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Location: Sustain and Retain: A short history based on the Upper Harbour
Discussion: Mercantilism, punitive taxes, colonial policies
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Yule |
Mercantilism, punitive taxes, colonial policies
Jul 6 2006, 12:53 AM EDT
On July 1 (Canada Day), the Downtown Victoria Business Association sponsored the first-ever behind-the-scenes tour of historical buildings in the downtown core. We learned that a rice mill, which was the original business in the Capital Iron building (http://www.capitaliron.net/), was put out of business in 1907 when the Canadian government levied a heavy tax on rice refined here, in Canada, vs. rice refined elsewhere, but then imported into Canada. (In other words, producing our own rice became more expensive than just importing "finished" rice from abroad.) At one stroke, a local rice mill, which provided jobs and entrepreneurial spirit, went out of business. Likewise, Victorians used to build substantial buildings in locally quarried stone, which was fashioned by local skilled masons. But England decided that it needed a market for its plentiful (and English job producing) British bricks, so it made exporting these to "the colonies" artificially cheap, which put the local, indigenous stone-building industry at a disadvantage. It withered accordingly. One could argue that this stunting of local economy is the fruit of a colonial policy, planted in a country with not enough sovereignty. Canada still doesn't do enough to nurture its homegrown manufacturing and business ventures, instead encouraging the whole-sale export of resources. We still have a ways to go toward 'sustain & retain,' it seems... Do you find this valuable? |
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