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Broadly praised and roundly condemned at the time of publication, The History of Canadian Business has been acknowledged by the Social Sciences Federation of Canda as one of the most outstanding works ever written in Canadian economic history, on par with Harold Innis' The Fur Trade in Canada.

Part I on the banks and finance capital, tells the story of the growth of the Canadian chartered banking system. Included is an analysis of the many bank failures, and an explanation of the techniques used successfully by the largest chartered banks to dominate banking and finance in the new Canadian confederation. Several chapters deal with hitherto unrecorded facets of the development of the financial system of Canada, the major financial institutions and the types of operations they financed.

Part II tells the story of the development of manufacturing and industry. The rapid growth of foreign branch plants which followed the National Policy are closely examined, as are business assistance measures like patent laws, tariffs, government subsidies and municipal 'bonusing.' Naylor offers detailed accounts of the rise of big business through the formation of cartels and mergers assembled out of smaller independent operations. This section includes Canada in the Post-Columbian Age which deals in part with the decline of the Canadian federal system.

"If he calls a spade a spade, then Professor Naylor is also recognizing that it is also the business of the historian not only to lay bare the facts but also to do so in a manner that communicates the real meaning and import of what did happen."
Eric Kierans, former Distinguished Professor of Economics, Dalhousie University

"Eminently readable, Naylor writes of economic history driven by people, with all their wants and all their warts...Serious scholar though he most certainly is, Naylor is also a part of the great tradition of muckraking that is so sorely needed if we are to have a rounded portrait of business."
Mel Watkins, University of Toronto

Table of Contents

Preface

Part I: The Banks and Finance Capital

I. Introduction: Canadian Mercantilism, 1867-1914

II. Revenue, Protection, and the Politics of International Finance

III. The Evolution of the Chartered Banking System

IV. Chartered Bank Failures

V. The Rise and Fall of the Private Banking System

VI. Financial Institutions and the Accumulation of Capital

VII. Canada and the International Flow of Finance Capital

VIII. High Finance and the Canadian Railways

Part II: Industrial Development

IX. Staple Production and the Canadian Railway

X. Patents, Foreign Technology, and Industrial Development

XI. Commercial Policy and Direct Investment

XII. Federalism and the Rise of the Corporate Welfare State

XIII. The Bonusing System and Secondary Industry

XIV. The Rise of Big Business

XV. Reciprocity

XVI. Canadian Commercial and Financial Expansion Abroad

XVII. Conclusion: The Lessons of Development

XVIII. Epilogue: Aftermath of the National Policy

About the author

R.T. Naylor studied political economy at the University of Toronto, and at the London School of Economics. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and is currently teaching economics at McGill University. He has also published Dominion of Debt, Bankers, Bagmen and Bandits, and the highly acclaimed Hot Money and the Politics of Debt.