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Urban History Review Revue d'histoire urbaine

Baskerville, Peter. The Bank of : A Collection of Documents. , Ontario: The Champlain Society in cooperation with The Ontario Heritage Foundation, Carleton University Press, 1987. Pp. cliii, 400. Tables, appendix, bibliography, index. $18.95 (paper) Michael J. Piva

Volume 17, Number 2, October 1988

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1017660ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1017660ar

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Cite this review Piva, M. J. (1988). Review of [Baskerville, Peter. The Bank of Upper Canada: A Collection of Documents. Toronto, Ontario: The Champlain Society in cooperation with The Ontario Heritage Foundation, Carleton University Press, 1987. Pp. cliii, 400. Tables, appendix, bibliography, index. $18.95 (paper)]. Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 17(2), 122–123. https://doi.org/10.7202/1017660ar

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Baskerville, Peter. The Bank of Upper the traditional interpretation, as Baskerville bank the government bank. In 1848 they Canada: A Collection of Documents. observes, suggests that the bank did not fully succeeded and won the government Toronto, Ontario: The Champlain Society carry out its role as a financial intermediary account. This victory, Baskerville suggests, in cooperation with The Ontario Heritage because of a too close connection with the proved the bank's undoing. He argues that Foundation, Carleton University Press, provincial government. Often portrayed as government business proved less profitable 1987. Pp. cliii, 400. Tables, appendix, the economic agent of the , than many contemporaries and later bibliography, index. $18.95 (paper). critics also accuse the bank of concentrating historians believed. He is undoubtedly a disproportionate share of its assets in correct, yet there remains some room for Peter Baskerville's The Bank of Upper government debentures and following a too debate. Canada is the first serious attempt to write narrow discount policy. For the period before the history of that institution since Adam 1835 Baskerville challenges this The government account, as Baskerville Shortt published his pioneering work on interpretation on almost every point. suggests, necessitated interest-free banking, currency and government finance. advances to the province, but it also allowed Although Baskerville revises most of Shortt's Baskerville suggests that the bank was in the bank to extend its highly profitable note interpretive framework, the Dominion's first fact remarkably successful. It did not always circulation. The bank took full advantage of archivist would, none the less, be pleased. follow policies, particularly discount policies, this opportunity; by the mid-1850s it had the For Shortt, all serious scholarship begins with advocated by local merchants, but, as lowest reserve ration among Canada's major meticulous reconstruction of the archival Baskerville argues, this in itself is not banks (p. cxvii). This large circulation helped record. It is only fitting that this new history evidence of inadequate banking practices or the bank pursue new business. No doubt the begins as a documentary reconstruction a failure to meet the needs of Upper government account contributed to the ease under the auspices of the Champlain Society. Canadian commerce. When the economy with which the Grand Trunk received began to expand more rapidly after 1828, the accommodation, but "railroad financing," The research effort required for this project bank adjusted its discount policies, although Baskerville observes, "did not dominate the would have discouraged most historians for here it was responding more to competition bank's overall business" (p. cxviii). Ridout the records of the bank had long ago been than economic circumstances. Nor was the and Proudfoot committed an increasingly destroyed — sold to a paper maker for $20 a Bank of Upper Canada particularly favoured large portion of new business to fixed capital ton (pp. cxlvii, 208, 309). Baskerville has with government patronage. Baskerville assets, as often as not mortgages on land. mined an amazing collection of other archival shows that the interests of the bank and the Such policies carried high risks given the holdings to piece together the story of the provincial government could and did diverge. bank's extraordinarily low reserve ration, but bank. For some of these collections, such as The Receiver General, for example, refused in the hot-house economy of the early 1850s the Governor General's Office (NAC, R.G. 7), to allow the bank to control government they were highly profitable. "Profits increase," adequate finding aids ease the burden. In deposits. (See pp. Ixii-lxv). Similarly, John Baskerville tells us, "from 6 per cent return other cases, such as the department of Henry Dunn's decision to raise new loans in on paid-in capital in 1850 to an incredible 19 finance (NAC, R.G. 19), finding aids do little Britain in 1833 and 1835 represented a clear per cent return in 1854" (p. cvii). Then the more than give volume titles for collections setback for the bank (p. I'viii). The strength of economy cooled and when the boom which contain dozens of linear meters of Baskerville's interpretative framework lies in collapsed in 1857 the Bank of Upper Canada material. Baskerville has searched them all, his recognition of the economic and political found itself overextended and holding too thoroughly and completely. One might on realities of the period. The colonial many overvalued fixed assets. Limping along occasion question the relevance of a administration was constantly buffeted by for another decade, the bank finally failed particular document included in the volume, competing interests be they self interest, in 1866. yet the collection remains both provincial interests or imperial interests. representative and comprehensive. Given During these years there was no clear focus Baskerville alerts us to these risky policies the nature of the problem, it is truly an of power and agendas, both provincial and which left the bank vulnerable, yet his impressive product. imperial, were being redefined. interpretation focuses far more attention on problems associated with three key Baskerville has done more than assemble a Baskerville's revisionism concerning the accounts, the provincial government, the representative sample of documents. His period after 1835 is less sweeping. William Grand Trunk, and Glyn Mills and Company, introductory essay to the collection is Proudfoot and Thomas Gibbs Ridout, the key the bank's London agent. He suggests all of decidedly revisionist, on occasion even decision makers following 's these problems flowed directly from the provocative. Following Adam Shortt's lead, resignation in 1835, struggled to make their government account. When all three

