bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Why Study Business History?
Authors: Gras N. S. B.
Published: June 2006

Business history is at once very old and very young. Objectively, it is as old as town economy in the ancient and medieval periods. By this, I mean that business began in the town, ancient and medieval. Subjectively, it is hardly more than a decade old. That is, as a subject for study, business history is just getting under way. Since this is the case, we may fittingly stop to consider what we are to understand by the subject.

Business history is the study of the development of business administration. Roughly, it deals with the historical background of subjects taught in schools of business.

Perhaps we may divide the subject, that is, the history of business administration, into two main parts. The first is the history of policy-formulation. We may think that there is little policy in business and has been less in the past. The fault lies in us: there is a long story and an interesting one at this point. Much of the development in policy, conscious or unconscious, is embedded in these five stages—petty capitalism, mercantile capitalism, industrial capitalism, financial capitalism, and national capitalism. Woven into these are many ingredients, but the degree of specialization and control is uppermost in the change of patterns. We shall come back to this subject later.
Industry and the Rural System in Quebec
Authors: Hughes Everett C.
Published: June 2006

This paper will describe the functional relationship of the growth of industry to the traditional system of rural life prevailing in Quebec. The general course of this growth is familiar enough. Quebec has always had industries which exploited the native resources of forest, sea, and lately, of the mines. In the present phase new major industries, which make little use of native materials except water and man-power, have invaded the province. Industries of this type are generally not on the frontiers of settlement, but in the very heart of the province. In the course of the last two decades, Quebec has become more urban than rural. It is now only slightly less industrial than Ontario.

Modern capitalistic industry grew up in a few centres, coincident with an enormous expansion of sources of raw materials and markets. Its spread has taken two forms: the first, still proceeding at a slackening rate, is the extension of its far-flung frontiers; the second is an inner expansion in which industry moves from its most intensely developed older centres to nearby less industrialized regions, where it finds a population accustomed to the main features of Western capitalistic civilization but not sophisticated with respect to its more extreme manifestations. Quebec and the southern United States are among the outstanding regions in which this inner expansion or “mopping up” is taking place.
Financial Administration of the Government of Canada
Authors: Clark W. C.
Published: June 2006

The Dominion Government is by long odds the most complicated, and in most respects the largest, administrative enterprise in this country. Its activities cover a wider scope and show a greater variety than those of any other Canadian business or organization. Its employees, including regular and fluctuating staffs, number about 65,000 persons, of whom 53,000 are scattered throughout the country in various centres outside the seat of government. Its pay-roll exceeds $77,000,000 annually. Its annual revenue now aggregates over half a billion dollars and its total cash turnover amounts to over one and a half billion dollars. Unfortunately in these hard years its expenditures may exceed the first-named figure of revenue receipts by a comfortable—or rather uncomfortable—margin. In collecting these revenues and making these expenditures it receives and deposits some 675,000 bank drafts for a total of $700,000,000; issues three and a half to four million cheques each year, totalling around one and a half billion dollars; pays $45,000,000 in pensions direct to 95,000 individual pensioners; and redeems 4,300,000 interest coupons. On the average, each working day it sells 70,000 money orders and postal notes. It buys, refines, and sells in the world's markets practically all the new output of our gold mines and this, as well as other factors, necessitates important operations in foreign exchange. Its financing activities constitute the most important factor in the investment markets. During the last five years it has floated for new cash requirements and for refunding purposes, in Canada, London, and New York, securities aggregating over two and a quarter billion dollars—not including guaranteed Canadian National Railways obligations which would add another $235,000,000 to the total, or Dominion Treasury bills which are sold in the amount of 25 or 30 million dollars every fortnight to redeem maturing issues of a similar amount.
The Gains of Trade
Authors: Coe V. F.
Published: June 2006

By the gains of trade is meant the gains from free trade between nations or the advantages of free trade as against no trade or the advantages of more free trade as against less. Historically the concept has been bound up with the doctrine of comparative costs, which has purported to be not only an explanation of the terms of international trade—of the conditions of international equilibrium—but also a guide to policy, a demonstration that each nation's gains are a maximum under free trade.

