Search

We present a new monthly wholesale price index for Canada, 1840-71, comparing fluctuations in the Canadian macroeconomy with fluctuations in similar U.S. and British indexes. Canadian prices move through distinct phases: the 1840s rise in prices and the decline in the depression of 1848-49; the mid-century economic boom and the 1857 depression; U.S. Civil War inflation and apparent Canadian price insulation through a flexible exchange rate created by U.S. withdrawal from gold; and the non-inflationary boom following Confederation. After adjustment for the U.S. greenback issue, a broad coherence of Canadian, U.S., and British indexes suggests highly integrated commodity markets. JEL Classification: N20, N21, E31

Causes and consequences of global financial instability are analyzed and suggestions to promote its diminishment presented.

This article provides an account of the 'depoliticization' of political economy, which centres on the definition of the discipline by subject matter. Such definition rests on a bipartite division of the discipline into science and art - a division that determines the scope of political economy. In fact, the development of French political economy between 1750 and 1850 shows that, unlike their predecessors, J.-B. Say and his followers succeeded in keeping economics separate from politics. In so doing, they did not regard the progressive exogenization of political variables as merely instrumental and transitory. To the contrary, Say and his followers believed that such exogenization remains the best way to build and develop economic science without having its autonomy threatened. Identifying political economy with its subject matter, they acknowledged that strict limitations may exist in the use of economic tools.