The Commercial Politics of the Toronto Board of Trade, 1850–1860

Abstract

T•E 1850S sero GENERALLY CoNsmEIIED to have been the first great boom period in Canadian economic history. More precisely, it might be said that the businessmen of the time found the years 1850 to early 1857 ones of unprecedented prosperity, but from 1857 to 1859 at least hey felt they were suffering under an unprecedented depression. Toronto shared in this. From 1850 to 1856 its population grew from 25,166 to 41,760, and the annual value of imports handled by its traders rose from $2,539,000 to $6,955,000. During the remainder of the decade, population increased by just 3000, and import values fell from their 1856 peak to a fairly steady $4,000,000 in 1858, 1859, and 18607 Rapid growth from 1850 to 1856 far from satisfied the ambitions of businessmen; their appetites were merely whetted for still greater changes. Those who lived through these years tended to consider this pace of change normal and anything short of it inadequate. At the same time, both rapid growth and sudden depression underlined deficiencies and insecurities in the provincial business ystem. The existing system, though it had permitted the rapid increase in volume of trade, did not satisfy those who operated it. Many of the problems arising in the existing trade and many of the steps towards the greater development which the merchants desired seemed too great for individuals or small groups of businessmen to deal with. Instinctively,