Canada in the early 1920s was facing economic difficulties due to the First World War. The aftermath of the First World War for Canada was harsh, as soldiers lost their lives on battlefields and the war effort had required huge amounts of resources to defeat the Central Powers for victory. From the perspective of direct war cost, Canadian territories did not harm by that. It might have revealed that Canada still can setup unprecedented economic recovery because Canada had enough labour and the war effort mechanization to fulfill the national needs. However, Canada in the 1920s had undergone inflation and recession as a result of the war. Therefore, to improve the economy, Canada had to absorb U.S industries or enterprise to help the Canadian economy to recover. This essay will focus and discuss on the historical background in 1920s Canada and to discuss why the Carnation Milk Product Company created My Hundred Favorite Recipes at this point in time in Canada.

Canada in the 1920s enjoyed an unprecedented higher status than ever before due to the war effort and help Great Britain to win the war. According to Scott, at the Paris Peace Conference in 1918, Canada was presented as a power of the world, traditionally; there were the big fives, which were Britain, U.S, France, Italy, and Japan. But due to the efforts of Prime Minister Robert Borden, Canada had upheld itself as a member of the League of Nations. King George V’s liberal government also reduced the expenditure on Canadian military which was sense of potentially approved the independence of Canada and its government. Moreover, the Treaty of Halibut between United States and Canada had a step toward setup Canada to its autonomy. According to Scott W, the treaty was about the fishing right in Pacific Coast and usually the King’s agent had to be presented if the treaty would have confirmed to work. But the King admitted the treaty with only Canada’s approval which clearly had confirmed the self-governing rights of Canada. This had helped to indicated that the branch out of the Carnation milk product company to Canada, and the advertising recipe to grow its prestige.

For the economic aspect, Canada had not managed the economic situation very well especially directly after the war. According to Scott, Canada had moved one million troops across European battlefield and it took about five years to transport them back, with already existed war effort, women were participated most of the works, and when these men come back, they lost their jobs and could not participated in the labour while the transportation of the troops was constantly happened. This had caused a high rate of unemployment up to twenty percent, which was the labour surplus. Consequently, Canada needed the foreign industry and companies to help employ that twenty percent of labour, so in the 1920s Canada updated self autonomy, opened the country for the world. The U.S was the biggest participant in this affair.  According to Scott W, the British preferred indirect investment with Canada, and they only invested money in the form of Bonds rather than directly setting up mills and industries in Canada; but the Americans did the reverse. The buoyant economy in the United States had increased the value of the U.S dollar massively, so from 1920, the investment of the United States in Canada had increased to fifty-one percent, in contrast the British twenty-one percent. This revealed the Carnation Company’s incentives to invest in Canada due to the high U.S dollar value and so they directly bought out a creamery in Ontario to help settle their branch company with the benefit of a labour surplus of workers in Canada.

Women’s status in Canada had experience a sort of breakthrough. According to Light, Beth. Pierson, Ruth Roach, Canadian women started the campaign that demanded the rights of vote in 1916. The protest is partly successful, but though there were first women in position of the parliament in 1921 named Agnes Macphail. As women’s status grow, the Carnation company in the perfect time published the cookbook to attract women. Traditionally, women love milk and cream food to show their purity and beauty. With the advantages of labour surplus and women’s updated status, the Carnation Milk Product Company had chosen the right time to publish the ‘My Hundred Favourite Recipes’, and Mary Blake revealed the purpose of advisement for attracting women to boost their prestige. But the most important thing is women in 1920s had more rights and power to publish their work, especially for the culinary work and recipes instead of male controlled publication. It was the trend from this point that women became the main contributor of the recipe works and center of the advertisements.

Lastly, the First World War brought the benefit of Canning industry which result in a more efficient way to preserve milk product. This enlarged the sales and eventually expanded the Carnation Milk Product Company.