ABSTRACT
A dramatic feature of Canada’s history since Confederation has been the transformation of an unlikely agglomeration of unconnected colonies into a transcontinental nation. The key to this transformation was the peopling of the Prairies after the expropriation of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1870. Sixty years later a quarter of Canada’s population lived in the Prairie provinces, and the economy of the region was almost totally dependent on wheat. Although emphasis on the wheat boom as the prime mover in Canada’s economic development is no longer accepted, the growth of the Prairie wheat economy must still be recognized as an important feature. Moreover, the particular problems of the wheat economy and the distrust which these raised are the root of many of the east-west tensions in present-day Canada. In this chapter we will first describe the growth of the wheat economy, and then examine the economic problems associated with the operation of the Prairie wheat economy. The appendix discusses a controversial attempt to assess the contribution of the wheat boom to Canadian economic growth.
