Focusing mainly on the staple theory, this collection of essays clearly shows the impact the great staple trades from cod and fur to newsprint and oil had upon Canadian history. Other significant frames of reference-the role of government, the development of commercial agriculture, the climate of enterprise and capital formation-are also represented.

First published in 1930, “The Fur Trade in Canada” is a book by Harold Innis that draws sweeping conclusions about the complex and frequently devastating effects of the fur trade on aboriginal peoples; about how furs as staple products induced an enduring economic dependence among the European immigrants who settled in the new colony and about how the fur trade ultimately shaped Canada's political destiny. Covers the fur trade era in Canada from the early 16th century to the 1920s. It analyses the economic and social implications of Canada's reliance on staple products.

Through three centuries of development, the history of the Canadian economy reflects the shifting roles of natural resources, industrializations, and international trade. This volume, a standard in the field since its initial publication in 1958, presents a comprehensive account of these and other factors in the growth of the Canadian economy from the time of the earliest European expansion into the Americas. The authors consider economic organization both on the level of the national economy and on that of the individual business unit. Among the subjects examined are the growth of the fur, fishing, and timber trades; the impact of successive wars; money and banking; the development of railway and canal systems; the wheat economy; the growth of organized labour; and twentieth-century patterns of investment and trade. The focus throughout is on the role played by business organizations, large and small, working with government, in creating a national economy in Canada.

This volume collects Innis' published and unpublished essays on economic history, from 1929 to 1952, thereby charting the development of the arguments and ideas found in his books The Fur Trade in Canada and The Cod Fisheries.

In Canadian Political Economy, experts from a number of disciplinary backgrounds come together to explore Canada’s empirical political economy and the field's contributions to theory and debate. Considering both historical and contemporary approaches to CPE, the contributors pay particular attention to key actors and institutions, as well as developments in Canadian political-economic policies and practices, explored through themes of changes, crises, and conflicts in CPE. Offering up-to-date interpretations, analyses, and descriptions, Canadian Political Economy is accessibly written and suitable for students and scholars. In 17 chapters, the book’s topics include theory, history, inequality, work, free trade and fair trade, co-operatives, banking and finance, the environment, indigeneity, and the gendered politics of political economy. Linking longstanding debates with current developments, this volume represents both a state-of-the-discipline and a state-of-the-art contribution to scholarship.

Canada's centennial anniversary in 1967 coincided with a period of transformative public policymaking. This period saw the establishment of the modern welfare state, as well as significant growth in the area of cultural diversity, including multiculturalism and bilingualism. Meanwhile, the rising commitment to the protection of individual and collective rights was captured in the project of a "just society." Tracing the past, present, and future of Canadian policymaking, Policy Transformation in Canada examines the country's current and most critical challenges: the renewal of the federation, managing diversity, Canada's relations with Indigenous peoples, the environment, intergenerational equity, global economic integration, and Canada's role in the world. Scrutinizing various public policy issues through the prism of Canada’s sesquicentennial, the contributors consider the transformation of policy and present an accessible portrait of how the Canadian view of policymaking has been reshaped, and where it may be heading in the next fifty years.

Canada has always been a trading nation. From the early days of fur and fish to the present, when a remarkable 90 percent of the gross national product is attributable to exports and imports, Canadians have relied on international trade to bolster their economy. A Trading Nation, a brilliantly crafted overview and analysis of the historical foundations of modern Canadian trade policy, is the first survey to address the history of Canadian commercial policy in over 50 years. Michael Hart skillfully guides readers through more than three centuries of Canadian trade history. His engaging narrative explains how Canadians have largely come to accept that a country that derives much of its wealth from international commerce has much to gain from an open, well-ordered international economy. Close attention to trade and related economic policy choices, he argues, is crucial if Canada intends to adapt to the challenges of the new globalized economy.

A History of Law in Canada is an important three-volume project. Volume One begins at a time just prior to European contact and continues to the 1860s, Volume Two covers the half century after Confederation, and Volume Three covers the period from the beginning of the First World War to 1982, with a postscript taking the account to approximately 2000. The history of law includes substantive law, legal institutions, legal actors, and legal culture. The authors assume that since 1500 there have been three legal systems in Canada – the Indigenous, the French, and the English. At all times, these systems have co-existed and interacted, with the relative power and influence of each being more or less dominant in different periods. The history of law cannot be treated in isolation, and this book examines law as a dynamic process, shaped by and affecting other histories over the long term. The law guided and was guided by economic developments, was influenced and moulded by the nature and trajectory of political ideas and institutions, and variously exacerbated or mediated intercultural exchange and conflict. These themes are apparent in this examination, and through most areas of law including land settlement and tenure, and family, commercial, constitutional, and criminal law.