HIS263Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Lower Canada, Cholera, Typhoid Fever
Document Summary
Society and economy in british north america at mid-century: life in a revolutionary age. 1850s pivotal in railway construction - very rapid. Economy built around the system of post-house and carriage - changes. The post-houses fall by the wayside, and towns that are lucky to have the railway run through have a boom, and the others are not as successful. Moves people and goods from point a-b much, much faster. City products could go out, and country products go in. Daily papers are reaching the countryside: electric telegraph. Lines were laid with the railway so that trains could be organized. Samuel morse invented it - beginning of the era of electronic communication. First time when ideas are travelling faster than people. Send and receive at the train stations. 1851 pei had an underground telegraph line, 1855 newfoundland connected. 1861 true transatlantic and north american telegraph system was in place. Business was revolutionized - receive stock prices instantaneously.
