296 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



those who are curious about such matters to know that Canada has 

 already passed through a very similar range of experiences during 

 the decade from 1850 to 1860. 



It is true that some of the most characteristic features of our 

 modern economic and social life are found only in embryo sixty years 

 ago, yet the parallel between the underlying features of the two 

 periods is quite remarkable. This is especially true as regards the 

 rapid absorption of foreign capital for the construction of extensive 

 railroad lines, the consequent development of general prosperity, the 

 stimulus given to the growth of towns and cities with the consequent 

 speculation in real estate, and accompanied by a rapid rise of values 

 in all lines of domestic produce, culminating in general complaint 

 regarding the high cost of living. There was even the same volume 

 and variety of explanations and remedies, none of which, however, 

 had time to be applied before the intervention of financial stringency, 

 followed by wide spread bankruptcy and collapse of values and the 

 restoration of cheap living and hard times. 



It is not necessary that I should recapitulate with any detail the 

 familiar features of our recent period of prosperity. I shall, therefore, 

 confine my attention mainly to a presentation of the corresponding 

 facts connected with the period of prosperity during the fifties. In 

 tracing the development of the previous period, striking parallels with 

 present day conditions will be sufficiently obvious. 



In 1849, Canada had reached one of those periods of exceptional 

 depression, approaching despair in some quarters, which were char- 

 acteristic of the 19th Century. In 1848 there had been one of those 

 outbursts of racial bitterness and strife which had been for so long a 

 heavy drag on the economic and political progress of Canada, in this 

 case culminating in the burning of the Parliament Buildings at Mont- 

 real. At the same time the abolition of the Corn Laws in Britain had 

 carried with it the removal, in 1849, of the British preference on 

 Canadian Wheat and flour, including American wheat ground in 

 Canada. General pessimism among the Canadian merchants and 

 grain dealers in Eastern Canada had resulted in the famous "Annex- 

 ation Manifesto." However, the abolition of the Corn Laws had soon 

 proved immensely beneficial in Britain, and a new era of prosperity 

 being inaugurated there, the reflex was felt in Canada, with the pro- 

 mise of even better markets for produce than had been enjoyed under 

 an artificial preference at the expense of the food supplies of the 

 British artisan. On the other hand, the new prosperity of the Mother 

 Country developed an interest in Canadian affairs and furnished a 

 liberal supply of capital for the financing of Canadian enterprises. 

 The pessimistic forebodings of the commercial element in Canada 



