The Underdevelopment of Atlantic Canada 1867-1920: A Study of the Development of Capitalism

Abstract

<p>The present study has attempted both a linear and a structural analysis of the development/underdevelopment of Atlantic Canada. The necessity of the "evolution" of capitalist industrial production and its subsequent transition to competitive corporate capitalism and finally monopoly corporate capitalism was deduced from a structural model of "capital". In conjunction with this "movement of capital", propelled ahead by inherent contradictions within the production of capital, we have traced its phenomenal correspondence -- the creation of a capitalist state and a national economy, the rise of new classes and fractions of classes and the decline and fall of old classes and fractions thereof, and the concentration an centralization of units of financial and productive capital. Concurrent with these developments we saw the development of industrial production in Central Canada and the rise and demise of industry In Atlantic Canada. These two events the development of industry In Central Canada and the deindustrialization of Atlantic Canada -- it was shown were not distinct, but rather mutually conditioned.</p> <p>What this study indicates, with regard to development studies in general, is the methodological bankruptcy of the neo-classical perspective, the analytical shortcomings of staple theory, and the possibilities of Marxism as an alternative mode of approach. In particular, it shows the importance of a wholistic, historical and structural approach.</p>