"Hooves for Gallons": The Canada-Russia Barter Deal of 1932-33‪.‬

The depression of the 1930s saw several innovative approaches to solving the problems associated with Canada's economic misery, and the cattle business was no exception. One of the more bizarre incidents occurred in the winter of 1932-33 when a proposal was put forward to send 100,000 head of Canadian cattle to Russia in exchange for petroleum and coal products. Aside from its intrigue and secrecy, the issue sparked a national debate over Communist Russia, R.B. Bennett's Conservative government, and the Winnipeg syndicate which was masterminding the scheme. Though highly speculative and fraught with political pitfalls, the proposal was to Canadian cattlemen a lifeboat in a sea of desperate times. By 1932, the western Canadian cattle industry was reeling from the effects of lost export markets. The prohibitive Hawley Smoot Tariff of 1930 had virtually closed the doors to Canada's chief export market in the United States. According to the president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the tariff put an end "to fifty years of Canadian effort to trade with the United States."(1) Following the tariff, cattle exports to the U.S. dropped from an annual value of $21.18 million to $617,745. Alberta Department of Agriculture figures showed that domestic prices fell immediately by $1.00 to $2.50 per hundredweight (cwt), followed by another decline a few months later of $2.00 to $2.50 per cwt.(2)