Download What Caused the Great Depression in Canada?

What Caused the
Great Depression in
Canada?
Lead Up to Hardship
OVERPRODUCTION
 Good times had encouraged
producers to increase production
beyond what markets demanded
 Stockpiling of goods
 Workers laid off, have less money
to spend, buy fewer goods
Primary products
dependence
 Economy depended on staple productswheat, fish, minerals, pulp and paper
 Competition from other producers of
same products reduced demand and
price on world market
 Wheat Especially Vulnerable
Cutting Grain in Alberta c.1920
Environmental issues
 Poor farming practices and drier
climate led to drought
 Top soil dried up and blew away in
great dust storms
 Affected Palliser’s triangle in Canada
 In the prairies known as the dust bowl
Dependence on USA
 Primary market so downturn there
affects us (reduced trade)
 Our economic good times
depended on continued sale of
staple exports to USA
protectionism
 Protective tariff: high taxes on goods
coming in from other countries
 Tariffs shut Canada out of world
markets
 Exports plummeted, slowed down
trade internationally
Canadian international paper company
mill at three rivers, Quebec, 1930
Worldwide Depression
 US lent money during and after WWI
 At the end of WWI European nations
owe money to the U.S.
 Nations depended on selling products
to repay loans
 Nations lose ability to repay loans with
U.S. protectionism
Buying on credit
 Buy now pay later motto
 New consumer goods paid for
in installments
 With job losses people unable
to pay for credit purchases
Buying on margin
 Stock markets active - Toronto, NY,
Montreal
 When purchasing stocks some
Canadians put 10% down with the idea
of paying back the rest as soon as stocks
go up in price and you sell them
 Investors sought to cash in on high
prices but flooded market and prices
crashed
Crowds gather
on wall street
Black Tuesday
Oct. 29, 1929
Economic collapse
 Stock market cash didn’t cause
depression but did make it worse
 Investors who couldn’t repay stock
debt went bankrupt
 Canada plunged into depressiondirty thirties
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