gainst the petty barge canal
which was capturing the western trade. The Welland Canal was built to
carry east-bound traffic beyond the point where Buffalo tapped it, and
by 1848, as we have seen, canals were completed on the St Lawrence,
providing a nine-foot waterway from Chicago to Montreal.

It was a magnificent effort for a struggling colony. But it was
scarcely finished--the paeans of self-congratulation on the unexpected
discovery of an enterprise quite Yankee in its daring were still
echoing--when it was found to have been made largely in vain. So far
from monopolizing the trade of the western states, the St Lawrence
route Was not even keeping the east-bound traffic of Upper Canada
itself. The reasons were soon plain. The repeal in 1846 of the Corn
Laws and in 1848 of the differential duties in favour of the St
Lawrence route were temporary blows. The granting of bonding
privileges by the United States in 1845 drew traffic from Canada to
southern routes. Ocean rates were cheaper from New York than from
Montreal; in 1850, for example, the freight on a barrel of flour from
New York to {35} Liverpool was 1s. 3 1/2d., while from Montreal it was
3s. 0 1/2d. This was because the majority of the vessels arriving at
Montreal came in ballast, and also because on the outward voyage the
offerings of timber made rates high. Timber enjoyed a preference in
the British market, and, as has happened since, this preference was
simply absorbed by the vessel owner. But most important of all, in the
United States the railway, with its speedy, all-year service, had
already taken the place of the canal. The Canadian ports were fighting
with weapons obsolete before completed.

{36}

CHAPTER IV

THE CANADIAN BEGINNINGS

Portage Roads--Projects of the Forties--The St Lawrence and
Atlantic--The Great Western--The State and the Railway

From the beginning in Canada, to a much greater degree than in Great
Britain or in the United States, the railway was designed to serve
through traffic. But it was regarded at first as only a very minor
link in the chain. River and canal were still considered the great
highways of through traffic. Only where there were gaps to be bridged
between the more important waterways was the railway at first thought
profitable. In the phrase of one of the most distinguished of Canadian
engineers, Thomas C. Keefer, the early roads were portage roads.

In 1832, two years after the complet