Andrew Smith and Dimitry Anastakis, eds., Smart Globalization: The Canadian Business and Economic History Experience.

Nerbas, Don

Andrew Smith and Dimitry Anastakis, eds., Smart Globalization: The Canadian Business and Economic History Experience (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2014)

THIS EDITED COLLECTION examines Canadian business and economic history through the theme of globalization. Drawing upon the work of economists Ha-Joon Chang and Dani Rodrik, editors Andrew Smith and Dimitry Anastakis present Canada as an ideal historical example of "selective globalization" in their sweeping and thought-provoking introduction. By this they mean that Canada's economic development has been characterized by the state's selective and democratically mediated embrace of globalization. The book's eight essays, in various ways and to various degrees, examine the nature and test the success of this development strategy. With contributions from historians and economists, the volume represents an effort to bridge the disciplinary boundaries between history and economics. It also represents an effort by historians to insert themselves and their work more directly in present-day debates about globalization and economic policy. These are laudable initiatives.

The first five essays centre upon the era of globalization before World War I. Andrew Dilley examines Ontario's hydroelectric policy in relation to the Canadian businessmen and British bondholders interested in private development. Dilley finds the City of London's campaign against public power in Ontario rather more powerful than previously believed. He concludes that Ontario's ability to back public hydroelectric power, in defiance of the City, demonstrates the capacity for flexible accommodation of popular economic policies within the British Empire during the pre-1914 phase of globalization. Mark Kuhlberg demonstrates persuasively that the Ontario government's commitment to establishing the "manufacturing condition" on pulpwood during the period from 1890 to 1930 was a politically strategic gesture that lacked substance. The real purpose and outcome of the policy was to facilitate the flow of pulpwood across the border to American mills. In this case, the program of selective globalization appears less significant than depicted in earlier studies. Daryl White offers a tidy investigation of Canadian efforts to restrict the export of nickel from Inco's Sudbury mine to the Central Powers during the period of American neutrality in the First World War, a chapter that underlines the transnational entanglements associated with the operation of the modern corporation. Livio Di Matteo, J.C. Herbery Emery, and Martin Shanahan compare wealth formation in the Lakehead region with that of South Australia between 1905 and 1915. Though both were settler economies dependent on wheat exports, the authors find that South Australia had developed a greater ability to accumulate wealth because of its command of more linkages associated with grain production. In other words, Thunder Bay and Port Arthur did not perform the metropolitan function of Adelaide within South Australia. Finally, Michael N.A. Hinton presents calculations that suggest that--contrary to the assumptions of historian Michael Bliss and others--the protective tariff did not render the Canadian cotton industry inefficient. The author's depiction of efficiency as the constitutive force in economic life, however, underplays the importance of access to capital and markets in determining the shape of the cotton industry during the late 19th century.

The last three essays focus mainly on the post-1945 era. Greig Mordue's essay on the Canadian auto industry surveys the shifting balance between imperialism, multilateralism, and continentalism in structuring the Canadian state's efforts to grow the industry. In particular, Mordue offers a detailed explanation of the forces associated with globalization that enabled foreign imports to gain greater market share in Canada by the late 1950s, and in so doing highlights the significance of international developments in hastening the Auto Pact in 1965. Graham D. Taylor looks at the rise and fall of the Seagram empire. The Bronfman family expanded their liquor business by supplying the US market after the Volstead Act shut down the (legal) industry there. They chose to locate in Montreal because prohibition within Canada was most unlikely in Quebec. After the repeal of the Volstead Act, Sam Bronfman established production in the US and moved Seagram's headquarters to New York before pursuing international opportunities in the postwar period. Seagram catered to a new generation of consumers with a taste for blended whisky, expanded into rum and high-end whisky, and formed partnerships with established distillers abroad. Bronfman was a leading driver in globalizing the liquor business, but the industry would catch up with Seagram and mismanagement by his son and grandson would eventually bring the business crashing down. Matthew J. Bellamy contributes the final essay. He seeks to explain why Canadian brewers failed to establish international markets for their beers. Bellamy emphasizes industrial concentration and inter-provincial trade restrictions in creating a highly cartelized and regionalized market dominated by three companies, which discouraged price competition. Furthermore, Canadian brewers were lured by the shortsighted gains to be made through licensing agreements with larger American brewers: Labatt brewed Budweiser; Carling-O'Keefe, Miller; and Molson, Coors. American brands were thus imported and Canadian ones did not capture a significant international market. Canada's largest beer companies are today assets of foreign companies.

In general, the essays do a better job of asking and answering their own specific questions than addressing the central problematique of the book, which is to be expected in an edited collection. The volume nonetheless succeeds in presenting ample evidence of the disjuncture between the doctrinaire neoliberal theory of globalization and the historical experience of globalization as evidenced through Canada's business and economic history. The inherently political nature of production and exchange in the marketplace is an implicit theme that runs throughout many of the essays. It is also a theme that underlines the importance of business and economic history to the mainstream of historical scholarship. The essays demonstrate the capacity of business historians and economists to formulate important research questions with clarity and precision. It is an approach that can and should be expanded and elaborated upon to incorporate more regions (outside Ontario), more historical actors (such as workers), and more searching questions (about the nature of capital accumulation). As is, this collection will be of interest to anyone interested in better understanding the historical complexities and contingencies of economic life in a globalizing world. The essays are, on the whole, of a high quality and address challenging questions that may help generate more research and intellectual exchange in the future. Many scholars will find this book to be well worth a read.

DON NERBAS

Cape Breton University