"Until Further Notice": The Royal Mail Line and the Passenger Steamboat Trade on Lake Ontario and the Upper St. Lawrence River, 1838-1875 : The Sub-contract Model (1841-1849)

Chapter 2 The Sub-contract Model (1841-1849)

Table of Contents

	Title Page
	Abstract
	Acknowledgments
	Editorial notes for electronic version
	Introduction
1	The Lake Ontario And River St. Lawrence Line (1838-1840)
2	The Sub-contract Model (1841-1849)
	Introduction
	1. The Mail Contract and the Transformation of the Line
	2. The Troop and Indigent Immigrant Contracts
	3. Management and Operations
	4. Balance of Power
	5. Summary
3	The Cartel Model (1850-1855)
4	Competition and the Crash (1856-1861)
5	The Canadian Navigation Company (1861-1875)
	Conclusions
	Notes
	Table of Illustrations

Introduction

The steamboat lines which took to the icy waters of Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence in the spring of 1841 contained an uneasy amalgam of proprietors. Now sharing the trade with Hamilton were a number of intruders led by Donald Bethune. Their entry into what had become virtually Hamilton's private preserve was facilitated by Bethune's single strategic advantage, control of the mail contract. This agreement, combined with the less prestigious troop and indigent immigrant contracts, served to define the Royal Mail lines over the entire decade of the forties.

Previous Next

Return to Home Port

Chapter 5 appeared in FreshWater.