Early Economic History of Nova Scotia
The citizens or inhabitants or the people who live in a certain area are the ones around whom the economy of the region revolves. The real populace of Nova Scotia was called the Micmac, who can be traced in origin to the Algonquian people. These people were ones with small settlements around the region and who used to rely on hunting and fishing as means to nourish themselves. (Aliprandini 1-3)
The early history of Nova Scotia thus can be traced back to The Mi’Kmaq Indians or the MicMac, who were settled in the area long before any of the explorers from Europe entered the region. In the early 11th century, the first visitors came to Nova Scotia and these were Norsemen, later in 1497, the area came into the notice of an Italian sea captain John Cabot for its rich fishing grounds. The region was formerly known as Acadia but the name was changed to Nova Scotia in 1621 by King James 1 of England. In the 17th century, the French came and inhabited not only this region but also certain areas of ‘Quebec, New Brunswick, and Maine’.
Due to the influx of immigrants from the USA, Nova Scotia was partitioned in 1784 and consequently, the colonies of New Brunswick and Cape Breton Island were created. In 1848, Nova Scotia was bestowed with the honor of becoming the first British colony that won responsible government. (ECN, n.p.)
The province had traditionally been linked to its fishery and sea harbor and these were the sources through which income was earned and the economy developed but the region reached its economic boom in the epoch of the ‘tall ships’ which had wooden masts and hulls. This promoted international shipbuilding and the lumber trade, the area was also well known for its fish trade, thus natural resources were the backbone of the economy. But all these trades were later washed out with the depletion of the resources and the replacement of the old wooden boats by metal ships. (ECN, n.p.) The First agricultural settlement in Nova Scotia was done by Europeans by the establishment of Port-Royal in 1605 and this was also the beginning of the former Acadia. (Beck, n.p.)
The signing of the British North America Act made Nova Scotia one of the four provinces to constitute the new federation called the Dominion of Canada in 1867. The majority of the lineage of Nova Scotia’s population can be traced to the British Isles, French, German, and Dutch; whereas almost 22 000 residents have Aboriginal origins and primarily belong to the Mi’Kmaq Nation. (ECN, n.p.)
In this essay, we will look at the economic history of Canada particularly that of Nova Scotia, first in view of the French and the British period and then according to different economic activities that were carried out in the region like agriculture, fishery, trading, etc.
French Period
Waterways are prominent in the economic history of Canada up until the 1850s. The fur trade was promoted westward by St. Lawrence as a result of its rivers and the Great lakes; the booming industries of the era were the fishing industry, the fur trade, and the lumbering industry and all these industries were dependants on the water as the means of providing transport. It is only after 1850 that industries like ‘wheat-raising, mining, pulp, and paper’ have become significant and have started depending upon rail transport (Wallace 153-167).
As mentioned in the introduction, Europeans approached Canada due to its fishing ground. The French and later the Portuguese were attracted to and visited the extremely prolific waters of the coasts and then the Banks during the first half of the sixteenth century. The waters were of great importance to the English fishermen because they lacked solar salt and it was needed in large supplies for the green fishery which was practiced by other Europeans and for the development of dry fishery. The French participation in the business of dry fishery made it necessary to infiltrate the more distant regions, and it was then that these fishermen met Indians of St. Lawrence and its tributaries. (Wallace 153-167)
The French and English thus found their way into different areas including Nova Scotia on the basis of the availability of the water but later on, the fishing areas of Canso and Gaspé were alienated in the maritime region from the abundant agricultural vicinities of the basin of the Bay of Fundy. The English had to withdraw from Nova Scotia under the Treaty of Utrecht as the exposed character of the commune made it an easy victim for them. As a result of conflicts between the New England and French fisheries, Louisbourg was captured, the English established themselves at Halifax and the Acadians were evicted from the lush lands of the Bay of Fundy. (Wallace 153-167)
British Period
After the eviction of the Acadians and the Treaty of Paris, Nova Scotia was entered by New England colonists who expanded the fishery to ‘Cape Breton, the gulf of St. Lawrence, and Labrador’. The Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1783, after which, a large entry of Loyalists started streaming into the regions of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. To accommodate the newcomers, free lands and supplies were granted, yet agriculture remained of lesser significance than the fishery in Nova Scotia and lumber in New Brunswick. To make the best use of the resources, fish and lumber were provided to the West Indies, but due to the competition from America, both suffered the goods suffered. (Wallace 153-167)
As a consequence of the War of 1812, the British West Indies was closed to the American ships and yielded in Nova Scotia earning its name as an important base for the purpose of exports and re-exports of different products including fish.
