Business records of the Ford Motor Company of Canada Ltd, 1897-1971

Labour/Le Travail, Spring, 1998 by Christina Burr

IN THE FALL OF 1997 the business records of the Ford Motor Company of Canada were transferred from the Company's assembly plant in Windsor, Ontario to the archives at the University of Windsor. The records span the period from 1897 to 1971, dating from transfer of the patent and selling rights by the Ford Motor Company of Detroit, Michigan to the Walkerville Wagon Works, now encompassed within the city of Windsor.

The 1897 transfer was intended to avoid the protective tariff imposed on US-made goods by Liberal Finance Minister W.S. Fielding in response to the Dingley tariff, which had eliminated any possibility of free trade between the two countries. By establishing a manufacturing base across the Detroit River in Walkerville, the Ford Motor Company not only avoided high tariffs, but also profited from the opportunity to export automobiles throughout the British Empire. Subsequently, the Ford Motor Company of Canada was founded on 17 August 1904.

The collection consists of ledgers of the account balances of the clients of the Canadian Company; letters and memos relation to various patents and trademarks; customs drawback claims; the expense accounts of the Walkerville Wagon Company; ledgers for accounts receivable, revenue and expenses; payroll accounts for the Walkerville Wagon Company; the bi-monthly payroll for employees working at the Saint John, New Brunswick office from 1915-1917 and 1919-1921; monthly statements of all the Canadian branch operations in Toronto, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Montreal, Vancouver, London, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina and Saint John; and an inventory of all machine tools ordered by the Ford Motor Company of Canada.

A quick perusal of the collection points to its potential usefulness for labour and working-class historians, particularly the hand ledger of the payroll accounts from the early organization of Canadian operations. The bi-monthly payroll for the employees of the Walkerville Wagon Company from 10 January 1902 to the end of 1909 reveals the wage rate paid to each employee of the company, hours worked, any overtime hours over the two-week period, and deductions for lateness. Since the payroll runs over a considerable period of time, nearly five years, historians can trace wage movements, employment levels, turnover, and changes in the composition of the labour force. For historians interested in studying the family economy, patterns of seasonal employment might also be discerned. The ledger is organized according to shop, thus allowing a comparison of the earnings of workers in the various production sectors, specifically, the machine shop, the woodwork shop, the print shop, the box department, and the shipping department. The first entry for 10 January 1902 also lists the earnings of a stock clerk, one engineer, one watchman, one fireman, and two office workers. At least one of the office workers was a woman. Her name was Grace Falconer, and she apparently was a long-time employee of the Company. The designation "Miss" before her name indicates that she was likely an unmarried woman. When the payroll ledger is compared to the production schedule, also contained in the collection, historians can obtain some indication of variations in the numbers employed to meet the demands for Ford automobiles.

The collection of the Ford Motor Company of Canada also includes the bi-monthly payroll ledger for salaried Head-Office employees in Canada for the period 15 February 1911 to 30 April 1912. Grace Falconer appears in the 15 February 1911 payroll as earning a salary of $70 per month. Her earnings were in stark contrast to the $200 per month that Henry Ford was drawing from the Canadian branch of his Company.

Innovations in production and the schedule of production on the "Ford line" might be studied using the ledgers from the Canadian branches and the correspondence pertaining to patents. The production schedules should provide historians with new insights into the managerial initiatives associated with the Fordist regime of mass production at the level of manufacture. An analysis of the inventories of automobile parts and the patents for improvements for automobile manufacturing will further our knowledge of the changing technologies of production.

Labour historians have long recognized the paramount significance of the Fordist regime of accumulation to the 20th-century working-class experience. The collection of business records of the Ford Motor Company of Canada will facilitate more historical study of the early innovations in mass production at the level of the workplace. New insights into workers' struggles to meet the challenges posed by the technologies of mass production both in the workplace and in the family might be gained, particularly if these business records are used alongside other sources such as union records, trade journals, city directories, and municipal tax assessment rolls.

For those interested in the records of the Ford Motor Company of Canada Ltd., access to the catalogue of holdings is available through the Internet at: http://www.uwindsor.ca/archives/page1.htm