CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue and the physical size of its rail network, spanning Canada from the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia to the Pacific coast in British Columbia across approximately 20,400 route miles (32,831 km) of track.^[2] In the late 20th century, CN gained extensive capacity in the United States by taking over such railroads as the Illinois Central.

CN is a public company with 22,600 employees,^[3] and as of July 2019 it has a market cap of approximately CA$90 billion.^[4] CN was government-owned, having been a Canadian Crown corporation from its founding in 1919 until being privatized in 1995. As of 2019, Bill Gates is the largest single shareholder of CN stock, owning a 14.2% interest through Cascade Investment and his own Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.^[5]

From 1919 to 1978, the railway was referred to as "Canadian National Railways" (CNR).

History[edit]

The Canadian National Railways (CNR) was incorporated on June 6, 1919, comprising several railways that had become bankrupt and fallen into Government of Canada hands, along with some railways already owned by the government. Primarily a freight railway, CN also operated passenger services until 1978, when they were assumed by Via Rail. The only passenger services run by CN after 1978 were several mixed trains (freight and passenger) in Newfoundland, and several commuter trains both on CN's electrified routes and towards the South Shore in the Montreal area (the latter lasted without any public subsidy until 1986). The Newfoundland mixed trains lasted until 1988, while the Montreal commuter trains are now operated by Montreal's EXO.

On November 17, 1995, the Government of Canada privatized CN. Over the next decade, the company expanded significantly into the United States, purchasing Illinois Central Railroad and Wisconsin Central Transportation, among others.

Creation of the company, 1918–1923[edit]

The excessive construction of railway lines in Canada led to significant financial difficulties striking many of them, in the years leading up to 1920:

• In response to public concerns, the Government of Canada assumed majority ownership of the near-bankrupt Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) on September 6, 1918, and appointed a "Board of Management" to oversee the company. At the same time, CNoR was also directed to assume management of Canadian Government Railways (CGR), a system mainly comprising the Intercolonial Railway of Canada (IRC), National Transcontinental Railway (NTR), Prince Edward Island Railway (PEIR), and the Hudson Bay Railway (HBR).
• On December 20, 1918, the Government of Canada created the Canadian National Railways (CNR) – a body with no corporate powers – through Order in Council as a means to simplify the funding and operation of the various railway companies.^[6] The absorption of the Intercolonial Railway would see CNR adopt that system's slogan, The People's Railway.
• Another Canadian railway, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR), encountered financial difficulty on March 7, 1919, when its parent company Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) defaulted on repayment of construction loans to the Government of Canada.

The Canadian National Railway Company then evolved through the following steps:

• the "railways, works and undertakings of the Companies comprised in the Canadian Northern System" were vested in the newly incorporated Company in June 1919, with provision for the later inclusion of any of the Government Railways^[7]
• vesting of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway System in the Minister of Railways and Canals, acting as Government Receiver, in March 1919^[8]
• acquisition of the Grand Trunk Railway System in November 1919, implemented in May 1920^[9]

GTR management and shareholders opposed to nationalization took legal action, but after several years of arbitration,^[10] the GTR was finally absorbed into the CNR on January 30, 1923.^[11] Although several smaller independent railways would be added to the CNR in subsequent years as they went bankrupt or it became politically expedient to do so, the system was more or less finalized at that point. However, certain related lawsuits were not resolved until as late as 1936.^[12]

Canadian National Railways was born out of both wartime and domestic urgency. Until the rise of the personal automobile and creation of taxpayer-funded all-weather highways, railways were the only viable long-distance land transportation available in Canada. As such, their operation consumed a great deal of public and political attention. Canada was one of many nations to engage in railway nationalization in order to safeguard critical transportation infrastructure during the First World War.

In the early 20th century, many governments were taking a more interventionist role in the economy, foreshadowing the influence of economists like John Maynard Keynes. This political trend, combined with broader geo-political events, made nationalization an appealing choice for Canada. The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and allied involvement in the Russian Revolution seemed to validate the continuing process. The need for a viable rail system was paramount in a time of civil unrest and foreign military action.

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848, as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants. Incorporators included William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett (American consul at Lima, Peru and also involved with the Panama Railroad Company),^[1] Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland.

History[edit]

Founding[edit]

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was established to carry US mail on the Pacific leg of a transcontinental route via Panama. The federal government discussed the possibility of creating subsidies for a private shipping company, similar to the model already established in Britain for the Cunard Line and the British Mail Steam Packet Company. Such a policy served the larger objective of annexing and developing Oregon. President James K. Polk brought the Oregon Territory into the Union in 1846. Developing and maintaining the new land required the development of faster transportation and communications between the eastern seaboard and the remote northwest.^[2]

At first the federal mail subsidy program served a second objective: the establishment of civilian steamships which could be easily converted to warships or privateers during times of war. Thus the 1845 federal enabling legislation vested authority of mail contracts with the Secretary of the US Navy. His dual mandate was letting federal mail contracts and overseeing the construction of the steamers to ensure that they would be suitable for conversion to warships. In accordance to Polk’s aggressive program for developing Oregon, Congress passed more specific laws in for mail subsidies early in 1847. The new laws approved funding for four naval steamers, directed the US Department of the Navy to supervise the construction of these ships, and directed the Secretary of the Navy to contract with private carriers to carry US Mail to Oregon via Panama. Initially they planned for monthly mail service. One set of ships was to serve the Atlantic leg between the eastern US and Panama; the other set was to serve the Pacific leg.^[2]

