I'm ambivalent about the little potted summaries that the DCB has started placing at the top of its biographies. At first glance, I thought this one editorialized a little too much about how it felt about the subject of the biography.
Then I got into the meat of this biography, and boy, it delivers. For his account of Herbert Molson's life and career, Robert Sweeny seems to have tracked every penny that ever went in or out from the Molson's business and in or out from Herbert Molson's personal wallet. It's not a pretty picture. The market rigging! The price-fixing! The tax-dodging! The profiteering! The honours from his philanthropy set against the microscopic share of his income it represented.
In 1909 Molson’s entered into a cartel with its much larger rival. From April of that year through to September 1925, the two firms shared monthly returns on how much ale, porter, and lager each had sold in both Canada and Newfoundland. All sales in excess of a set market share were to benefit both firms, at a fixed profit per gallon.
...
It is not clear how Herbert managed to avoid incurring a heavy tax bill on these appropriations. His private ledgers show that in 1928 he paid 25 per cent in taxes on a net income of $311,812, but in 1929 he paid only 2.8 per cent on a revenue of $5,187,519, and in 1930 a mere 1.8 per cent on $4,877,352.
...
Throughout the 1930s he donated only 1.56 per cent of his $17.1 million income to charitable causes.
Lately the DCB has been engaged in an ambitious fundraising project seeking to build its endowment to the size it needs. One cannot help speculating about how potential major donors might react if they saw this work sample.
Which is why it's important that the DCB has published it.
