Economic Growth in Canadian Industry, 1870–1915: The Staple Model and the Take-off Hypothesis

Abstract

In his widely discussed stage theory of economic growth Professor W. W. Rostow has attempted to reach a level of historical generalization somewhat similar to that essayed by the pioneers in the discipline of economic history. Herbert Heaton observed that early economic historians were interested in a search for “the laws of social development” and for conclusions “as to the character and sequence of stages through which the economic life of society has actually moved.” Their valiant attempts to put historical generalization in the place of economic theory, concluded Heaton, were not successful. One purpose of this paper is to show that Rostow's analysis, while relying more on economic theory than its predecessors, is no more successful in understanding specific cases of economic development and, more widely, contains many difficulties as a general theory of development.