Economic history of Canada

Canadian historians until the 1960s tended to focus on the history of Canada's economy because of the far fewer political, economic, religious and military conflicts present in Canadian history than in other societies. Many of the most prominent English Canadian historians from this period were economic historians, such as Harold Innis, Donald Creighton and Arthur R. M. Lower.

Scholars of Canadian economic history were heirs to the traditions that developed in Europe and the United States, but frameworks of study that worked well elsewhere often failed in Canada. The heavily Marxist influenced economic history present in Europe has little relevance to most of Canadian history. A focus on class, urban areas, and industry fails to address Canada's rural and resource-based economy. Similarly, the monetarist school that is powerful in the United States has been weakly represented^{[citation needed]}.

Instead, the study of economic history in Canada is highly focused on economic geography, and for many years the dominant school of thought has been the staples thesis. This school of thought bases the study of the Canadian economy on the study of natural resources. This approach has been used to study the early European history of the Canadian economy, arguing that the Canadian economy during that time developed through exploitation of a series of staples which were then exported to Europe. The staples thesis has since also become used outside of Canada, such as Australia and many developing nations.

Before the arrival of Europeans, the First Nations of what would become Canada had a large and vibrant trade network. Furs, tools, decorative items, and other goods were often transported thousands of kilometres, mostly by canoe throughout the many rivers and lakes of the region.