ABSTRACT
The Canadian historical experience has been that of a new country on the frontier of European civilization during Europe’s period of industrialization. In consequence, the attention of those interested in Canada’s economics has been directed to theories of growth and development. Because Canada is not geographically or culturally homogeneous, its processes of growth and development have not been uniform. In some regions, and in the whole country in one period, development has been, and was, dependent on primary product exports. In other regions, and other times, development has been, and was, a domestic process. In no case have the processes of dependent and independent development been totally isolated from one another, but they have been distinguishable. Out of this experience have come the economics of John Rae, a theory of independent development and growth, and the economics of H.A.Innis. Around both contributions there have been clusters of related works: those of the Nationalist School in the nineteenth century, and the many versions of the staple theory in the twentieth century.
