 The company came to represent standards of scrupulous honesty and thoroughness from which they never deviated and became an important link between financiers in Britain, Montreal and Toronto in the development of the young Canadian west.Under Nanton, the firm purchased land for building 'feeder' rail lines which they also financed and then acted as agents in selling them to the Canadian Pacific Railway.By 1900, the firm acted as agents for the sale of Galt Coal (founded by Nanton's father's former business partner) throughout the Canadian Prairies and, in the first year, sold 50,000 tons.