Staples, Markets, and Cultural Change: Selected Essays

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McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1995 - Business & Economics - 506 pages
At the start of his career Innis set out to explain the significance of price rigidities in the cultural, social, and political institutions of new countries; by the end of his intellectual journey he had become one of the most influential critics of modernity. The essays in this collection address a variety of themes, including the rise of industrialism and the expansion of international markets, staples trades, critical factors in Canadian development, metropolitanism and nationality, the problems of adjustment, the political economy of communications, the economics of cultural change, and Innis's conception of the role of the intellectual as citizen. Innis succeeded as few others have in providing an astute and comprehensive account of the economic and social forces shaping modernity. His abiding interest in the contradictory and unintended consequences of markets in general - the dominant structure of modern economic activity - gave rise to the rich legacy of his prodigious output.

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Contents

Acknowledgments
xi
PART ONE STAPLE TRADES THE RISE
1
The Political Implications of Unused
24
The Economic Development of
49
The Penetrative Powers of the Price
66
Liquidity Preference and
88
Transportation as a Factor in Canadian
123
Unused Capacity as a Factor in Canadian
139
Industrialism and Cultural Values
316
The Bias of Communication
325
The Mechanization of Knowledge
350
A Plea for Time
356
The Concept of Monopoly and Civilization 384
384
The Problem of Space
390
PART FIVE THE INTELLECTUAL AS CITIZEN
427
The Role of the Social Scientist
429

Commerce and Industry in Canadian
155
Organized Labour and Living Standards
178
The Economics of Conservation
203
The Canadian Economy and
225
The Intellectual State
241
Recent Trends in CanadianAmerican
262
Business and Government
290
PART FOUR POLITICAL CULTURE THE BIAS OF COMMUNICATION AND ECONOMIC CHANGE
295
On the Economic Significance of Cultural Factors
297
The Passing of Political Economy
438
Myths in the Social Sciences
443
The Intellectual in History
446
The Church in Canada
459
Adult Education and Universities
471
Democracy and the Free City
482
Index
487
Copyright

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