This paper addresses whether government subsidies to two Canadian railroads built in the 1850s - the Grand Trunk and the Great Western - made economic sense. The historical literature suggests that these railroads, although privately unprofitable, were socially profitable. Through a careful...

We explore the impact of one of the earlier epidemics to hit natives living in the Hudson Bay drainage basin: the smallpox outbreak of 1780-82. We review contemporary descriptions of the epidemic and how Europeans at the time viewed its impact on the native population of the region. We then...