Trade and industry underwent rapid development after the alteration from French to British allegiance as Canada was brought to the markets of the British Empire. Developments also occurred on the scale that new roads were constructed and the establishment of post-offices took place; agriculture was promoted by the introduction of new crops and improved methods. There was also an increase in shipping and articles like flour, potash, and staves grew important in terms of export. (Wallace 153-167)
Nova Scotia continued with fishing, shipping, and trade as its primary activities. As a result of increased diversification in fishing, the Bay of Fundy became important and a large number of cod was produced from the gulf of St. Lawrence and Chaleur Bay. Thus, until 1830 the West Indies was the chief market for fish, as the United States was then given way to trade in the West Indies trade, and until 1833 articles of lumber, coal, fish, and potatoes were traded to the United States (Wallace 153-167).
The Napoleonic wars indeed became a source of opulence for Nova Scotia, especially in the industries of lumbering and shipbuilding. As a result of the War of 1812, ‘privateering’ resulted in enhancing the province’s well-being and adding more fortune to Halifax. But this era of peace was followed by the recession which came as a result of poor harvests for several years in a row and it was not until the mid-1820s that recovery started as a result of partial promotion by William Huskisson’s trade Acts of 1825. (Beck, n.p.)
The trade-in in Nova Scotia did continue but suffered as a result of problems that arose in other parts of Canada. After 1812, various problems also arose due to immigration and settlement including that of land distribution. To deal with issues, a reduction in the size of land grants took place, and after 1815 the grants came to around one hundred acres. But in a new system for sales of land sales was introduced in 1826.
Difficulties were faced by settlers on wildland from the reserves of Crown and Clergy and from speculation, as a result of which great blocks of land were in remission from cultivation. For the settlers who were in possession of some capital, lots that were served by roads and were accessible to mills and towns were made available by the Canada Company in western Ontario. Similar services were offered by The British American Land Company in the Eastern Townships, but these were later on subjugated by French settlers who came in from the older established area of Quebec (Wallace 153-167).
Because of the issues that came up, Lower Canada underwent many negative changes. Cultivation suffered and so did livestock but on an even more severe scale, not only this but the lands on which there was the cultivation of wheat were callously cropped down without any sort of crop rotation or fertilization; but this was not the case in Upper Canada where rich, virgin soil was allowed to produce liberally, giving the settlers with surplus crops to be provided to the market in a short time.
But the crop production was rendered futile as these lands were alienated from a market by a distance of miles covered by forest, interconnected by means of miserable roads which were barred by reserves, and by means of waterways that were but intermittent due to hazardous rapids, thus making it necessary to carry out a number of trans-shipments. To deal with the situation, the Erie Canal was opened from Buffalo in 1825, and it was demanded that canals be used to carry the supplies of wheat from Upper Canada to the ocean ports.
As a result, the Welland canal was inaugurated in 1830, and this was followed by the Rideau in 1831and others. but obstructs arose even then because of the obstruction of the upper St. Lawrence as the strongly desired outlet by Upper Canada was faced with lack of capital, whereas Lower Canada with its control over customs caused various hindrances in the improvements. Thus, the schemes of the canals were not implemented until the Act of Union in 1840 as a result of which sufficient financial support was provided and the energies of both provinces on the task were focused (Wallace 153-167).
