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Responding to the First Era of Globalization: Canadian Trade Policy, 1870–1913

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2019

Patrick D. Alexander  and
Ian Keay
Patrick D. Alexander
Affiliation:
Patrick Alexander is Senior Economist, Bank of Canada, 234 Wellington Street, Ottawa ON. E-mail: palexander@bankofcanada.ca
Ian Keay
Affiliation:
Ian Keay is Professor, Queen’s University, 94 University Avenue, Kingston ON. E-mail: keay@queensu.ca
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Abstract

In this article we document Canada’s trade policy response to late nineteenth and early twentieth century globalization by linking newly digitized annual productspecific data on the value of Canadian imports and duties paid from 1870–1913, to establishment-specific production and location information drawn from the manuscripts of the 1871 industrial census. We find evidence of a highly selective move towards protectionism following the adoption of the National Policy in 1879. Changes in the Canadian tariff schedule narrowly targeted manufactured import products that had close substitutes produced by relatively large, urban, politically influential domestic manufacturers.

Type
Article
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 79 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 826 - 861
Copyright
© The Economic History Association 2019 

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Footnotes

The authors thank seminar participants at the 2016, 2017, and 2018 CEA Annual Meetings, Carleton University, and the Université de Montréal for their thoughtful comments and suggestions. Frank Lewis, Eugene Beaulieu, Jevan Cherniwchan, and Alexander Chernoff generously provided data and support for this project. Katrina Brazzell, Bill Dorval, Hannah Keay, and Xiangtao Meng contributed excellent research assistance. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors and may differ from official Bank of Canada views. No responsibility for them should be attributed to the bank. The authors accept responsibility for all remaining errors and omissions.

References

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