This Series documents the activities of the Controller's Office which oversaw the company's financial activities. As such it is a natural complement to the records in first and second Series and the Series entitled 'Financial Records'. These records cover a wide range of company activities from financing power projects to the number of cords of pulpwood shipped from Franquelin in the mid-1920s. They include the company's early contracts with the Quebec Provincial Electricity Board, which set the tone for its later energy dealings with the Quebec government (see vol. 25415 files 4 to 10 and vol. 25825 files 1-2). The key to Colonel McCormick's plans for the post-1945 development of Baie Comeau was generation of hydroelectric power from the Manicouagan River and the details of the financing of this project are found in vol. 25414 files 1, 14-17.
The financial records in this series contain data that can be compared with the financial and accounting records in Series entitled 'Financial Records'; note, for example, the Ontario Paper Company's trial balances in vol. 25415 file 11 to vol. 25416 file 14. As a tertiary service industry, the Tribune Company's newspapers were hit hard by the loss of advertising revenue during the early years of the Great Depression. By the spring of 1932 it was decided to write down the company's assets to reflect their current real values, see Daniel M. Deininger to Thomas E. Siegerman, 9 Apr. 1932 in vol. 25417 file 5. While necessary at the time, the write-offs would come back to haunt the company. In 1940 to help finance the war, the Canadian government introduced the Excess Profits Tax Act. The new tax hit the company hard because the company calculated its profits based on valuations made during the depths of the Depression, see the memo by Glyn Osler to Mellen C. Martin, 12 Mar. 1940 in vol. 25417 file 7. The government returns files provide tax details on the company's workforce which are available nowhere else. For example, see the wages for the crews on the ships run by the company's subsidiaries, Ontario Transportation & Pulp Co. and Chicago & Tribune Transportation Co., 1921-1927 in vol. 25415 files 2-3.
Sales, Leases, Deeds, Licenses records in this series include a wide variety of information that illustrates the richness of the fonds. For example, after the death of Woods Department Manager George Boisvert in 1936, the company discovered that most of his contacts with the Quebec Ministère des Terres et Forêts had been carried on at a personal level and that he had left no written record of many of these activities, see Siegerman to Schmon 22 Oct 1936, vol. 25417 file 2. Complementing the files in the first Series on the company's Franquelin operations, the appraisal report and the liquidator's files for the winding up of the Franquelin Lumber & Pulpwood Co. contain very detailed data. These include listings of the company owned buildings in the village, see "Appraisal Report, Schedule 5", 1926, vol. 25417 file 18. In the liquidator's files, vol. 25417 files 19-22, vol. 25822 file 5 and vol. 25826 file 8, there is detailed information on logging contracts and the number of cords of pulpwood shipped to Thorold. Most significant of all however, are the Dominion Engineering Co. files for the paper machines to be installed in the new Baie Comeau mill, vol. 25417 files 8-10 and vol. 25822 file 8. These 262 inch wide machines were amongst the largest built up until that time. For the contract with Dominion Engineering see "Proposal & Contract", 7 May 1936, vol. 25417 file 8. These high speed machines were considered the ultimate in pre-World War Two paper making technology.