Lately the doctrine of comparative costs has been attacked by Angell and Ohlin among others on the ground that it does not provide an adequate account of equilibrium. With this side of the subject I shall not deal, taking it for granted that an account of international trade equilibrium should be at least as adequate as the present theories of general equilibrium, and that, therefore, the doctrine of comparative costs must either be dropped or be so transformed as to be indistinguishable from the ordinary price theory, or perhaps be retained for a while simply as a pedagogic device. But as Viner has pointed out in his notable article on the subject, the critics of the doctrine overlook the fact that it was forged as an instrument of policy and they themselves, though dropping real costs, make statements about policy which are very infirm without a basis in real cost theory.
Topographic Control in the Toronto Region
Authors: Taylor Griffith
Published: June 2006

The physical features controlling the economic development of a region can be classified under the two main headings of geological and climatic controls. All pastoral, agricultural, mining, or industrial life depends essentially on the distribution of minerals, soils, water supply, temperature, and rainfall. There is, however, another geological feature which exercises great influence on human interests, and that is the topography, i.e., the arrangement of mountain and plain, of rivers and lakes, and all the elements which in more precise language build up the science of geomorphology. The present study attempts to show, first of all, what are the main features in southern Ontario, more particularly within a couple of hundred miles of Toronto, which have necessarily greatly affected the settlement of the region. Secondly the evolution of the city of Toronto as determined by the minor topographic features is described in somewhat general terms. It is hoped that this will pave the way to a more complete study of the city in the near future.
An Approach to the Problem of Tariff Burdens on Western Canada
Authors: Westcott F. J.
Published: June 2006

The economic sphere of influence of the St. Lawrence region contracted after 1821 owing to the pressure of competition in the fur trade from Hudson Bay. Withdrawal from the light, highly valuable staple, fur, was accompanied by increasing concentration on a staple of a bulky character, namely, timber. Settlement emerged with the timber trade especially in Upper Canada. Settlement and wheat exports were stimulated by the steamship and necessitated improvement of the St. Lawrence by canals and railways. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 increased the urgency for improved navigation on the St. Lawrence, if Montreal were to compete effectively with New York. The pressure of geography, a small population, a lack of capital, and competition from the United States involved governmental support. Economic development was, therefore, inextricably linked to political growth to achieve this objective. Government construction of canals was handicapped by the division of the provinces, and contributed to the demands for union. The Act of Union of 1840 as a broader political base for expansion of public debt involved control of taxation, and responsible government. Disintegration of the old Colonial System in the abolition of the Corn Laws in 1846 and the Navigation Acts in 1849 was accompanied by the emergence of control over tariffs as an essential device for acquiring revenue. The tariff became vital to the improvement of the St. Lawrence and the introduction of capital on a large scale by the government. The privilege of determining the course of economic development was accompanied by the problem of meeting the costs involved.
Observations on Canadian Wheat Policy Since the World War
Authors: Patton Harald S.
Published: June 2006

The past two decades embrace a period in which Canada has become established (since 1922) as the premier wheat exporting nation of the world; in which wheat prices touched the highest point (September, 1920) and the lowest depth (December, 1932) in Canadian grain trade history; in which centralized co-operative pool marketing of wheat was conducted for several years on a larger scale than that of any farm product in any country; and in which the federal government has experimented with policies in relation to the marketing and price movements of wheat ranging from established regulatory functions to monopoly handling through a government board and minimum price guarantees. These two decades include three periods of favourable prices and active export demand (1917-20, 1924-9, and 1936-7), with the intervening years characterized by distress prices and restricted foreign demand. Amid these fluctuating economic conditions of the wheat industry there has occurred significant experimentation with different marketing systems, involving shifting relationships between the organized producers, the organized private trade, and the provincial and federal governments.
Economic Theory and National Purpose
Authors: Maxwell W. Russell
Published: June 2006

As time goes on the full scope of the National Socialist movement in Germany becomes apparent to the outside world. The abolition of democratic institutions and the assumption of supreme power by the Führer were not surprising in principle to observers in foreign countries, though they were startling to many in their completeness and ferocity. Similarly, we were more or less prepared for the withdrawal from the League of Nations, and the changes in foreign policy associated with it. But I do not think it was generally expected that the movement would include a reform of education, not in such matters as methods of teaching but in regard to the content of the subjects taught. To those who are accustomed to regard the truth or falsity of the subject-matter of education as independent of the political character of the government this comes as something of a shock. A remarkable series of pamphlets under the general title Der Deutsche Staat der Gegenwart deals with some of these “reforms”, particularly as applied to the subjects of law and economics. Volume XV of the series is entitled Das Studium der Wirtschaftswissenschaft and describes the new curriculum of economic studies. It gives the new curriculum itself, in some detail, and contains, as well, addresses by Professors Dr. Eckhart, Gottl-Ottlilienfeld, and Wiskemann which reveal, sometimes as through a glass darkly, the ideas underlying the “reform”.
Observation in Economics
Authors: McGoun A. F.
Published: June 2006

