304 THEjROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



was not less but greater than formerly, yet it had not been able to 

 keep pace with the rapidly increasing demand. As the writer in the 

 Globe points out, during the whole of the past winter the Province 

 has been importing from the United States, cattle, beef, pork, bacon, 

 butter, cheese, and even certain grains, especially oats. The scarcity 

 of labor and the high rates of wages discourage the farmers from 

 devoting sufficient attention to these supplies, especially when wheat 

 could be produced on a much cheaper basis. Referring to the prices 

 of certain articles it is said that eggs during the past season were sell- 

 ing in Toronto at 5 cents each or 60 cents a dozen. Turkeys and fowl 

 were beyong the ordinary purchaser, while potatoes were selling at 

 $1.25 a bushel and other vegetables at corresponding rates. Hay was 

 from $25.00 to $30.00 a ton. 



As the summer of 1856 developed, prices were considerably 

 lowered. At the end of July flour was $6.00 to $7.00, and oats 50 to 

 55 cents a bushel; hay, $10.00 to $13.00 a ton; old potatoes, $1.00 a 

 bushel, and new ones 60 to 70 cents a peck; butter, 27 cents; eggs, 

 20 to 23^ cents; chickens, 40 to 60 cents a pair; beef $6.50 to $7.00 

 per hundred pounds, bacon and hams $10.00 to $12.00 a hundred 

 pounds. These prices, it may be observed, being wholesale rates, 

 are quite up to modern standards, but indicate a falling off from the 

 previous season. 



An increasing stringency in the money market towards the close 

 of 1856 gave warning of the severe crisis to follow in 1857. The first 

 stages of the financial check were welcomed by the more conservative 

 element in Canada then as now, and the reasons given were much 

 the same in both cases. The country had been running too much 

 to mere speculation, especially in land and city lots. 



The real estate boom was a very marked feature of the early 

 period of prosperity just as it has been of the later period. In both 

 cases it affected at once a number of the older towns and cities, and 

 very many entirely new town plans located on some of the branch 

 lines of the railroads. Toronto, Hamilton and London were among 

 the older centres which were in the grip of the land boom. 



Taking Hamilton as a typical example, we find that after the 

 first burst of prosperity, due to the building of the Great Western 

 Railroad, it had subsidized four other minor railroad lines and had 

 undertaken very heavy municipal expenditures on its own account, 

 notably the construction of an expensive water system. In these 

 ways the city rolled up a debt of over $2,500,000, nearly all of which 

 had been borrowed directly from Britain without the aid of the Muni- 

 cipal Loan Fund. On the strength of its glowing prospects from 

 railroad profits and the great stimulus given to every form of local 



