Conclusions

And in summary…. As the population of rural Manitoba grew rapidly in the 1880’s, thousands of small businesses, designed to service their needs, sprang up across the province. Many of these efforts were very useful in the conditions prevalent in those days when importing goods was expensive and, perhaps, not even an option. In an era, and in a geographical situation, whereby a homemade product was the natural answer to a shortage of consumer goods, it was only logical that those with an entrepreneurial turn of mind would venture into manufacturing. Many of those ventures failed to turn a profit, many others existed only for a short time. Is that any different from the world of small business today? The first big change happened very soon. By 1900 the larger share of communities were serviced by a railway. With this came increased consumer choices and lower prices for many goods.  Improved transportation brought convenience.  When you could just ship your wheat crops to the elevator and pick up a sack of flour at the grocery store, you saved time, as well as money.     Then, as now, consumers gravitated toward the more inexpensive product produced by the large urban factories.  The large urban companies also had the advantage of large capital reserves, greater access to credit, and greater marketing budgets.  Brand names became a thing. At present, the same forces of economy of scale and cheap transportation have changed manufacturing across Canada. In addition to those forces, rural Manitoba faced another challenge. In a process that continues to this day, in many regions population is in decline. The twin forces of faster transportation and ever improving, labour-saving technology, meant that the family farm kept growing in size, while even the size of the farm family kept shrinking. There weren’t enough customers to go around. What seems interesting today is that there is a new-found interest in local production that echoes the forces that made it necessary in 1880. Concern about climate change leads to concern about the effects of our long supply chains on carbon emissions. Concern about standards and about quality is reviving an interest in knowing where our food is produced, and how it is produced. Events like the pandemic we are currently facing renew an interest in food security. Artisans and craftsmen sometimes find a niche in small towns where the lifestyle reflects their values. Who knows where it might lead?