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.

Contemporary methodologies include the "cliometric" style of historical analysis, econometrics, labour and regional study, and the changing parameters of government spending and public finance. The juxtaposition of classic theoretical statements with works by "outsiders" such as G.S. Kealey, B.D. Palmer, R.T. Naylor, R.E Ommer, among others, makes this a solid yet innovative record of the progress in economics over the last forty years. Canadian Economic History remains an essential classroom text.

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This volume collects Innis' published and unpublished essays on economic history, from 1929 to 1952, thereby charting the development of the arguments and ideas found in his books The Fur Trade in Canada and The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