The nature, origin, development, and possible justification of the municipal business tax in Canada are the topics considered in this paper. These subjects are all the more interesting because there has been no comparable development in the United States. Statistics as late as May, 1947 indicate that New York City is the only city in the United States with a business tax comparable to the municipal business tax in Canada.

The term “municipal business tax” generally is used in Canada to refer to a tax on premises occupied for business purposes. Three bases are in use: a fraction of the assessed value of the premises, the annual rental value of premises, and square feet of space occupied.

The outstanding characteristic of Canadian labour journals is the shortness of their lives. They have been born to ride the crest of a rising membership within the union, and have fallen with the union into the slough of a business cycle recession, or been snuffed out by technological change, or simply by apathy. Numerous small papers arise almost weekly, while as many more pass out of existence without notice. Nearly 250 labour journals have been established in Canada since 1867 and fewer than seventy are publishing today. Accordingly any directory of the labour press is subject to the inaccuracies consequent upon the high mortality among such publications.

But the labour press is meriting more and more careful consideration. A greater number of labour organs, of, by, and for the working man, are being published today than ever before. And what the labour press is saying to its readers is of importance, for Canadian union members comprise approximately 10 per cent of the adult population of Canada.

The directory contains essential information concerning 239 labour publications, the majority of which are, or were, official organs of Canadian or international labour organizations, while the remainder are sponsored by fraternal groups, political parties, and private individuals. Some few of these latter publications, while written for the labouring man, are definitely anti-union in character. The criterion for inclusion in this directory was not whether a publication was pro-union or anti-union, but rather whether it was addressed primarily to the working people of Canada.

The “shortage of dollars” seems unfortunately to mean all things to all men; hence we must try first to come to a precise definition of the problem. I have myself, in my personal affairs, experienced both a dollar crisis and a chronic shortage of dollars; and I suppose that most mortal creatures have the same difficulties, expressible equally well in terms of their own or of other countries' currencies. But in this sense, which is really nonsense, the “shortage” means only that we have not attained to an “economy of abundance.” Official pronouncements on the problem do not always escape this nonsense.

A much more sophisticated interpretation of the dollar shortage, but one which I am sure must finally be rejected, is “an excess of dollars used over dollars supplied, the difference being made up by borrowing on short-term account from the United States and shipping gold to the United States.” The peculiar character of this definition of Professor Seymour Harris is dramatically shown by the dollar shortage of the thirties, which was marked—and indeed by common knowledge to a large extent caused—by the withdrawal of American short-term capital from Europe, and the flight of capital, mostly short-term, from Europe to the United States. Quite possibly Professor Harris might wish to extend his definition from an outflow of short-term capital from the United States to an inflow also, to be able to cover the European capital flight case. This solution would then apparently associate the idea of a dollar shortage with an undesirable short-term capital movement in either direction, but it would fail to specify in what respect the movement is undesirable. Furthermore, one would be forced to relinquish the idea of a dollar shortage in all cases in which no capital exports or imports take place.

International discussions with a view to establishing improved conditions in international trade began early in the war. There was a general feeling that world trading relations during the inter-war period, particularly after 1929, had been most unsatisfactory. It was realized also that at the conclusion of hostilities large quantities of capital equipment would have been destroyed or worn out, that the relative financial position of the major trading countries would be drastically altered, and that the productive structures and capacities of all but a few of the belligerents would be badly disrupted. Since wide reconversion and reconstruction were going to be necessary in any event, national economies could perhaps be moulded with a view to fitting in with more liberal trading policies and, if the type of framework for expanding multilateral trade could be established, there was less possibility of countries developing what they might feel later were vested rights in restrictive business practices.

Consequently, as early as 1942, a series of international discussions was begun with the object of establishing those monetary and trade relations which would provide the desired framework for international trade. The outcome has been the establishment of, or provision for, a number of interrelated international institutions. While the whole programme has included many provisions, such as UNRRA., E.R.P. and the like, to meet temporary problems, and while some of these are of great importance in helping to place disrupted economies in a position where they can play their part in a restored world economy, from the long-run point of view the major achievements are four in number: the establishment of an International Bank for Reconstruction and Development; the establishment of an International Monetary Fund; the preparation of a final draft of a charter to establish an International Trade Organization; and the conclusion of the Geneva Trade Agreement, lowering barriers to trade among the most important trading nations of the world.