Standard Stock and Mining Exchange

On 5 June 1900, the boards of both exchange met to vote on a merger.^[12] On Wednesday, 20 June, the boards of the separate exchanges met for the final time to finalise the details of the merger.^[13] The new board joint board met for the first time on Monday, 25 June 1900.^[14] Concurrently, L. R. Arnett, secretary of the Standard, released a statement announcing the SME's merger with the TMIE. The statement read: "The Standard Mining Exchange having amalgamated with the Toronto Mining & Industrial Exchange, the consolidated exchange to be known as the Toronto Mining Exchange, all quotations after this date will be issued by the new exchange at the Board of Trade."^[15]

The afternoon of the merger, members gathered at the Temple Café in the Temple Building for a celebratory lunch. The menu was mining-themed and featured Black Tail soup, Golden Star radishes, Granby gherkins, Wa Wa potatoes, chicken timbale with Iron Mask, War Eagle sauce, Crow's Nest, Smuggler, and Deer Park salads, Golden Hills cream, Virginia ice cream, Rossland biscuits, Spokane cheese, and Amalgamation café noir. The Globe reported that "the cordial spirit of fraternity among the brokers was thoroughly demonstrated, and the lions and the lambs, the bulls and the bears, the buyers and the sellers, vied with one another in showing the depth of the harmony and good feeling which now predominate."^[16]

Legally, the new exchange was a continuation of the 1899 Standard Mining Exchange, Ltd, which was a joint-stock company. The name then was changed to the Toronto Mining Exchange, Limited.^[17] At some point in late 1901, the government extended the powers of the exchange to buy and sell stocks of companies outside the mining industry. At this time, the name of the exchange was changed to the Standard Stock and Mining Exchange Limited.^[18]

In September 1903, the SSME left the Board of Trade Building and took up quarters at 43 Scott Street.^[19]

On 29 December 1908, a new provincial corporation was chartered called the Standard Stock and Mining Exchange. The new corporation took over the assets of the Standard Stock & Mining Exchange Ltd, at which time the exchanged ceased to be joint-stock company.^[20]

On 2 July 1912, the Exchange opened its new quarters at 56 King Street West.^[21]

On 7 January 1927, the exchange moved into the Imperial Trusts building at 15 Richmond Street West. The new quarters were opened by O. C. Bateman, secretary of the Ontario Mining Association.

In October 1928, the SSME purchased the Bell Telephone Building at 33 Temperance Street for $265,000. The building had been vacant for several years. Subsequently, the exchange hired architects George, Moorhouse & King to plan the conversion. This would include raising the roof five feet and installing a 90-foot quotation board.^[22] Among the features of the new exchange were a 63 by 80 foot trading floor illuminated by skylights, 62 telephone booths, six trading posts, and oak-paneled gallery, and a pneumatic tube system.^[23] On the evening of Thursday, 27 June 1929, the exchange held a gala dinner on the trading floor to open the new building. The building was opened officially by premier Howard Ferguson. Other dignitaries included mayor Sam McBride, Ontario attorney general William Herbert Price, and Ontario minister of mines Charles McCrea.^[24] Trading began at the new quarters on Tuesday, 2 July 1929 following the Dominion Day holiday.^[25]

Beginning on 7 November 1929, the Financial Post published a ten-part exposé on the activities of members of the SSME.^[26] The series outlined a litany of dishonest behaviours engaged in by members of the exchange. The tenth and final piece in the series was published on 9 January 1930 with the headline "Mining engineers find incompetent shysters bring disrepute upon profession."^[27]

The reporting by the Post instigated a response from the provincial attorney general. On 30 January 1930, the Toronto Police, under order from the attorney general, executed a series of arrests of brokers and raids of brokerage offices. Shortly before 8 am that day, the police arrested ten brokers and three material witnesses at their homes. Warrants were issued for the arrests of three additional brokers who were out of the province at the time. Once the brokers had been taken to city hall, the police then raided the offices of their firms, sending employees home and seizing all records and assets. The firms raided were known as the "big five" in mining brokerages; these were Solloway, Mills & Co., Arthur E. Moysey & Co., D. S. Paterson & Co., Homer L. Gibson & Co., and Stobie, Furlong & Co.^[28] Collectively, these five firms owned 26 of the 50 seats on the SSME. The brokers arrested were D. S. Paterson, Austin Campbell, Edgar E. McLean, James J. Heppleston, W. J. Shutt, Malcolm Stobie, C. J. Furlong, Gordon Draper, and William J. Smart. Warrants were issued for W. J. Wray, who was in Montreal, and for Isaac Solloway and Harvey Mills, who were in Alberta.^[29]

George A. Drew, the first chairman of the Ontario Securities Commission, instigated the merger of the SSME into the TSE.^[30]

In January 1934, the boards of governors of both exchanges met to elect an executive for the merged exchange. Harold Franks, who had been president of the TSE for one year, would continue as president, while Gordon Walter Nicholson, who had been president of the SSME in 1933 and 1934, would be vice-president. Norman Currie Urquhart, who had been president of the SSME in 1928 and 1929, would be secretary, and Frank Gordon Lawson, the current secretary of the TSE, would be treasurer. In addition to these officers, additional governors elected to the board were Harry Broughton Housser, Edwin Gordon Wills, D'Arcy Manning Doherty, and James Scott.^[31]

At the time of the merger, the resulting institution was referred to as a new entity. For example, on the day of the merger, the Globe proclaimed that "today Canada makes a notable addition to its financial institutions in the formation of the new Toronto Stock Exchange."^[32] However, today, the merged institution considers itself the perpetuation of the original Toronto Stock Exchange, whose history dates to 1851.

Following the merger, the Temperance Street exchange building remained in use. Mining shares continued to be traded at this location, while all others shares were traded on the TSE floor. Following the opening of the new Toronto Stock Exchange building in March 1937, the Temperance building was closed and then demolished in September 1938.^[33] The TSE sold the property in June 1941.^[34]

Presidents of the Standard Stock and Mining Exchange were:

• 1900, 1901 – Edward Strachan Cox
• 1902, 1903 – Joseph Lawlor Mitchell
• 1904 – unknown
• 1905, 1906 – Arthur Gowan Strathy
• 1907, 1908 – George Stevenson
• 1909 – William Claude Fox
• 1910 – John Marvin Wallace
• 1911 – Joseph Lawlor Mitchell
• 1912, 1913 – James Arthur McCausland
• 1914, 1915 – David Gilbert Lorsch
• 1916, 1917 – John Taylor Eastwood
• 1918, 1919 – Louis James West
• 1920 – Patrick William Cashman
• 1921, 1922 – Joseph Promise Cannon
• 1923, 1924 – Fred Asa Hall
• 1925 – Philip Grattan Kiely
• 1926, 1927 – Frederick Joseph Crawford
• 1928, 1929 – Norman Currie Urquhart
• 1930, 1931 – Frederick Joseph Crawford
• 1932, 1933 – Gordon Walter Nicholson