The purpose of observation is to discover laws. The word “law” I use in Hegel's sense of a generalization, a determination of categories, which enables experience to be classified and rationally interpreted. We can never arrive at a complete knowledge of laws in this sense. If we could, the future would be known to us with as much certainty as the past. Hegel said that forecasting is not the province of the philosopher, and some of his own attempts in that direction, such as the subjugation of Asia by Europe and a monarchy for the United States, do not appear fortunate. The difficulties, however, are two: that laws are not truly or completely known; and that experience is not assigned to the proper categories. These conceptions, however, point the way. It would seem that economics has as much need as any other branch of knowledge for seeking laws in this sense. Although its steps may be faltering, they will be in the right direction if truth is sought by observation conceived as a quest for the laws which experience obeys.

I propose in this paper to present a short attempt along these lines, my data being taken from Canadian and United States economic statistics since the War. The following, therefore, is intended primarily as an illustration of method. It is hoped, however, that the conceptions which will emerge are also worth notice for their own sakes.
The Provincial Incidence of the Canadian Tariff
Authors: MacGregor D. C.
Published: June 2006

In the brief for the Province of Nova Scotia, presented to the provincial Royal Commission inquiring into Nova Scotia's disabilities under the Canadian federal system, Professor Rogers includes an estimate of the regional incidence of the customs duties. This is the first study of its kind to be made in Canada. It may be expected to give rise to a good deal of controversy on account of the complexity of the problem and because other provinces are already beginning to make parallel estimates which do not altogether agree with those made for Nova Scotia. Professor Rogers's discussion of the burden of the tariff was condensed into a single chapter, owing to the large amount of general historical and argumentative material which it was necessary to include. It is therefore desirable to quote from the unpublished minutes of evidence in order to do full justice to the reservations which Professor Regers made in putting forward his estimates. In Halifax on August 13, 1934, he said:

It is desirable to emphasize again that this table representing the provincial distribution of tariff subsidies and tariff costs is chiefly valuable as an indication of a condition. It is not an exact statement of the effects of the tariff upon the incomes of the several provinces of the Dominion. It does not indicate the tendency of the tariff to contract the income of the export industries by reason of the increase in costs of such industries. It does illustrate, however, the effect of the tariff upon the internal distribution of the national income…. Personally I would hardly suggest that this is more than an approach to a method of measuring the provincial incidence of the tariff. But I do feel convinced that the results which attend a computation of this kind bring out a condition which really exists, and that the final result in respect to the provincial incidence of the tariff is probably an under-statement rather than an over-statement. I do feel that we have reached a point where we are compelled to try to express the effects of the tariff in more complete terms.
The Co-operative Movement
Authors: Michell H. , Grant H. C.
Published: June 2006

If I may be pardoned for beginning this paper on a personal note, I should like to say that anything I write must be regarded as coming from one who has, for thirty years and more, followed the co-operative movement in both England and Canada with a deep and sympathetic interest. I am a convinced and enthusiastic believer both in the theory and practice of co-operation; in it I see everything that is good and useful to the individual and to society, and nothing that is harmful. I have no serious criticism to offer of the movement, only unqualified commendation. Such is my confession of faith in co-operation.

I am afraid I am likely to disappoint a good many who hope to learn something about co-operation and its future, because to tell the honest truth that is exactly my own case. I want to hear about its future myself; I want to hear what others, better qualified than myself, have to say. My paper will therefore be in the form of a series of questions to which I so far have found no definite answers; questions which I feel very strongly ought to be answered, if they are capable of it, of which I am a trifle dubious.
Parliamentary Government in War-Time
Authors: Clokie H. McD.
Published: June 2006

