Volume 1: A Dominion of Capital, 1817-1945
Volume 2: Territories of Transformation, 1946-2017

The Bank of Montreal is not only Canada's first bank: it has also occupied a prominent place in the pantheon of Canadian nation building. Whom Fortune Favours examines the trajectory of this extraordinary organization across the span of two centuries. The historian Laurence Mussio applies an analytical lens to a financial institution whose strategies fundamentally shaped, and were shaped by, the evolution of a country and a continent. The Bank of Montreal (BMO) represents an extremely rare institution, one that has both endured and adapted to fundamental change.

The depth and breadth of the Bank's history offer a unique opportunity to analyze a singular organization over ten generations. As an institution, BMO played a critical part in the destiny of its home city and in the emergence of Canada on an international scene. Crucial to the development of Canadian and North American financial systems, BMO shaped the political economy of banking. Over the last half century, the institution's response to successive economic, technological, demographic, and regulatory shifts illustrates how Canadian and North American finance has adapted to the challenges before it.

The first volume analyzes the rise of this institution from 1817 to 1945, covering BMO's complex ascent as a Canadian banking powerhouse in the North Atlantic world. On the eve of the Great War, BMO had 167 offices across Canada, operations firmly established in the US, the UK, Mexico, and a network of global relationships. Chapters move through a series of shifts in the political economy of finance following this expansion, most dramatically culminating in the crucible of the Depression in the 1930s.

The second volume confronts a different set of conditions in Canada after 1945. For Canada's first bank in its second century, the focus was on transformation. The rise of a large middle class, globalization, and technological innovation meant BMO leadership, strategy, and structure had to respond to a changing workforce, changing customers, and new attitudes about money and credit. During this period, one pivotal step occurred in 1984, when the Bank moved into the American Midwest setting BMO on a new trajectory. The book's final chapters analyze BMO's contemporary experience after 1990. This two-volume tour de force ends with a reflection on how, exactly, BMO's long-term experience can generate relevant insight from hindsight, as new leadership takes on the challenge of regeneration and renewal of one of Canada's founding financial institutions.

At its heart, Whom Fortune Favours presents a multifaceted story about the making of contemporary finance. This epic chronicle is the result of a massive research effort incorporating thousands of never-before-released internal documents. Mussio's accessible narrative will appeal to both scholars and executives who seek to understand the origins, development, and present-day implications of one of North America's great institutions.