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Miscellaneous Business -
The History
Like many other small Ontario
communities, Guelph's industrial development has been marked by both
the benefits of diversity and the challenges of rapid change.
Guelph was originally a town dependent
on the countryside and the agricultural economy. Many off its
earliest industries were small affairs controlled by craftsmen, who
supplied area farmers with the necessities for maintaining farms and for
moving produce to markets.
However, the development of the
railways, the implementation of Sir John A. MacDonald's National Policy to encourage
industrial development, and the wheat boom in the west forced many
towns and cities to move from the agricultural economy towards large scale
industrial enterprise to spur growth and provide work for those leaving
the countryside for Canadian and American cities. As southern
Ontario industrialized, Guelph competed vigorously with other towns for
the rewards associated with industrial development. Attempts to
attract industries to Guelph were often successful, but sometimes were
not.
As Guelph developed into the 20th
century, the city's industry, like many other Ontario towns, was shaped by
the branch plant system. Large employers like IMICO were
American based companies with local branches established to produce for the Canadian and British
Empire markets. Unfortunately, this has meant a certain amount of
instability as parent companies have often closed branches during hard
times or when mergers have occurred.
It should be said, however, that there were and remain many locally
controlled companies that have maintained enough diversity to offset
problems related to a branch plant economy. W. C. Woods, Hammond
Manufacturing, and recently Sleeman Brewing and Malting are good examples
of major but local companies.
In recent years, Guelph has encouraged the development
of high tech companies, and particularly those developing agricultural and
biotechnologies. Agriculture is once again becoming a dominant
factor in the success of the City's economy.
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