Merchant Princes: Halifax's First Family of Finance, Ships and Steel

Robert W. Sexty is a professor of commerce and business administration
at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the author of Canadian
Business: Issues and Stakeholders.

In the 19th century, Halifax was a major centre of commercial endeavour.
The merchant princes cited in this book’s title were the five
generations (spanning 162 years) of the Stairs family. In addition to
finance, ships, and steel, the family was involved with coal mining,
sugar refining, rope manufacturing, and retailing/wholesaling. This
corporate history traces the prominent family’s rise and fall.

Frost describes how the family adapted to changing economic
circumstances in the 19th century by shifting commercial interests from
one business undertaking to another. This strategy worked well until
1912, the year in which the dynasty began to lose its sense of purpose.
The untimely death of the family’s leader and the lack of successors
able to take over the company hastened the decline. Frost fails to
identify why the family failed to adapt to changing business
environments in the 20th century. Nevertheless, a family business that
survives for five generations is an achievement that should be
recognized and recorded.

The text is effectively supplemented with maps, a family tree,
photographs, chronological lists of investments and vessels, and an
index. The author has extensively researched the history, making use of
relevant books, articles, corporate and public archival materials, and
interviews—all of which are referenced in 875 endnotes.

Business historians and those interested in Maritime business history
will find Merchant Princes a worthwhile addition to accounts of
commercial activity in the region.