Secretary Mason set the terms for the Pacific mail contract: a steamer would be required to sail from Panama to Astoria, Oregon in thirty days or less. He awarded the first contract to Arnold Harris, a straw buyer from Arkansas. The contract paid $199,000 annually and was in effect for ten years. Just days later, Harris assigned the mail contract to William H. Aspinwall, who brought in three partners: Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, and Gardiner Greene Howland. They incorporated the Pacific Mail Steamship Company on April 12, 1848 with a capital stock of $500,000.^[2]

California Gold Rush[edit]

The first three steamships constructed for Pacific Mail were the SS California, of 1050 tons, the SS Oregon, of 1250 tons, and the SS Panama, of 1058 tons.^[3] The company initially believed it would be transporting agricultural goods from the West Coast, but just as operations began, gold was found in the Sierra Nevada, and business boomed almost from the start. During the California Gold Rush in 1849, the company was a key mover of goods and people and played a key role in the growth of San Francisco, California.

In addition to their maritime activities Pacific Mail also ran some of the earliest steamboats on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, between San Francisco, Sacramento, and Stockton. Domingo Marcucci came from Philadelphia in the Pacific Mail steamship SS Oregon with a knocked-down steamboat in its hold. He started a shipyard in San Francisco on September 18, 1849, on the beach at Happy Valley, at the foot of Folsom Street, east of Beale Street. Marcucci's company assembled the Captain Sutter in six weeks. Built for the Aspinwall Steam Transportation Line, owned by George W. Aspinwall, brother of William Henry Aspinwall, it was one of the first steamboats that ran between San Francisco and Stockton, in 1849.^{[4]:?13? [5]} Also for the Pacific Mail, Marcucci next converted the 153 ton side-wheel steamboat El Dorado that had been rigged as a 3 masted schooner for the trip around Cape Horn, to be used for the Sacramento run. Subsequently in March 1850, for the same company, he assembled the Georgiana, a small 30 ton side-wheel steamboat made in Philadelphia, knocked down and sent by sea also for the Sacramento run. That April Georgiana pioneered the shortcut route between Sacramento and Stockton through a slough in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta that was between the Sacramento River and Mokelumne River, which afterward became known as Georgiana Slough.^[4]:?14?

1850–1869[edit]

In 1850, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company established a steamship line competing with the U.S. Mail Steamship Company between New York City and Chagres. George Law placed an opposition line of steamers (SS Antelope, SS Columbus, SS Isthumus, SS Republic) in the Pacific, running from Panama to San Francisco. In April 1851, the rivalry was ended when the U.S. Mail Steamship Company purchased Pacific Mail steamers on the Atlantic side, and George Law sold his new company and its ships to the Pacific Mail. One of the company's steamships, the SS Winfield Scott, acquired when the New York and California Steamship Company went out of business, ran aground on Anacapa Island in 1853. In 1854, Marshall Owen Roberts purchased Law's interest and became president of Pacific Mail.^[6]

During the American Civil War the ships of the Pacific Mail, that carried the gold and silver of the western mines to the eastern states were under threat from the Confederate Navy in the form of commerce raiders, and several plots to seize one of their steamships for its precious cargo or to convert it into a raider to capture one of its other ships with such cargo. After one of these plots, that of the Salvador Pirates came to light, to prevent any further attempts to seize Pacific coast shipping, General McDowell ordered each passenger on board American merchant steamers to surrender all weapons when boarding the ship and every passenger and his baggage was searched. All officers were armed for the protection of their ships. Detachments of Union soldiers sailed with Pacific Mail steamers.^[7][8]

In 1867, the company launched the first regularly scheduled trans-Pacific steamship service with a route between San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Yokohama, and extended service to Shanghai. This route led to an influx of Japanese and Chinese immigrants, bringing additional cultural diversity to California.

As the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads met in Utah in 1869, the profitability of the Pacific Mail on the run from Panama to San Francisco ended. Many of its ships were sold or put on other routes.

1870–1925[edit]

While docked at San José de Guatemala, the Pacific Mail steamship SS Acapulco was involved in the Barrundia Affair of 1890. General Juan Martín Barrundia, a Guatemalan rebel general wanted by the Guatemalan government, was killed aboard ship after an attempted arrest by Guatemalan police, who hauled down the American flag and raised the Guatemalan flag in its place. The affair led to the recall of the U.S. Minister to Central America, Lansing Bond Mizner, by President Benjamin Harrison.^[9]

The company was a charter member of the Dow Jones Transportation Average.

In 1925, the company was purchased by Robert Dollar, of the Dollar Steamship Company. With the government bail-out of the Dollar Line in 1938, ownership passed to American President Lines, but by this time, PMSS essentially existed only on paper. It was formally closed down in 1949, after just over a century of existence.^[10]

 
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