The Loyalists who migrated to Nova Scotia had high hopes pinned to it in terms of providing food, lumber, and land but despite various efforts that were made; the immigrants were met with disappointment because of the demanding provincial government. The failure with which the Loyalists were faced was as much a failure for the economy as it was for them in their personal capacities. (Charles & Robert, n.p.)
Historically, as compared to the national average, the per capita income of Nova Scotia has been low. There may be several reasons for it including limited natural resources and a large distance from central Canada, as well as transportation policies. Nova Scotia came to rely chiefly upon primary industries as many of the earlier secondary ones disappeared with time (TCE).
Trading
In the middle of the 18th century, a voluntary “Committee on Trade” was formed by the creative and business-minded merchants of Halifax. the Halifax business association which came into existence in 1750, has worked under different names and performed tasks and thus has thrived down to the date and come to be known as the “Halifax Board of Trade”. According to Edmund A. Saunders, secretary of the Halifax Board of Trade, 1750 is the initial and oldest trade organization in Canada.
The committee has been active at all times, its pioneer in Nova Scotia was Nova Scotia Trade Association which was requested in 1806 to send a committee to Quebec to facilitate in establishing a local trade society. A few years later, in 1809 an analogous request was sanctioned from Montreal by St. Lawrence merchants. As a result, a Maritime Board of Trade was founded later in 1894 representing Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick (MacKay).
Nova Scotia has a rich history as a trading province. The importance of trading after its preview in the year 1818 when Lunenburg shipped among many other articles, a large quantity of pine lumber, oak and ash hogshead staves, hogshead hoops, fish oil, pickled fish, dried cod and scale fish, potatoes, shooks, spars, and shingles within three months. For the purposes of coasting, foreign trade, and prosecution of the fisheries Lunenburg had stocks of one hundred vessels in 1829. Thus, it is evident that bartering and trading were indeed a way of life for those who resided along the Atlantic coast (MacKay, n.p.).
Transportation
In the early part of the history of Nova Scotia, the sea was the only available harbor and acted as the mode of transportation when doing trade or transferring people or goods. The earliest railway in the region came in 1938, through the construction of a very short line in Pictou. later on in 1839, six miles more of railway for the purpose of connecting the Albion mines to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Afterward, lines were built from’ Halifax to Truro and Windsor, from St. John to Shediac, from Shediac to Truro along the Isthmus of Chignecto, and from St. Andrews inland towards Woodstock’. The investments were made in large quantity whereas the markets served by them were small and this initially didn’t justify the investments. Railway construction was aimed at the general economic development but only acted as a stimulant in that time, thus providing a reason to reach the larger markets around the regions. (MCE, n.p.)
Lumbering
In Nova Scotia’s economy, lumbering has always been vital to development. (TCE, n.p.) Mills were important to lumbering and most of the mills in Nova Scotia are in the area of Scots Bay. These mills date from the mid to late nineteenth century; it was the era activities related to logging and shipping that were at their highest in the Maritime Provinces. There was a time in the province as written by historians when mills that propelled a single saw, were to be found upon almost every stream.
The sawmills that were constructed before 1850 usually had ‘an up-and-down saw and an overshot or undershot wheel’. It is recorded that the first mills for Scots Bay were a grist mill and a sawmill which used to work under the operation of Thomas Andrew and three others and this was at a time as early as 1783. The Andrew sawmill probably had a single vertical saw and an overshot wheel as was found in the sawmills of the time. (Deal, n,p,)
Thus, in the initial phases, sawmills were very important to the lumbering activities in Nova Scotia where it remained on the scale of sawmills up until the times of the Napoleonic Wars. In the Napoleonic wars, the continental system of the French Emperor resulted in cutting off the exports of wood from the Baltic to Great Britain. In absence of timber, the probability was that the wooden ships belonging to the British Navy would soon be rendered vulnerable and powerless.
