First published in 1957, this study traces the development of the national policy as it affected the growth of the Canadian trade and discusses the grain marketing problems of Western Canada in the decades that followed, with detailed attention to legislation and moves by various growers' groups in an attempt to meet these problems. This important study in political economy is organized into four main parts. In Part One the author traces the development of the national policy and its impact on the growth of the wheat empire in the years before 1900. In Part Two, he discusses the grain marketing problems of western Canada during the 1900-1920 period. Part Three is a masterful exposé of the history of the open market system and of the history and policies of the Canadian Wheat Pools, and Part Four examines the economic philosophy behind the development of the national policy.

Vernon C. Fowke (1907-1966) was for many years Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto.

Vernon Fowke's profile page

"In this important study of the dynamic role of prairie wheat in the first and formative phase of Canadian national development, Professor Fowke has drawn on the work of a whole generation of scholars and on his own intimate knowledge of the Canadian west."

The Economist

"[The author is] without rival in his historical grasp of Canadian agricultural policy."

Canadian Historical Review