The Borrowing Process: Public Finance in the Province of Canada, 1840-1867

Eileen Goltz is Public Documents Librarian at Laurentian University.

“The financial history of the Union provides a critical element in the
broader history of state formation in British North America.” So
concludes Michael Piva, associate professor of history at the University
of Ottawa. Between the initial pages and the concluding chapter of his
book is a well-balanced, well-documented, reasoned account of the
accumulation of public debt and the genesis of a Canadian transportation
system. During the period 1840–1867, as imperial spending was being
reduced, the economic orientation of the Province of Canada was
unaltered by changes in party, government, and minister. Piva’s
research indicates that we have underestimated the importance to
economic development of the role played by the state during the period.

This book will be welcomed by scholars and students of Canadian history
for its insights into the public debt situation during and prior to the
formation of the Province of Canada. Because it is the first study of
public debt to stray beyond an analysis of public accounts, the
information and interpretations presented here are complex and sometimes
difficult to follow. The reader thus requires an in-depth knowledge of
the persons and events being discussed, and there are, of course, the
inevitable puzzles. For example, who is “Mr. Boulton”?—Henry John
Boulton?

Piva uses a chronological sequencing to present his history of public
debt and the policies successive governments employed in its management.
His sources include Public Archives of Canada records from the
Department of Finance and the Offices of the Receiver General and the
Governor General. Following each chapter are endnotes, and the volume
also includes an index, a glossary of financial terms used in the book,
tables, figures, and appendices. This is a useful and welcome addition
to the historiography of the Province of Canada.