'Hands Across the Water': Canadian Industrial Financiers in the City of London, 1905-20

This article traces the emergence of Canadian industrial financiers and their links to the British capital market before the Great War. Within a few years, these individuals evolved from bond salesmen to investment bankers channelling capital from British and North American investors to Canadian industry. Between 1908 and 1912, a select group of these financiers established branches of their investment houses in the City and conducted flotations on behalf of their Canadian clients. Judging by the case of Max Aitken (later Lord Beaverbrook), Canadian financiers did so to circumvent the high fees and, at times, poor service offered by the City investment banks, and to increase their own profits. The financial depression of 1913 and the outbreak of the Great War slowed and then stopped Canadian industrial flotations in London. Thereafter, Canadian security issues were redirected to the North American capital market, particularly the United States.