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Auction: 10USA - NYC Currency and Stock & Bond Auction
Lot: 1004

Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited 1907. Walkerville, Ontario. #95. 10 shs. Red embossed corporate seal. Ornate border. Signed by Henry Ford as president. VF+. Henry Ford (1863-1947) was one of America´s greatest automobile manufacturers. He started with very little in the way of resources, but managed to succeed in an industry where most of his peers were forced to give up control of their pioneering automotive enterprises to outside stock holders. In 1903, when Ford Motor Company of Michigan was founded, Henry Ford found himself in exactly that position. John Gray and ten other local businessmen and women initially controlled the company, with Gray as president. Becuase they wanted to manufacture and sell their cars on both sides of the U.S. and the Canadian border, a parallel company was set up in Canada and named the Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited. It was almost as highly capitlaized as the American company. In the early 1900s, the automobile was at avery formative stage. Electric vehicles predominated in the cities, and if ther batteries could only be improved, electrics would be the wave of the future. Thomas Edison went to work on that problem, while Ford took the opposite track. Ford, along with others, improved the gasoline powered automobiles and made them more practical. As Ford became more and more successful, he was able to gain control of his own companies, and by 1906 he was president of both Ford Motor Company of Michigan and Ford Motor Company of Canada. He quickly adopted a strategy that would lead to one of the greatest manufacturing successes of all time: the Model T. While other automotive pioneers wanted to offer highly diversified product lines and sell more expensive cars, Henry Ford strove to develop a single model that could be manufactured efficiently and sold at a price that everyone could afford. Ford´s theory worked billiantly. There are only 16 known Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited certifcates signed by Ford. To the best of our knowledge, there are no early Ford Motor Company of Michigan certificate available outside of the Henry Ford Museum Collection. This is the ultimate stock certificate for any advanced collection of the shares of the companies of great American capitalists issued to and signed by their founders. Estimate US$ 20,000-30,000

Sold for
$15,000