122 Urban History Review/Revue d'histoire urbaine Vol. XVII, No. 2 (October 1988) Book Reviews/Comptes rendus

eventually abandoned the bank its fate was analysis is divided over seven chapters, between economic conditions (indicated by sealed. It is an interpretation which may be a which lead us through different aspects of data on occupation, farm ownership, and prisoner of the documentation. Prescott's history, in the context of Ontario's productivity) and micro-demographic educational system of the nineteenth century strategies of marriage and fertility, despite Because creditors destroyed the records of some very tenuous (and occasionally the bank, the bulk of extant documentation The first chapter gives an overview of incorrect) arguments. The economic bust of comes from various government sources. It Ontario's school system, from the period of the 1870s led to a changing linguistic mix should not surprise us that the documentary Egerton Ryerson (1841 -1896). The most (continued immigration of Quebec record tells us a great deal about the important aspect of Ontario's educational Francophones, out-migration of problems associated with the government, policy during that period was "voluntary Anglophones), and to the establishment of a the Grand Trunk, and the Glyn accounts. We assimilation"; Ontario Francophones were sizeable Francophone "proletariat." know much less about other aspects of the expected to assimilate to English, by bank's business. This documentary reality exposure to English teachers, English Chapter 4 focuses on the history of makes weighing the relative importance of institutions and an English-speaking majority schooling in the county. The provision of the government account as compared to population. Coercive measures regarding the education in French was a function of general liquidity and note circulation language of instruction were felt to be several factors: demand (school attendance problems extraordinarily difficult. Suffice it to unnecessary and probably dysfunctional. was correlated with the socio-economic say Baskerville's interpretation sees the Beginning around 1883, provincial politicians status of the family; Francophones were problems associated with the government began to see this linguistic tolerance as a over-represented among labourers), location account in its various manifestations as the major factor contributing to the stability of of schoolhouses (generally situated in primary source of weakness for the bank. French in Ontario. By means of regulations, Anglophone regions), and priorities set by commissions, and policies, the English trustees (predominantly English-speaking). The Bank of Upper Canada is, then, a major curriculum in the French-language schools The connections between socio-economic contribution to scholarship both as a was gradually strengthened. The trend characteristics, language, and access to collection of documents related to a key culminated in the controversy of 1912. education are well established in this chapter. economic institution and as an interpretive essay on the banking and financial practices Chapter 2 is a demographic history of the In chapter 5, we deal with the local political of the pre-Confederation era. Its vision is county, based on the published censuses for situation. The changing linguistic composition grand, its interpretation provoctive, its 1851 -1881. The latter data are used for of the population led to the rise of research sound. It is also a highly enjoyable detailed comparisons between Alfred Francophones in the political establishment, read on a topic usually noted for its dryness. township (settled predominantly by especially in the Liberal party. The early Francophones) and Caledonia (with a 1880s were obviously a watershed: Michael J. Piva majority of Anglophones). During the period Francophone Liberals replaced Anglophone Department of History 1840-1870, population growth was due Conservatives, beginning in 1882 federally University of Ottawa primarily to immigration. Beginning in the and in 1886 provincially. early 1880s, the Francophone group increased mostly through natural increase, Events in the rest of Canada - such as the Gaffield, Chad. Language, Schooling and while the population of British ethnic origin hanging of Louis Riel - led to the Cultural Conflict: The Origins of the began to decline. The chapter points to early, development of a distinct Franco-Ontarian French-Language Controversy in Ontario. strong and persistent segregation between identity; they also led to the alienation of the Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's the two language communities. Altogether, Franco-Ontarians from the political University Press, 1987. Pp. xviii, 249. this analysis is a nice mixture of methods, processes of the day. The Francophone- $32.50 (cloth). dealing with aggregate patterns as well as elected representatives were backbenchers with diachronic data on families. who were rarely heard; the leadership of the Gaffield's book is an attempt to provide local main parties showed little or no background to Ontario's language-of- The next chapter discusses the county's understanding of Franco-Ontarian problems. instruction controversy, which reached its economic development, from the growth of As a consequence, the Catholic church peak in 1912. It is basically a social history of the forestry industry in 1840-1870 (the assumed a leading position in matters related Prescott county from about 1840 until the "système agro-forestier") to its decline in the to language and education. A major beginning of the twentieth century. The 1870s. The analysis demonstrates the links consequence to this development was the

123 Urban History Review/Revue d'histoire urbaine Vol. XVII, No. 2 (October 1988)