In his latest volume, W. I. Jennings makes the comment that his researches into the working of parliament were much simpler than those he made into the operation of the cabinet. The reason for this he explains is that all the proceedings of parliament are a matter of record, whereas the cabinet proceeds in secrecy and works by stealth. On the face of it, this seems a very sound and perhaps a very obvious judgment. But I have to confess that I have found just the reverse to be the case in making a hasty review of war government. We have an immense amount of material about the working and procedure of parliamentary institutions in peace-time and comparatively little about the machinery of the cabinet; but in war-time, or at least in the last war, we have diminishing information about parliamentary activities and an ever increasing quantity of material about the cabinet operations. Take, for example, the nature and functioning of the British War Cabinet. In addition to the official reports, the proceedings of the Cabinet have been scrutinized and investigated by several noted authors. The subject of a war cabinet is a pet topic for administrative disquisition. Every text-book finds it proper to enlarge upon the experience of the last war and its consequences in administrative efficiency. But turn to the parliamentary side and you will find that the standard volumes are careful to omit all reference to war-time devices except in an incidental and apologetic manner. It seems to be axiomatic with the authorities that war-time parliamentary practices are so exceptional that they are not to be cited as precedents and are so irregular that they may be noted only as warnings of what is not good parliamentarianism. Of the innumerable volumes of memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies the centre of attention is directed almost exclusively to the working of the cabinet system, and little or no attention is devoted to the legislature's part in the matter. There are but half a dozen articles on war parliaments, and only one book is devoted to a somewhat specialized side of parliament and war. There are the volumes of Parliamentary debates, the Parliamentary Papers, and other documents, but these are much fewer than in peace, and it may be noted that when something of vital importance is to be discussed parliament resorts to its own brand of secrecy in the secret session. On the other hand, the cabinet, though its meetings are still somewhat secretive, proceeds in war to more careful recording of its doings; in fact, records seem to be of the essence of a war cabinet, and every member of the administration seems to desire to have himself on the record—posthumously at least—to a greater degree than the mere parliamentarian.
The Distribution of Outlay and the “Multiplier” in the British Dominions
Authors: Plumptre A. F. W.
Published: June 2006

When people receive their money incomes they may employ them in any of three ways: (1) they may spend them on imported products, (2) they may spend them on services or goods produced locally, (3) they may save, accumulating bank deposits or securities. The way in which people in general and exporters in particular dispose of additions to their incomes, and the manner in which they economize when their incomes diminish, are important factors in determining the ultimate effect of an initial change in the level of incomes. If most of an increase of incomes is spent upon the purchase of goods produced within the country, it will induce re-employment and a further increase in incomes; if spent upon imports, its effect will be upon the foreign exchange situation rather than employment.

The Marginal Propensity to Import. The extent to which a community devotes any addition to its existing incomes to the purchase of goods from abroad has been called by Mr. Paish the “marginal propensity to import.” The high per capita trade of the Dominions ensures a fairly high propensity to import. But another cause contributes to the high propensity. Their imports are, in considerable degree, high grade manufactures and luxury articles: just the sort of things which will be more in demand if incomes rise and will be dispensed with if incomes fall. Moreover, machinery and capital goods rank high amongst their imports, and these will be in demand chiefly when incomes are rising.
Political Theories and Conventions Their Incorporation into the Positive Law
Authors: Cronkite F. C.
Published: June 2006

There was much of the realist in Aristotle, more perhaps than in many political scientists of today. In defence of the moderns, however, it may be claimed that Aristotle had comparatively little to try his patience. The British Empire, which “defies classification,” along with its legal appendage the Dominion of Canada—with all the complications of a federal system—is no doubt sufficient to exhaust the patience of a political scientist who would be sure of his constitutional foundations.

Political scientists as well as others are impatient with the constitutional situation at present existing in Canada. They characterize this situation as uncertain; they want this uncertainty to be corrected so that they can get on with the job of progress. They say that not only are their efforts impeded by constitutional limitations but that many of the constitutional usages now relied on may be merely illusory. So there is a tendency to blame the law and the lawyers even to the point of ridicule. Certainly if all the proposed reforms really do spell progress the law and lawyers have a lot to answer for; and yet should we not be charitable to this law which is required to do the impossible: to stand still and go ahead at the same time?
The Use of the Elasticity Concept in Economic Theory
Authors: Reilly E. E.
Published: June 2006

It is well recognized that the imposition of a tax on a commodity will produce certain changes in its production and consumption, and in particular, that the primary incidence of a commodity tax is a function of the elasticities of the relevant supply and revenue curves at the point of intersection. This study attempts to add to the precision, and to extend the usefulness, of the elasticity concept in economic theory, with particular reference to the taxing of commodities. The effect of commodity taxes in restricting business activity (and consumption) is of increasing economic significance. To facilitate the analysis of these effects, the term “Elasticity of the Market” is introduced. It measures the change in the quantity produced and sold, for a given vertical change in the supply curve, or in the revenue curve, or in both. Within the limits of the assumptions given, it is possible to determine from the elasticity of the market, the effect of a change in tax rates on the tax revenues, and the point of maximum fiscal revenue. The conditions of monopoly and competition offer a number of interesting comparisons, not only in the economic effects of commodity taxes, but also for general economic theory.