Consequently, Great Britain in 1809 passed an act which promoted the import of timber from the areas of British Colonies in North America while at the same time placed high duties on wood that was coming from the Baltic region but due to different reasons the high duties remained intact even after the war ended. In 1800, Nova Scotia exported 565 loads of fir timber alone to Great Britain but the number increased in a span of 18 years to 28,059 loads. The economy of the province benefited from the timber trade as on an annual basis, vessels in excess of 100 were brought out by British manufactures and sent to the British market loaded with timber. (LT, n.p.)
The lumber trade was hindered by the rocks at the Big Falls of the river. These rocks were hazardous and dangerous as occasionally they were responsible for breaking up the rafts of logs that were floated down or staved in boats that were coming down. To promote the trade, the Legislature of Nova Scotia in 1825, gave 50 pounds for the purpose of blowing and removing these rocks. On a local level, another 50 pounds were given yet no one was ready to undertake the task until the men in the assembly requested a grant of another 50 pounds, which were bestowed in 1826.
According to John McGregor, the business of timber became a vital pursuit of the settlers as they came to learn and experience that it was easier to cut down fir trees rather than do farming. The business of lumber trade went through varying cycles of success and prosperity during the nineteenth century. A rise in the demand for shipping came up after the Crimean war resulting in the prosperity of the lumber industry during the 1980s. (LT, n.p.)
Agriculture
The earliest civilization of Nova Scotia was dependant on hunting for their food but in the early 16th century, it is said that fishing captains cultivated vegetable gardens in order to feed their crews. It was around the same time that grains were being grown by the French at Port Royal. The first water-powered gristmill was also erected in North America in 1609. The French also constructed dikes along tidal marshes in order to secure salt for curing fish but these were later used to initiate dike land agriculture. But farming came to the region much later after fishing and lumbering. (TCE, n.p.)
In terms of agriculture, the Loyalists in the area of Shelburne of Nova Scotia who immigrated to the region played a vital part in their contribution to the economy through this mode. One-third of the population in the area were farmers and the region continued to serve them as an agricultural entrepot despite the various problems that were accompanied by the migration. After 1788 47 percent of the population was involved in agriculture as their economic activity. (Charles & Robert, n.p.)
Nova Scotia is a Maritime colony and The Canadian Maritime colonies are traced in their settlement phase to the era in which British feudalism was attenuated. There was a dearth of the agricultural base in the Maritimes in northeastern States, but what has to be remembered is that they lacked even the weak connections with the agricultural frontier. As a result of this, it was a hard task to take the decision to build canals and the decision was in the negative. The Maritimes came to depend a great deal on staple exports, yet its staples product were a common property because they were natural products like fish, forest, and mineral products. (MCE, n.p.)
The Maritimes had a Canal Era which is usually not designated by canals as all the proposed plans for canal construction were canceled, but something other than the canals, and that is what differentiates this era from the others. The Canal Era in the Maritimes region can be divided into portions that cover Nova Scotia as well in 1784. the first important portion is when the Maritimes was not a part of New England nor of Canada.
At that time it existed as colonies of the British Empire and therefore lacked independence. The Canal Era also has under the umbrella, a final flowering of North Atlantic commerce which transformed mercantile into laissez-faire in Britain, and on the other context transport the same into protectionism in emerging transcontinental economies. Under these situations of the Maritimes, especially Nova Scotia, the Maritime desire draw them towards mediation between continental North America and Britain.
The Mid-nineteenth century also played its part in the development of the Maritimes; even though revenues were not much generated by the dynamics of early industrialism and canals, but instead these were covered by the dynamics of late mercantilism and the last sign of a sailing ship. (MCE, n.p.)
Fishery
In the seventeenth century, the MicMac encountered the French settlers of Nova Scotia, and later on, this eventually resulted in their forming an alliance with each other. It was long before the arrival of the British, that the French people had established a fishing station in the region’s harbor (Aliprandini 1-3).
