economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

, the staples thesis is a theory of export-led growth. The theory "has its origins in research into Canadian social, political, and economic history carried out in Canadian universities...by members of what were then known as departments of political economy." From these groups of researchers, "the two most prominent scholars following this approach were

Harold Innis Harold Adams Innis (November 5, 1894 – November 8, 1952) was a Canadian professor of political economy at the University of Toronto and the author of seminal works on media, communication theory, and economic history of Canada, Canadian econo ...

and W.A. Mackintosh."

Thesis

The thesis explains Canadian economic development as a lateral, east-west conception of trade. Innis argued that Canada developed as it did because of the nature of its staple

commodities In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. Th ...

: raw materials, such as fish, fur, lumber, agricultural products and minerals, that were exported to Britain and the West Indies. This trading link cemented Canada's cultural links to Britain. The search for and exploitation of these staples led to the creation of institutions that defined the political culture of the nation and its regions. Innis argues that different staples led to the emergence of regional economies (and societies) within Canada. For instance, the staple commodity in

Atlantic Canada Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (), is the list of regions of Canada, region of Eastern Canada comprising four provinces: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. As of 2021, the landma ...

was

cod Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...

. This industry was very decentralized, but also very co-operative. In western Canada the central staple was

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

. Wheat farming was a very independent venture, which led to a history of distrust of government and corporations in that part of the country. (Also important, however, were the shocks caused by volatility in the market for wheat and by the weather itself on the growing season.) In

Central Canada Central Canada (, sometimes the ''Central Provinces'') is a Canadian region consisting of Ontario and Quebec, the largest and most populous provinces of the country. Geographically, they are not at the centre of Canada but instead overlap wi ...

, the main staple was fur, and the

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

dominated the economy for many years. This fur trade was controlled by large firms, such as the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

and thus produced the much more centralized, business-oriented society that today characterizes

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. Innis depicted the relationship between regions of Canada as one of "heartland" to "hinterland": The periphery, or hinterland, is dominated by the core, or heartland. Because the heartland was dependent upon the search for and accumulation of staples (which were located in the hinterland) to perpetuate the economy, it sought to gain economic and political power by exploiting the hinterland. To Innis, it was the fur trade that created the geographical boundaries of Canada. The early links between the Canadian interior and eastern ports led to Canadian unity and its distinctiveness from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. However, the importance of fur as a staple product also resulted in the northern half of the continent remaining dependent on Britain for trade and thus essentially British for so much of its history.

Influence and criticism

Mel Watkins Melville Henry Watkins (May 15, 1932 – April 2, 2020) was a Canadian political economist and activist and professor emeritus of economics and political science at the University of Toronto. He was a founder and co-leader with James Laxer o ...

revived the theory during the 1960s and 1970s through his work on resource capitalism and Canadian political economy. While the staples thesis originally described the evolution of the Canadian state, it has since been used to study the economies of many nations that are dependent upon

resource extraction Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest, and cultural value. ...

and primary industries. The staples thesis states that export of raw materials can sustain economic growth, while its critics argue that reliance on commodity export should not delay the development of basic

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

and provision of services. Among his strongest critics was Robin Neill who advocated a thesis explaining the economic development of Canada as an expression of variegated regions (population density, cultural politics, geographic characteristics) and of their particular north-south relationships with the

. Historians continue to use elements of the Innis core-periphery model, applying it for example to British Columbia. That province's economic structure exemplifies the core-periphery structure of intra-regional relationships in the following manner: the core is metropolitan Vancouver, with its concentration of corporate management and transportation functions and manufacturing growth; Vancouver dominates an underdeveloped periphery that depends on production and export of staple commodities.Thomas A. Hutton, "The Innisian core-periphery revisited: Vancouver's changing relationships with British Columbia's staple economy." ''BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly'' 113 (1997): 69-100
online
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Thesis

Influence and criticism

See also

References

Further reading