Dalton proposes that a commodity tax is divided between buyers and sellers in the ratio of the elasticity of supply to the elasticity of demand.
The Political Basis of Municipal Democracy
Authors: Duncan Lewis
Published: June 2006

Municipal institutions in Canada date their origin to the 1837 rebellions in Lower and Upper Canada, the Report of Lord Durham on the causes of the rebellions, and the action of Lord Sydenham in putting through legislation creating municipal institutions. He did this in 1841 while he was, as he called himself, “dictator.” Under Sydenham's system municipal officers were largely nominated by the Crown. This was changed in 1845 in Lower Canada, and in 1849 in Upper Canada, and an elective system was set up. These acts are the foundations of the municipal systems of Ontario and Quebec.

The rebellions in Lower and Upper Canada were the product of identical political systems under which vast areas were governed from provincial capitals remote from the people. There was an accumulation of grievances without a corresponding opportunity for redress by change of local government. Sydenham put the situation in his despatch (no. 160) of September 16, 1840: “The people acquire no habits of self-dependence for the attainment of their own local objects … Whatever little improvement in their respective neighborhoods may appear to be neglected affords grounds for complaint against the Executive. All this is charged directly upon the Government and a host of discontented spirits are ever ready to excite their feelings.” It is not too much to say that the granting of municipal self-government took the word rebellion out of provincial history for one hundred years. This was an achievement of the first order. It is to be ranked in the science of politics with some of the great discoveries in medicine. As there is a cause for the rash which appears on the skin of the child, so there is a cause for those disturbances in the political body which evidence themselves in rebellion.
Practical Problems of the Retail Price Ceiling I. Problems of the Administrator
Authors: Aikenhead J. T. E.
Published: June 2006

I would like to confine my remarks today to a review of the last six months, outlining many of the practical problems that have been solved and perhaps forecasting a few of the conditions that may be present in the months to come. Since December 1, 1941, when retail prices went under control there has been little, if any, change in the retail price of goods. The cost-of-living index released two or three weeks ago shows practically no change since October, 1941. Much credit for the success so far is due to the thousands of retailers from coast to coast who have been, with few exceptions, eager and anxious to obey the law and to do everything possible to help work out the difficult price adjustments that had to be made between retailer, wholesaler, and manufacturer. These adjustments were necessary owing to the general retail price level which at the time of the basic period, September 15 to October 11, was much below replacement cost.
Democratic Possibilities in a Totalitarian World
Authors: Clokie H. McD.
Published: June 2006

It may be thought that to give consideration now to the possibility of democratic government in a totalitarian world is an idle task. Whether there is to be a future for democracy rests in far more capable and determined hands than ours, and it may seem that there is little we can do beyond cheering on our defenders, assuring them of our confidence in their victory, and consolidating for them a whole-hearted support on the home front. In these perilous days there is a temptation for us to regard it as an impertinence to take stock of our position while the issue is still in the balance. The importance of action is so great that we tend to turn from the contemplation of ends and objectives to concentration upon the effective means of execution, to those practical arts appropriate for the mechanized warfare of an industrialized age. In a similar period of war and strife, even Milton, the great defender of the spoken word and printed page, could also renounce the “inglorious arts of peace,” proclaiming:

'Tis time to leave the books in dust And oil the unused armour's rust.

Yet, as we look back to the civil war of the eighteenth century, there are two things which should give us pause. One is that for Milton a long period of thought had settled in his mind certain firm convictions of the issue at stake and the direction which action should take. And secondly, even more important, is the serious doubt that Milton must have had later regarding the wisdom of the policy being taken by the man of action, Cromwell, whose praises he had sung. Was the establishment of the Protectorate the object which the Puritans and Parliamentarians had in mind? Evidently not. Was it not Milton himself who declared in dismay that “presbyter” is but “priest” writ large? Must he not secretly have considered that “Protector” was but “Prince” writ large, too?
The Impact of the War on Canadian Political Institutions
Authors: Dawson R. MacGregor
Published: June 2006

It is an old and well-worn charge, now re-enforced by the emergence of the totalitarian state, that democratic governments are essentially inefficient. They are especially alleged to be slow in decision, cumbersome in movement, uncertain and unduly deliberate in execution, these faults tending to become much more pronounced when the increased stresses of war make effective action imperative. But the validity of so sweeping a criticism may easily be questioned, although it is, up to a point, undoubtedly justified. For once that point is passed and a democracy is fully seized of the seriousness of the emergency, it may develop reserves of power which have been hitherto unsuspected, and display a political resourcefulness which will enable it to mould and adapt its institutions to the novel demands made upon them. Such, at least, was the experience during the last world war, and such seems to be the trend of events during the present war also. From this point of view, a survey of the Canadian effort during the past eighteen months discloses something more than the struggle of the Dominion to win the war. It also furnishes an interesting illustration of both the flexibility of democratic government and the nature of the devices which a democracy may utilize without entirely sacrificing the ideas of responsibility and popular control.

