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Ruin and Redemption: The Struggle for Canadian Bankruptcy Law, 1867-1919 . By Thomas G. W. Telfer . Toronto : University of Toronto Press , 2014. xviii + 297 pp. Illustrations, figures, tables, bibliography, notes, index. Cloth, $75.00. ISBN: 978-0-8020-9343-1 .
Book Reviews
Business historians are sometimes criticized for not taking sufficient interest in the matter of failure. Commercial failures may be easy to describe, brought about by insufficient resources to meet previous commitments. What's harder to do is to categorize these causes analytically, since they can range from fraud to stupidity, overreaching ambition, or unanticipated competition. Legal historian Thomas Telfer has chosen to approach the subject through an analysis of bankruptcy law in Canada in the first fifty years after Confederation in 1867. He examines not only the changing statutory regime and the case law but also public attitudes towards bankrupts and the pressure groups that sought to determine their treatment.
By the mid-nineteenth century, insolvency--when debtors could not satisfy their creditors--could be dealt with by a declaration of bankruptcy. The weight of common law decisions on the subject rested upon the assumption that lenders were usually families, friends, or neighbors. They could...