Canadian history has traditionally received relatively little study outside Canada itself, despite the fact that the Canadian past is a fascinating and rich story indeed, one which has generated an admirable body of historical literature. And, as those interested in the history of business and the historical interaction of business and society would expect, within Canadian historiography there has traditionally been relatively little emphasis on business history The publication of the present collection of essays has a twofold purpose – to increase, however modestly, non-Canadians' knowledge of Canadian history, and to extend the body of scholarly work devoted to Canadian business and economic history.

Two opposing groups of business interests — large, internationally-oriented financiers on the one hand and local businessmen and small manufacturers on the other — engaged in economically-based political conflict over the proper nature of the federal system in early twentieth-century Canada. The national financial community proved unable to protect its conception of private property rights by legal and political means at the national level, and the resulting victory of provincial rather than federal control over property rights made possible the creation of a publicly owned hydro-electric system in Ontario.

Professor Bliss suggests that the Canadian anti-trust tradition was much more similar to the British experience than to the policies adopted in the United States. At no time, he argues, did Canadian legislation significantly expand the common law prohibition of undue or unreasonable restraints of trade, and the few prosecutions after 1900 had no significant effect in inhibiting the thrust of business resistance to market forces.

Professor Acheson presents the collective social portraits of two groups of leading Canadian industrialists, one from the years 1880–1885 and the other from 1905–1910. He considers such factors as ethnic and religious traditions, birthplaces, education, family backgrounds, career patterns, political and social activities, economic mobility, and regional differentials in analyzing the changing composition of the two elites.

The growth of the United States' economic influence in twentieth-century Canada was intimately related to the continuation of the “National Policy” of protectionist tariffs. Professor Scheinberg argues that Canadians initially welcomed America's consciously expansionist thrust, and that they eventually became entangled in the problems of seeking rapid economic growth along with economic independence from both the older imperialism of Great Britain and the newer variety represented by the United States.

This is a case study of a London-directed firm that supplied transportation, gas, and electric power in British Columbia. Its history suggests that, in a young and rapidly developing economy, control of a company's activities by outsiders who are chiefly concerned with long-term investment prospects may be of greater benefit to all concerned than critics of absentee management are willing to admit.

Professor Wilson surveys existing materials for the historical study of business in Canada's Maritime provinces and considers the outlook for future studies of that region.