In the early months of the present war the Dominion of Canada moved, in the language of the English Chancery, “with all deliberate speed.” The original idea, generally held and frequently expressed, was that the war could be fought in rather leisurely fashion, that Canada could participate and at the same time limit the extent of her efforts. This seems, at least, to have been the hope of most of the people, derived partly from their own inclination, partly from the attitude of their government, and partly also by contagion from the lukewarm Chamberlain administration in Great Britain. Canadian Ministers visited England and British officials came to Canada, and all professed to be quite satisfied with the progress of events, awaiting with some complacency the slow economic starvation of Germany as an inevitable consequence of Allied encirclement. Unhappily Germany had other ideas. The disasters of last spring brought a violent awakening, and were susceptible of but one interpretation: the issue became thenceforth a simple one-win or perish.
Science and Society
Authors: Coats R. H.
Published: June 2006

Canada is the Scotland of America, and a proof is before you. Scotland gave a King to England in 1603; today Canada gives a President to the American Statistical Association. James Sixth of Scotland and First of England whose vasty shoes I thus inherit is, I fear, “mixed grill” to many. He was an apriorist, and he was a pedant. Though his education was bleak and early as Stuart Mill's, he hadn't a good style. His personal appearance was against him, also his northern accent, even his table manners (he drank his cocky-leekie from the bowl). He was given to cursing and swearing. It is a chilling historicism. Yet, despite that Professor Laski still uses him austerely in the Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, from a boy with the Fortunes of Nigel in my school-desk I have liked its “principal personage” (as Scott called him) James. And of course he is the James of Jamestown, first permanent English settlement, first cradle of representative government, in these United States.
The Gains from International Trade
Authors: Samuelson Paul A.
Published: June 2006

[1] In a recent paper the thesis was advanced that while it is not possible to demonstrate rigorously that free trade is better (in some sense) for a country than all other kinds of trade, it nevertheless can be shown conclusively that (in a sense to be defined later) free trade or some trade is to be preferred to no trade at all. I should like here to amplify these remarks with respect to the last point, that some trade is better than no trade.

This is by no means a novel proposition. Indeed, it can be traced back to the beginnings of the Classical theory of international trade. It has become associated, however, quite unnecessarily in my opinion, with a labour theory of value, or a “real cost” theory of value, or more recently, with an opportunity cost theory of value. All of these have come in for considerable criticism in recent years as restrictive special cases of the so-called theory of general equilibrium. Those writers who have insisted on the need for a modern theory of value for a positive description of behaviour in international trade have in general ignored the normative aspects of international trade, presumably in the belief that as soon as one gives up the inadmissible special theories indicated above, nothing can be said concerning this problem. It will be argued here that this is a mistake, that from the most general theories of equilibrtlim all valid normative propositions can be derived.
The Eastern Irrigation District
Authors: Burchill C. S.
Published: June 2006

The major factor in determining the production of western farms is the amount of water available for plant growth. Climatic fluctuations apart, this quantity has apparently diminished as a result of settlement. This diminution of the water supply seems to be the main cause of the disquieting decline in the productivity of the Canadian prairies; though the decline may have been due in part to the loss of those advantages which are enjoyed for a brief time by newly cultivated land, viz., relative freedom from plant disease, insect pests, and weeds.

The supply of soil water depends on three factors—precipitation, evaporation, and the nature of the soil, each of which is subject to considerable local and regional variation, and the variations in which are roughly indicated by the natural vegetative cover. The northern forest belt indicates a plentiful water supply; the long grass region of the foot-hills and the park belt areas have normally an adequate supply, which, in spite of sporadic drought, can be depended upon to yield a satisfactory volume of agricultural produce. The short grass area, extending along the forty-ninth parallel from the Manitoba boundary to the foot-hills, and narrowing northward to the Saskatchewan River in the vicinity of Battleford, has an inadequate supply of water, yet it is one of the most highly developed areas in Western Canada. Here the decline in productivity has been catastrophic. In spite of occasional wet years, there appears to be a chronic and increasing shortage of soil water.
The Canadian Manufacturers' Association and the Tariff
Authors: Clark S. D.
Published: June 2006

Protection as an economic creed has been largely an expression of industrial capitalism in Canada. It is true that Ministers of Finance have endorsed the tariff as a means of providing revenue independently of the interests of manufacturers, that such groups as farmers at various times have favoured the imposition of duties on particular commodities, and that certain newspapers, political parties, and organizations of a reform or patriotic character have advanced the general philosophy of protection. But in none of these cases has the support of tariff increases grown out of any broad economic movement. The tariff system developed with the growth of manufacturing industries, and it was pressed upon the Government as a necessary policy by organizations formed to advance the interests of manufacturers.

