About: Agriculture in Upper Canada

Upper Canada (now Ontario) had few exports with which to pay for its imported manufactured needs. For those who settled in rural areas, debt could be paid off only through the sale of wheat and flour. However, for much of the 1820s, the price of wheat went through cycles of boom and bust depending upon the British markets that ultimately provided the credit upon which the farmer lived. In the decade 1830-9, exports of wheat averaged less than £1 per person a year (less than £6 per household), and in the 1820s just half that.