From Corn Laws to Wheat Board Topics in Canadian Wheat Marketing 1821 – 1950 Selected, transcribed and annotated by Chris Willmore Table of Contents The Corn Laws................................................................................................................................5 “Sufficient protection to the English grower” (April, 1821) ................................................................................. 5 “The present distress of our agriculture” (November, 1821) .............................................................................. 6 “The present unsettled state” (August, 1823) ..................................................................................................... 8 “The cause of its now being dear” (April, 1825) .................................................................................................. 9 Mr. Huskisson’s Bill (May, 1825) ........................................................................................................................ 16 A humble petition (May, 1825) .......................................................................................................................... 17 “A second and permanent blow” (May, 1825)................................................................................................... 17 “Altering the duty on Canadian Corn” (July, 1825) ............................................................................................ 18 “Trifling” (March, 1827) ...................................................................................................................................... 19 “So many erroneous notions” (July, 1825) ......................................................................................................... 19 “And what a sacrifice!” (September, 1833)........................................................................................................ 20 “By mistake, no doubt” (November, 1833) ........................................................................................................ 21 A draft bill “to preserve the home market” (February, 1843) ........................................................................... 22 “Very little wheat can be imported” (February, 1843) ...................................................................................... 22 “Britain would be flooded with American grain” (April, 1842) .......................................................................... 24 “Our ports will be thrown open” (November, 1842) ......................................................................................... 24 The death rattle of the Canadian timber trade (April, 1842) ............................................................................. 25 “A change in the sources of supply” (March, 1842) ........................................................................................... 25 “Forced to do her soil and climate justice” (June, 1842) ................................................................................... 26 “Canadians cannot afford to enter our markets” (May, 1843) .......................................................................... 28 “A fair compensation” (May, 1843) .................................................................................................................... 30 “The truest friendship to the farmers” (May, 1843) .......................................................................................... 32 “Their most profitable trade” (May, 1843) ........................................................................................................ 33 “The happiness of the masses” (June, 1843) ..................................................................................................... 35 “Already three times as large” (July, 1844) ........................................................................................................ 37 The end of the Corn Laws (January, 1846) ......................................................................................................... 39 The Elevator Monopoly ................................................................................................................ 41 In the Beginning (March, 1900) .......................................................................................................................... 41 “Anti-Monopoly” (December, 1883) .................................................................................................................. 41 “Manitoba Farmers’ Grievances” (December, 1883) ......................................................................................... 42 “The regulations of this company” (January, 1884) ........................................................................................... 43 “The wheat and elevator questions” (January, 1884) ........................................................................................ 44 “Two and a quarter cents” (October, 1886) ....................................................................................................... 46 “Controlling factors in this business” (December, 1886) ................................................................................... 47 Report of the Royal Commission (March, 1900) ................................................................................................ 48 “Brother Clay on the rampage” (January, 1894) ................................................................................................ 50 “There is and has been an elevator monopoly” (January, 1895) ....................................................................... 50 “The injustice of this elevator monopoly” (February, 1895).............................................................................. 55 “The farmers are opposed” (February, 1895) .................................................................................................... 57 McCuaig v. Phillips & Robertson (December, 1895) .......................................................................................... 57 “A grain dealer’s point of view” (February, 1895).............................................................................................. 59 “Much greater results will follow” (September, 1895) ...................................................................................... 60 “Giving up the combine” (September, 1895) ..................................................................................................... 62 “Interview with Mr. Postlethwaite” (September, 1895) .................................................................................... 63 “For how much we do not know” (September, 1895) ....................................................................................... 65 “We don’t know anything about monopoly” (October, 1895) .......................................................................... 65 “It has benefitted the farmers” (October, 1895) ............................................................................................... 66 “We need to fight this evil” (January, 1896) ...................................................................................................... 68 “No means of escape” (February, 1896) ............................................................................................................ 69 2 “An ominous growl” (September, 1897) ............................................................................................................ 70 “A manifest determination” (October, 1897) .................................................................................................... 72 Almost universal dissatisfaction (April. 1898) .................................................................................................... 73 The Elevator Bill (May, 1898) ............................................................................................................................. 74 “So long as it is ended.” (May, 1898) ................................................................................................................ 75 “There should be the most perfect freedom of trade” (July, 1898) .................................................................. 75 “Farmers Conquer” (August, 1898) .................................................................................................................... 77 “The excellent results that followed” (December, 1898)................................................................................... 77 Railways on the Manitoba Grain Act (November, 1907) ................................................................................... 78 “Reminiscences of the grain question” (July, 1907) ........................................................................................... 80 After the Great War ..................................................................................................................... 97 Marketing the Post–War Harvest (August, 1919) .............................................................................................. 97 Powers and their Limits (August, 1919) ............................................................................................................. 97 Hauling Wheat Across the Border (November, 1919)........................................................................................ 98 Equity and Justice (December, 1919) ................................................................................................................