Great Depression

HC

Professor Lewchuk

March 13th, 2015

Econ 2K03

The Effects of the Great Depression on Canada

During the early 1900s, Canadian economic development rapidly grew due to its primary industry of farming, fishing, mining and logging. These resources were the staple of economic development in Canada because they were resources that Canada had an abundance of. Wheat especially, was a global commodity that Canada frequently exported and was a huge asset financially for the nation. With the ongoing development of the manufacturing industry as well, Canada was going through a period of prosperity and development just like many other countries around the world such as Australia, Italy and the United States. However, the failing gold standard system signalled the beginning of the 10-year Great Depression that affected all Western Industrialized countries. Few countries around the world were as severely affected as Canada. The nation’s economy post World War I was already unstable due to its inability to effectively trade with their crippled ally Great Britain and the lack of foreign capital investment and decrease in free trade further damaged Canada’s economic well-being. All in all, the fault of the gold standard system which led to the Great Depression was a social and economic shock that left millions of Canadians unemployed, hungry, and homeless. In this essay, I will explain why the gold standard system failed and how it resulted in the Great Depression. I also seek to describe the impact and repercussions the Canadian economy faced with the impact of the Great Depression.

The Great Depression is an important topic in Canadian economic history because it is the result of a failure in the gold standard which was the standard of currency for many decades. In modern time, paper money is the medium of exchange. The evolution of paper money came from the failure of the gold standard which was the means of currency prior to 1973 when the gold standard...