Canada and the Cost of World War II: The International Operations of Canada's Department of Finance, 1939–1947

J.L. Granatstein, Distinguished Research Professor of History Emeritus,
York University, served as Director of the Canadian War Museum from 1998
to 2000. His latest works are Who Killed Canadian History?, Who Killed
the Canadian Military, and Hell’s Cor

Robert Bryce was arguably Canada’s most influential public servant
from the late 1930s into the late 1970s. In his retirement, he began to
write about the history of the Department of Finance, publishing a book
on the department in the Great Depression; on his death in 1997, he left
a second manuscript on the international operations of his department
during the Second World War, a quasi-memoir with footnotes, so to speak.
Now this volume has been published with the aid of the Finance
Department and with substantial editing from Carleton University
historian Matthew Bellamy. The result is the fullest account we have of
Canada’s extraordinary international financial role.

A poor nation wracked by economic depression in 1939, Canada became a
wealthy, powerful state thanks to war production, good economic
management, and a cadre of skilled officials. There were huge problems:
the possibility of military defeat, the near-bankruptcy of the British,
Canada’s shortage of American dollars, and soon the necessity to give
goods away to keep the Canadian economy going. Bryce was in the middle
of these issues, his creative mind producing solutions (and 50-page
memos) at the drop of a hat. And when victory seemed assured, Bryce’s
colleagues, notably Louis Rasminsky and W.A. Mackintosh, helped shape
the international financial order. It was an astonishing role for a new
world power, one of the most important eras in Canada’s history. This
book is an indispensable guide to Canada’s important role.