The first organized attempt of Canadian manufacturers to secure protection of which we have knowledge was made at a meeting in Toronto, April 14, 1858, called “for the purpose of recommending such a readjustment of the tariff as would place the manufacturers of Canada on a footing of greater equality with those of the United States.” Previous to the meeting, consultations had taken place between a committee in Toronto, the Tariff Reform Association of Montreal, and manufacturers scattered throughout the country, and, as a result of these deliberations, a detailed draft of the necessary tariff changes was drawn up.
Aspects of The Railway Problem I. Competitive Aspects of Road and Rail Freight and Passenger Rates
Authors: Rollit John Buchanan
Published: June 2006

Competitive rates for road and rail transport have their origin in an unacknowledged, unintentional, but nevertheless acute competition between three groups of public authorities. Dominion, provincial, and municipal governments, yielding to the varying pressure exerted on each, have provided a framework which enabled or forced every transportation agency in the country to operate at rates below a strict cost-of-service basis. The result might be termed transportation chaos except that, so far, the system has not broken down. Since transportation is an essential economic function, it is inconceivable that it should be allowed to do so. In our wild, unplanned efforts to maintain it, however, there is every indication that a breakdown in public credit may be involved. The results of this policy reach the public through high taxation that is only partially offset by artificially low competitive rates based on uneconomic costs. It cannot continue indefinitely. Pressure of taxation, if nothing else, will eventually force a rationalization of the transportation structure. One might even go so far as to suggest that a discussion of the competitive aspects of rates is essentially a study in applied (or misapplied) public finance.
Economic Expansion and the Moral Order
Authors: Clark S. D.
Published: June 2006

The purpose of this paper is to suggest the close relationship between economic development and movements of moral reform in Canada. From the beginning of Canadian history, organized attempts have been made to control such problems as intemperance, crime, gambling, juvenile delinquency, sexual promiscuity, and prostitution. These movements were indicative of a condition of disintegration of the mores, and their role was that of establishing a new moral code to govern behaviour. But disturbances which resulted in the breakdown of moral standards extended throughout the range of society, and affected the organization of economic and political life as well. Movements of moral reform, like those of an economic or political (or purely religious or cultural) character, were products of economic expansion.

This fact becomes evident if consideration is given to the broad features of the social development of Canada. Beginning with the establishment of the fishing industry in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canadian development may be represented in terms of a series of stages marked by the emergence of new areas or forms of economic exploitation. The expansion of economic life involved new accommodations in economic, political, and social institutions, and the points of greatest social disturbance were to be found where the impacts of the new techniques of production were most felt. It was within these interstitial areas of social organization, where the traditional culture came in conflict with new economic developments, that movements of reform took their rise.
Canadian War Finance and the Balance of Payments, 1914-18
Authors: Knox F. A.
Published: June 2006

The primary purpose of this paper is to set out in some detail the writer's recently revised estimates of Canada's balance of international payments during the years of the last war. This is done in Part I, where a brief account is also given of the methods which have been followed in arriving at these estimates. In Part II some observations are made as to the part played in the war-time expansion of the volume of money in Canada by the external factors revealed in the balance of payments and by the methods of war finance.

The information about a country's international economic transactions to which the term “balance of payments” is now usually applied, may be presented in a variety of forms and with much or little detail depending on the taste and particular purpose of the compiler. Official reports usually give at one place the credits, debits, and balance for each item, and group the items into a current and a capital “account.” They may or may not isolate monetary gold and short-term capital movements as a third group. As a basic form from which each user may rearrange the data as he wishes, this is satisfactory, provided ample details are given. In table I, however, the basic grouping is according to receipts, payments, and “balancing” items. Receipts and payments are then each grouped into current and capital “accounts.” From this information the reader may, if he wishes, make a table of the conventional form. Some of the group balances usually included in such a table are given in items 31-36.
A Measurement of the Productive Capacity of Wealth
Authors: Beach E. F.
Published: June 2006

During the last two decades, considerable progress has been made in the measurement of national income, while the measurement of national wealth has lagged. This situation contrasts with the fact that it was wealth rather than income in which economists were first interested. The late Lord Stamp read a paper to a meeting of the Royal Statistical Society in 1919, in which he discussed the wealth and income of the chief powers of the world. In this paper he considered some eighteen countries for which there were eighteen estimates of national wealth, but only ten of these countries had estimates of national income. Professor Bye, in the second volume of the National Bureau of Economic Research series entitled Conference on Research in National Income and Wealth, goes back even farther to show this change in interest. It may be pointed out that Adam Smith called his famous book The Wealth of Nations.

