andrew, had joined now Edmonstone, Allan & Co., it had the largest shipping capacity of any Montreal-based firm.
  By the 1850s, Edmonstone & Allan was described by a credit-rating service as an "old, safe and respectable House... one of the wealthiest concerns in the Province", known for its responsible management and its links to trading houses in London, Liverpool, and Glasgow. Helped by Allan's spreading influence into allied shipping, railway and banking concerns, the firm was "as good as a bank". From 1863, the company became known as H & A Allan, of Montreal — one segment, but an important and intricate part of the Allan family's empire.
caption: The offices of H & A Allan by the Montreal harbor (built in 1863)
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A3100 IS", "Image DateTime": "2012:08:18 17:33:30", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Tag 0x1001": "4000", "Image Tag 0x1002": "3000", "Image ExifOffset": "194", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:08:18 17:33:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:08:18 17:33:30", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "223/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "23/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "31/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3000", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1000000/61", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1000000/61", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}