[shortt] CONSTRUCTION AND NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 299 



assured the expenditure within its borders of hitherto undreamed of 

 millions of capital. 



In the meantime the Government had authorized municipalities, 

 both urban and rural, to take stock or bonds in such secondary rail- 

 ways as might receive charters from the Government and be designed 

 to open up important sections of the country and serve as feeders for 

 the Trunk System of railroads. In order to aid the municipalities 

 in borrowing capital on the British market, the Consolidated Muni- 

 cipal Loan Fund was established under an act of 1852. Through 

 this many additional millions of capital were brought to the country, 

 becoming the basis for .further stock issues and borrowings on the 

 part of a number of subsidiary railroad companies. 



It is not proposed to follow up the successes or failures of these 

 various enterprises. Here we have simply to deal with the effect upon 

 the economic condition of the country of an unprecedented volume of 

 capital expended in Canada mainly during the five years from 1851 

 to 1856. During this period the Canadian Government alone launch- 

 ed upon the London market upwards of $45,500,000 in loans, of which 

 about $15,000,000 was in aid of the Grand Trunk Railway. The 

 Municipal Loan Fund was drawn upon during this period to the extent 

 of about $12,000,000, while several municipalities effected extensive 

 loans on their own account. Independently of the $15,000,000 and 

 upwards furnished by the Provincial Government, the Grand Trunk 

 Railway had raised in shares and bonds over $48,500,000 before 1860. 

 In addition to this, the Victoria Bridge at Montreal cost the Company 

 about $7,000,000. In a memorial of the Company, addressed to the 

 Provincial Government in 1861, it is claimed that the Company had 

 spent upwards of $75,000,000 in building and equipping the Grand 

 Trunk Railway, including the Victoria Bridge. 



As already mentioned, the Government before limiting its finan- 

 cial aid to the main line of the Grand Trunk Railway, had already pled- 

 ged its assistance to the Great Western Railway and the Northern 

 Railway. To the former it had contributed up to 1855 about $3,750, 

 000, and to the latter over $2,300,000. Mr. A. T. Gait, the Minister 

 of Finance, estimated in 1860 that upwards of $100,000,000 had been 

 expended on railroads between 1849 and 1859. 



Between 1852 and 1860, the Government spent over $11,500,000 

 on the canals. Notwithstanding an exceptional revenue obtained by 

 the Government, during the years of special prosperity, the debt of 

 the Province increased from $18,782,565 in 1850, to $54,142,044 in 

 1859. 



Space will not permit the enumeration of the many other lines 

 of capital expenditure in Canada during the period in question. Ta- 