Only since the last war has great progress been made in the measurement of national income. The increase in accuracy of the estimates has brought about an increase in their use until now they serve as legitimate bases for all sorts of comparisons. They stand in somewhat the same position as population estimates, as fundamental points of reference. This development is one of foremost importance in the social sciences. There seems to be little question that adequate measurements of income are more useful than equally adequate estimates of wealth. The former is a measurement of the effectiveness of the working of the economy. The latter is but one of the factors in its working.
United States International Financial Policy
Authors: Mikesell Raymond F.
Published: June 2006

The United States and Canada have had a more or less parallel economic development throughout their histories and they have emerged from World War II as the two most important creditor nations of the world. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that their foreign economic policies and objectives are similar in character. Our countries are the leading champions of liberal trade policies and of a world system of multilateral payments. They constitute the vanguard in the fight against economic blocs and restrictive exchange and trade practices. Not only is a large portion of the foreign trade of both Canada and the United States dependent upon a system of multilateral payments but trade between Canada and the United States requires settlement by means of a Canadian surplus with third countries.

The differences in our approach to international economic problems stem largely from the difference in the relative importance of foreign trade in the two countries. In 1938 Canada's total foreign trade amounted to nearly 40 per cent of her national income, while total exports and imports of the United States were only 8 per cent of United States national income. On the other hand, United States exports in 1938 were three and a half times the value of Canadian exports and the world supply of United States dollars has been generally recognized as the most important single factor in world trade. (I believe that in the future when we speak of a “dollar shortage” it will not be necessary to differentiate between United States and Canadian dollars.) Canada, therefore, has the greater immediate economic interest in world trade, but the United States has, in a sense, the greater responsibility. Canada must adjust her economy to a given international economic environment while, at the same time, co-operating with other countries in the creation of a more favourable world environment. The primary concern of the United States must be with the environment itself. Needless to say the task of our administration in promoting a worldwide liberal trade programme would be far easier if United States foreign trade were 40 per cent of our national income instead of less than 10 per cent.
The Informal Organization of the Medical Profession
Authors: Hall Oswald
Published: June 2006

Social scientists have given very little time to the study of professions. They have studied the market and the state, the family and the labour union, the immigrant and the delinquent; but the professions, of which they are a part, they have in general avoided. The omission is not easy to explain. Undeniably professions play an extremely important part in our own type of society. As a matter of fact, professions should be interesting merely for the fact that in no other type of society have they developed in comparable fashion. In terms of the functions performed, the prestige accorded, the numbers involved, and the portion of the national income which they receive in our society, they are obviously important.

The study of professions requires a manifold approach, one which corresponds to the various facets of the type studied. In order to understand a profession one would need to know something about the following: (1) the institutions within which the members carry on their activities, (2) the characteristics of the clienteles which the members acquire, and (3) the groups into which the members of the profession are organized.

The successful practice of medicine requires access to a multiplicity of institutions. Of particular importance are the hospital, the clinic, and the established office practice. The successful career in medicine involves gaining admittance to these institutions, and maintaining connexion with them. Only the exceptional practitioner can survive without access to such institutions; the freelance practitioner has gradually been supplanted by one whose career depends on his relationships with a network of institutions.
Exports and National Income in Canada
Authors: Munzer E.
Published: June 2006

The following analysis is primarily concerned with definite mathematical expressions of the relationship between export and national income values in Canada as it developed during the inter-war period, with an attempt to measure the export multiplier and the influence of the barter terms of trade upon the national income, and to make tentative projections into the future.

The mathematical expressions for this relationship are alternatively based (1) on the time series for exports and national income and (2) on the deviations from the linear trends of exports and national income over the period 1923-38. The year 1939 is omitted as the war distorted the relationship even then. The years prior to 1923 are eliminated as their inclusion would lead to inverse correlations in individual cases owing to disturbances in currency relations, abnormal lags and leads in the equilibration of the respective balances of payment, and sudden shifts in the proportional evolution of domestic and foreign markets in the countries concerned.