CPR System Route Map - 1913
Primary Documents
Statistical Tables
Canadian Pacific Historical Statistics
This website provides historical financial & operating statistics of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company from 1881 to 1945, a work of critical nation building transportation infrastructure, built and continuously operated in what was then called the Dominion of Canada during this period known as the Second Industrial or Technological Era.
The First Industrial Era can be considered to have concluded and the innovations of the Second Industrial or Technological Era commenced at the onset of the Long Depression (1873-1896) of the Nineteenth Century. This was followed by the waxing phase of an economic megacycle known in Canada as the "Laurier Boom" beginning in 1897 and peaking in 1911-13. The waning phase of this economic megacycle then commenced with the onset of the Great War of 1914-18 followed by a global pandemic in 1918-20 and "les années folles" of the 1920s. This economic megacycle and the Technological Era decisively ended with the Great Depression of the 1930s. Explosive growth in scientific research & development engendered by the demands of Global Total War (1939-1945) ushered in the Third Industrial or Scientific Era which can also be considered the commencement of the Information Age.
Primary sources for this website are the statistically rich annual reports of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company as well as other corporate circulars, shareholder letters and memorandum. This is supplanted by contemporary newspaper financial reporting from the Montreal Gazette, Toronto Globe & Mail, Financial Times, London Times, New York Times, Commercial & Financial Chronicle and the Investor's Monthly Manual.
As well as providing a comprehensive overview of a major economic era in Canadian business history, the interests of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company were so far flung, that it will also provide an overview of the economic history of the North America in this period due to the Company's significant rail network developed by subsidiary lines in the upper United States Midwest. Additionally, corporate management at an early date saw the CPR as a comprehensive intercontinental transportation system and moved quickly into oceanic shipping with important lines first across the Pacific to Japan & China and then an Atlantic service to the U.K. and Europe. This results in a global economic history overview from the Company financial results.
While all downloadable files on this website are provided gratis, any use of this material in academic work or scholarly or other publication is to be credited to this website.
The First Industrial Era can be considered to have concluded and the innovations of the Second Industrial or Technological Era commenced at the onset of the Long Depression (1873-1896) of the Nineteenth Century. This was followed by the waxing phase of an economic megacycle known in Canada as the "Laurier Boom" beginning in 1897 and peaking in 1911-13. The waning phase of this economic megacycle then commenced with the onset of the Great War of 1914-18 followed by a global pandemic in 1918-20 and "les années folles" of the 1920s. This economic megacycle and the Technological Era decisively ended with the Great Depression of the 1930s. Explosive growth in scientific research & development engendered by the demands of Global Total War (1939-1945) ushered in the Third Industrial or Scientific Era which can also be considered the commencement of the Information Age.
Primary sources for this website are the statistically rich annual reports of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company as well as other corporate circulars, shareholder letters and memorandum. This is supplanted by contemporary newspaper financial reporting from the Montreal Gazette, Toronto Globe & Mail, Financial Times, London Times, New York Times, Commercial & Financial Chronicle and the Investor's Monthly Manual.
As well as providing a comprehensive overview of a major economic era in Canadian business history, the interests of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company were so far flung, that it will also provide an overview of the economic history of the North America in this period due to the Company's significant rail network developed by subsidiary lines in the upper United States Midwest. Additionally, corporate management at an early date saw the CPR as a comprehensive intercontinental transportation system and moved quickly into oceanic shipping with important lines first across the Pacific to Japan & China and then an Atlantic service to the U.K. and Europe. This results in a global economic history overview from the Company financial results.
While all downloadable files on this website are provided gratis, any use of this material in academic work or scholarly or other publication is to be credited to this website.