Windsor was the commercial centre of Essex County, located on the Great Lakes waterway and ideally situated to take advantage of international trade. At the time of Le Progrès, the County was above all an agricultural area, but it had other resources to exploit, such as oil and natural gas. In fact, Tilbury, at the other end of the County, was the site of the first oil boom in all of Canada , , . The forest industry was another profitable sector of the local economy, although, as early as 1902, some were beginning to worry about the depletion of this valuable resource .

People from the county came to Windsor to buy everything they needed. A good way to take stock of the importance of Windsor’s commercial sector is to look through the advertisements that filled the pages of Le Progrès , , . Many of these establishments, highly successful at the time, have long since vanished from the Windsor scene : stores like Straith, MacDonald & Bartlett , Lassaline , Peck , Boug , Peddie , Bowlby and Patten .

People from far and near purchased goods in Windsor; railroads and ferries brought in lots of travellers as well. As a result, Windsor was always a city of hotels, as is apparent from this page of ads that highlights the importance of this economic sector . (How many of these establishments still exist today?) Another place to find information on hotels and taverns is in the reports of the local license inspector for Essex North, a position held for many years by Gaspard Pacaud himself .


In addition to having a large market for alcoholic beverages, Windsor was blessed with a mild climate and a close proximity to the U.S. market. These are two more factors that led to the growth of an important wine and spirits industry in the area. Hiram Walker established his distillery on the Canadian side of the border to escape prohibitionist tendencies in the United States and to gain access to the British Empire’s markets. But he was far from the only one with similar ambitions. Another distiller, Patrice Bénéteau, was producing brandy and other fruit liqueurs in Sandwich ; with the help of wine-maker Hyppolite Girardot, he launched a campaign to obtain legislation that would make production of alcohol easier . Several breweries were also located in Windsor , , .

Grape and wine production in this era foreshadowed today’s vibrant industry in Essex County , . Besides Girardot and Jules Robinet, the two main wine-makers in the area, several other merchants produced their own wine in Windsor. Among them were Leboeuf , and Charles Montreuil , . But everyone looked up to Jules Robinet as the leader of the Essex County wine industry. His store on the corner of Sandwich and Mill still stands to this day , .