Summary Of The Nestegg Mining Company

Businesses in the late 1800s took a stimulating transition as it went from a modest family operated structure into a more contemporary model. It was crucial for enterprises to quickly adjust to this conversion, or the results would prove to be tormenting. A great example of this is shown from the article, “Late-Victorian Gentlemen Entrepreneurs Venturing into New Worlds of Canadian Business: The Nestegg Mining Company, 1896-98.” written by Patrick Chaplin. Throughout the article, Chaplin discusses the process of assembling the Nestegg Mining Company and how the business development strategies utilized by the Victoria men ultimately lead them to their collapse. Accordingly, this review will provide the essential ideas presented by the author,
The company got off to a rough start from the beginning as they utilized various tactics to operate their business. This was accomplished through the issuing of treasury shares to investors nationally for capital accumulation. Chaplin explains that Nestegg ran into countless crisis situations resulting from numerous payment issues and often had to be bailed out by the inhabitants of Victoria (Chaplin 13). Due to the horrendous publicity and financial instability of Nestegg, the trustees had to restructure their corporate team to resolve underlying issues. With increasing debt complications, the company attempted to merge with an alternative gold mining company to increase capitalization. Chaplin proves that although this strategy provided short-term benefits to Nestegg, the company still faced with substantial internal damage, and unethical administrative practices. Their final opportunity to survive relied upon a deal with Whitmore which would ease the company’s fiscal pressure. The failure to complete the deal eventually lead to the shutdown of Nest
Frequently, Chaplin possessed comprehensive knowledge of management and financial theory, which permits the audience to apprehend the reasoning behind Nestegg’s failure. Chaplin also provides the information in a practical and functional manner which empowers the readers to grasp the material naturally. At the same time, Chaplin delivers numerous quantitative figures throughout the article which may obfuscate the interpretation to readers. He also uses a variety of reliable sources during the course of the article, although he uses a reasonable amount of sources that were written in Toronto. As a result, this may question the credibility due to the nature of the business mostly arising in Western Canada. On the contrary, the author showed a strong bias towards O’Farrell and an apparent preference towards him. For instance, he claims that O’Farrell was the best choice to resolve the property crisis (Chaplin 11), and also calling him essential to Nestegg’s survival. (Chaplin 16) During the end of the article, Chaplin lists various holes in the management and specifies many individuals. However, he does not list O’Farrell’s actions despite his mishandling of property. A possible reasoning behind his preference may be due to the loyalty and demeanor he showed as a Trustee by working until Nestegg’s