Within the sweep of Canada's economic progress, I should liketo devote special attention to one period—from about 1900 to the outbreak of World War I—as die period of most rapid growth in the history of Canada since die union of the separate provinces under Confederation in 1867, with die possible exception of die war-stimulated 1940's. I propose to point out certain parallels between that remarkable expansionary period and a much earlier one. I shall also attempt to isolate die important factors responsible for the upsurge of growdi after 1900.

A comparison of international capital flows which are occurring today to economically undeveloped areas, with similar international investment in economic development which occurred prior to World War I is almost inevitable and indeed has often been made more or less explicitly. The obvious differences between the two periods lie in the proportion of private capital in the total of international investment in undeveloped areas, and in the pace of economic development then and now. Capital flowing to undeveloped areas today is preponderantly from public bodies: various agencies of the United States Government, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or the United Nations. By contrast, international capital invested in economic development prior to World War I was exclusively from private sources. Then, too, the areas which were developed prior to 1914 experienced within a decade tremendous increases in population of 30 to 50 per cent and increases in the output of their major industries of 200 to 400 per cent. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of private enterprise and initiative in the international investment in undeveloped areas in the period from 1875 to 1914 and the reasons for the relatively unimportant position of private international capital in economic development today.