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CHAPTER 11 Capitalist Development and the Surplus Population The period from the late 1890's through the 1920's in Canada witnessed an important new transition in the capitalist accumulation process: the rise of monopoly capitalism and the demise of the free enterprise, or competitive capitalism that had been dominant since the 1860's. Emerging after a long and severe depression in the Canadian economy, monopoly capitalism represented the fusion of finance capital, industrial capital and a strong pro-business state--a powerful new phalanx which rapidly brought the national economy under its sway and made possible an era of rapid economic growth. 1 There was an accelerated concentration and centralization of capital, with small firms being forced out of business or swallowed up by giant new corporations, organizationally centralized and bureaucratized, integrated horizontally with suppliers of raw materials and vertically with distributors. 2 The rise of the new monopoly system was accelerated by a vast new cheap energy source in hydro-electric power and a rapidly expanding iron and steel industry.3 It made possible the growth of important new sectors in agriculture and industry, including mining, lumbering, wheat farming and the construction of railways to service them. All of these sectors had an insatiable demand for unskilled labour. 4 Avery observes that "Canada's captains of industry required a work force that was both inexpensive and at their beck and call", or in other words, a new exploitable surplus population that would permit the rapid expansion of production. 5 The surplus of population was drawn from two main sources--internal pools of Canadian-born workers and European immigration. The former source was largely depleted by 1907, and immigration supplied the vast bulk of unskilled labour in the 1896 to 1920's period. 6 Between 1901 and 1911, for example, the population of Canada grew by an exceptional 34 per cent, largely because of immigration. 7 It has been estimated that three million people entered the country between 1896 and 1914. 8 Due to their labours, railway mileage doubled, mining production tripled, and wheat and lumber production increased tenfold between those years. 9 However, the surplus population, immigrant and Canadian-born, paid a high price for the gains of monopoly capitalism in Canada. They suffered severe exploitation--enduring systematic underpayment for long days of unpleasant, physically punishing work--and often lived under wretched conditions. 10 |
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