Date of Award

1984

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Abstract

The international market conditions confronting exporters of Canadian wheat and Canadian marketing policies of the inter-war period are studied.;Wheat is treated as a heterogeneous product. Following the contemporary British milling and baking literature, bread-making wheats are aggregated into strong, intermediate, and weak types. The results of an empirical study of the United Kingdom's market are consistent with the substitution pattern described in the contemporary literature. It is concluded that the British demand for Canadian wheat is not reasonably approximated as perfectly elastic.;Increased protectionism on the European Continent was effected through instruments which included tariffs, exchange controls, import quotas, importation subject to compensating exportation, and regulated minimum shares for domestic wheats in millers' grists. Consequently, import demand was sharply reduced and the share of weak wheats in domestic, bread-making grists was increased during the 1930s. It is concluded that the import demand for Canadian wheat, although reduced, became less price elastic.;The study of Canadian marketing policy begins with the initiation of a withholding strategy in the face of the Argentine competition of early 1929. The continuation of this strategy under J.I. McFarland until late 1935 is also studied, especially as its details are revealed through his correspondence with Prime Minister R. B. Bennett. The record of the perceived shortcomings of open marketing is stressed in view of the eventual decision to establish the Canadian Wheat Board.

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