Life for Lucretia in The Unmarriable Kind is modern beyond her mother and grandmother’s wildest imaginations in their youth. Canada is now a unified nation with a population of 4.3 million.
The Panic of 1873 was the worst economic depression of the 19th century. It lasted from September 1873 until late 1878 or early 1879. Because the effects could be felt more strongly in Europe, historians place the end as late as 1897. It was referred to as the Great Depression until the 1929 depression when it was renamed the Long Depression.
The causes of the panic are varied but include wars and disasters putting a strain on bank reserves, inflation and over speculation.
“Banks,” the Library of Congress explains, “raised millions of dollars through selling bonds to finance construction. Speculators ‘bet’ on the railroad, gambling on the fact that settlement and opportunities to make money would follow behind the completed railway. However, construction expenses ballooned and outpaced financing. Efforts to raise more funding failed. When they could no longer pay the bills, … banking houses folded. The collapse of the railway financiers sparked high bank withdrawals, the failure of brokerage firms, and railway construction halted.”
The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading for the first time on Sept. 20, 1873.
Overseas, the Vienna Stock Exchange crashed, unemployment rose while prices plummeted, the price of silver compared to gold dropped, people and businesses declared bankruptcy, and building projects were halted.
The Panic’s Toll on Canada
- Some factories closed while others lowered wages. In other cases, adults were laid off and children took their place.
- Thousands starved during the winter, and there were riots in Ottawa, Montreal and Kingston.
- Montreal had the highest child mortality rate in North America. One in four died before their first birthday.
- The cost of coal and wood skyrocketed.
- Taverns located near factories offered cheap rum and whiskey, and alcohol consumption increased. This led to the formation of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
Medical Advances
Emily Stowe studies medicine in New York and returns to Toronto to practice. She is the first women physician to practice in Canada. In 1883, the Ontario Medical College for Women opens. Three years later, the University of Toronto allows women to enroll.
People riot in Montreal after compulsory smallpox vaccines go into effect in the 1870s. In 1885, smallpox epidemics strike Montreal and Ottawa.
By 1890, surgery was a safe, successful and sanitary medical treatment.
Divide Between City and Country Increases
Between 1840 and 1900, the standard of living increased. As industrial output grew, prices fell and the dollar purchased 25 percent more.
Rent in cities was high, and jobs usually were unskilled and routine. Factory work was brutal. So much so that plants had their own prisons to lock up apprentices who breeched discipline.
In the 1880s, child labor laws went into effect, although they were impossible to enforce. Boys under the age of 12, and girls younger than 14, were prohibited from working in Ontario and Quebec. In Nova Scotia, boys were required to be 10 before seeking work and 12 before working a 60-hour work week.
As the 19th century progressed, more people moved from rural areas to the city. Annually, winter freeze-ups still caused layoffs, and an influx of workers reduced wages.
Modern Technology
In the 1870s, homes began being built with running water connected to sewer service. A decade later, they were built with telephones and electricity.
Ottawa’s first telephone book, published in 1882, contained 200 listings.
By 1890, large cities were a maze overhead of telephone, telegraph and electric wires.
Nationalism
To be Canadian in the 19th century was to create Canada. How was the question. Independence from the British empire was easier said than done. Canada still needed the UK to protect it from the American threat of annexation.
A small group of Liberals wanted to be annexed to the United States, and half a million Québécois moved to New England. In 1871, however, the Treaty of Washington settled many of the issues the United States and Canada had with one another.
Westward Expansion at All Costs
From 1871 to 1877, a series of treaties were negotiated with First Nations’ peoples. These were followed by land surveys and the North-West Mounted Police policing the area. Founded in 1873, the North-West Mounted Police were intended to be temporary. Constables apprehended criminals, and officers tried them.
The government purchased land from the First Nation’s people for the construction of a transcontinental railroad. During the winter of 1883-84, one in 10 natives died on the plains.
Multiple rebellions happened in the prairies as the region had no representation in the federal government other than the Department of the Interior. The North-West Territorial Council in Regina, Saskatchewan, handled some issues.
Buffalo herds began disappearing by the end of the 1870s. In the span of five years, tens of millions were killed and their bones sold as fertilizer.
Ranching became a viable profession when refrigerated ships allowed for the export of meat in 1880. In 1884, 54,000 head of live cattle were exported to the UK, a figure that doubled by the end of the century.
This article is part of the reader's guide for The Unmarriable Kind by Melina Druga. The historical romance follows Lucretia as the school's new headmaster challenges her beliefs on marriage.