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C.P.R., CON OF THE CENTURY
I just finished watching a television program giving the history of the
Canadian Pacific Railway and how it got built across the continent. And
if you believe that story you must believe in Santa Clause. The CPR story
is one of the biggest lies in Canadian history.
The Railway was built across Canada for one reason only and it wasn't
to open up the great northwest. It was built because there was Gold at
the end of the line. Lots and lots of gold and I don't mean from the
Yukon Gold fields. That was paltry stuff compared to what our friends
in the CPR Company were after. Gold was only worth around 32 dollars
an ounce, whereas the item they were after was selling from anywhere up
to $150 dollars an ounce! Silk was what they were after.
Now in order for you to understand how this came about you need to know
a bit about the silk trade. The silk was produced in China and sent by
two methods to the markets in Europe. Overland or by the black ships of
the Catholic Church who wanted to corner the market in this lucrative
trade. The overland route was becoming too risky, as the silk trains
were hijacked by everyone on its way to market. The only other way it
could get there was by going around the Horn of Africa. A long and
dangerous route to take. Or to the Red Sea, then overland to the port
of Alexandria: An equally dangerous trip for the cargo to take. This
by the way was among the many reasons to build the Suez Canal.
Then someone got the bright idea to ship it by boat to Canada and from
there to France. Only in order for it to get to France they would need
a railway across Canada. As far as the moneymen in Eastern Canada were
concerned they had no interest in how Western Canada was doing. As far
as getting supplies across Canada it was no problem. The Americans had
trains going across their land by then and we used them for transport.
In fact it was the US that opened up BC to business and trade by building
lots of private little railway systems up into the interior. And lots of
American shipping came up the West Coast to bring supplies to us.
I have to laugh every time I watch an American movie of train robbers and
think of them risking their lives for gold when silk trains were going
across Canada with a cargo that made gold look like a sac of potatoes.
But let me tell you how it worked for these smart cookies. It is an
interesting story. On Vancouver Island there is a large Canal that goes
from the Pacific Ocean up to a little town of Port Alberni. During the
days of the Silk Trains we had Telegraph lines from there. When a Silk
ship was due to arrive, (and they probably new when by the weather on the
Pacific Ocean as it would be arriving by fast clipper ship), lookouts with
huge Bonfires were posted all along the Alberni Canal up to the Pacific.
When a ship was sighted they were lit all along the length of the Canal
and as soon as Alberni saw the fires a telegram was sent to CPR
headquarters. An order was then given to clear the tracks all the way
to Vancouver, and the train went through all across Canada nonstop. No
passengers except those on this business and Guards. When the Clipper
ship Arrived in Alberni the silk was Loaded onto the train there and went
nonstop to Nanaimo where the train was loaded onto a Barge for the trip
across the Inlet to the Canadian Pacific piers. There it was loaded onto
a special train for its trip across the continent. But all along the way
men were called out from towns and Villages to stand guard along the track
as the train came through. When it got to Halifax it was then loaded onto
another fast Cutter. (probably why the BlueNose cutters were built) and
was on it's way to France to be sold at auction for the rising fashion
trade. At a nice $100 to $160 dollars an ounce! And since silk is one of
the lightest and finest of materials you can bet that the ships carried
a full load. Far more than they could ever carry of Gold!
And all this time you thought the CPR was doing you a great favor! Just
another greedy political scam by the big boys lining their pockets. Oh
well ! We got a railway out of it when all is said and done and eventually
they lost the trade after the French built the Suez. And when fashions
changed due to WW1
How would one prove what I have claimed? Well, one method would be to
look at the bank statements of the CPR brass for the period immediately
following the first shipment of silk. They must have gotten very rich in
a hurry. Note also that CPR built expensive hotels and train stations
really early on in the trains history. Where did that money come from so
soon? Also there is the very real fact that without the rush to get the
silk there was no real reason to build that train at that particular time.
Since when was Ottawa so interested in B.C.?? It wasn't that well built
up at that time. Meaning that there was not a lot of tax money coming in
from the West Coast, now was there? And why the huge influx of Chinese
used to build the railway? What kind of a deal did they make with the
chinese? How did they come to Canada if not by the express desire of the
CPR? That was slave labor, at the expense of men who lived here. They
certainly did not come here without some kind of help from someone in
power. A trickle may have come but not the thousands that did arrive. Also
BC has never been a huge factory or production center that needed shipping,
especially in the late 1880's. Maybe the prairies were worth the effort for
the grain but that's not a good enough reason to go to the expense of
building a railroad over the Rockies. But the best evidence is in the
fact that they do not ever mention the silk trains in any of their history!
Why would they want to hide that after all this time if their was nothing
to my claims? It should be of great historical value to teach our young.
The romance of the big schooners, and the glamour of the silk? Come on!!!
I can't help thinking this would make one heck of a romance story.