The Second to BC is Nova Scotia with respect to the value of its fishery, which is the reason because of which Europeans were initially drawn towards its shores. In earlier days of the fishery business salt and dried fish was the staple market and was exported to the market of Latin America (TCE). Nova Scotian had such a good fishery that it was traded and sold across many areas far and wide. The traded goods ranged from blueberries to codfish (MacKay).
In 1621, along the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there were an estimated 800 fishing and trading vessels operating. Charles Robin who was an immigrant to the Gasp region from the Channel Islands (Jersey) bought fish from the Micmac and Acadian fishermen in the late 18th century and introduced and exploited them in the markets of the West Indies Brazil, “Catholic Europe”, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, as these were the countries which offered a great market due to their scope of limited agriculture as well as a dearth of high protein foods.
He expanded the trade even more along the Gaspe coast and to Cape Breton. In the 1770s Charles Robin lost everything to John Paul Jones, an American privateer who destroyed the installations in Cape Breton, but later rebuilt them so effectively that there were 800 ships in his possession to do fishing by the 1790s which moved 660 tonnes of dried codfish within a year. The trading of fish made it a common form of “currency”. (MacKay, n.p.)
The Yarmouth town is a historic seaport that had made a great contribution to the development and prosperity of the province due to its proximity to New England and its rich offshore fishing grounds. This town of Yarmouth is also Nova Scotia’s largest seaport west of Halifax. Other than Yarmouth, there are other coastal areas in this region that were settled by Acadians who returned after their expulsion of 1755. In 1767 the first set of the Acadians settled in Wedgeport, East and West Pubnico, and other areas.
The Acadians found that most of the productive farmland was already occupied, and this forced them to turn towards the sea for their livelihood. For this reason being, fleets of longliners, trawlers, and scallop draggers are found to be at work in the offshore fishing grounds, whereas the inshore areas are harvested by lobster boats. Along the shoreline, through time fishermen have collected rockweed for use as fertilizer, and Irish moss. (DNS, n.p.)
Utilitarian items
After the end of the French era, the Malecite and Mi’kmaq started looking for employment of alternative types that though being based on traditional skills gave way to the development of new and creative ways of earning. This came as a result of the settlement in the former hunting grounds of the “planters” of New England and later on that of Loyalists in the maritime region. The men of the region were always good with woodworking but their talent found new means of expression through the manufacturing of utilitarian items that were saleable and had commercial value.
These items included apple baskets, potato, churns, barrels, hampers, butter tubs, ax handles, snowshoes, toboggans, and wood baskets. The women of Mi’kmaq found their means of earning and of contributing to the economy by starting the sale of finely crafted quillwork bark baskets which were their expertise and were being made by them since the mid-1700s. These women were also the ones to introduce “Fancy baskets” which became visible on the eastern market in early 1815.
Both men and women worked together hand in hand for the production of the products. The black ash, maple splints, or white ash were prepared by men whereas the women were responsible for the intricate task of weaving the baskets. Some of the products were local to the area like eel pots, yet the evidence that native splint basketry shows are parallel to Swedish and German prototypes give an idea which suggests that this sort of industry was introduced by the Europeans to southern coastal Algonquians and, with passing time, the knowledge of the skill also spread in the northward region.
Sometime around 1850, the native craftspeople were promoted in the Maritime provinces by offering them free passage on modes of transportation like steamboats and trains as incentives through which the transfer or movement of their products to market would become easy, thus allowing them to stay self-supporting. (Chute, n.p.)
Works Cited
Aliprandini, M., “Halifax”, Canada’s Heritage: Nova Scotia, 2006. Web.
Beck, J. M., “Nova Scotia-History and settlement”, The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2008. Web.
Charles, W. & Robert, R.W., “Notes and comments”, 2001. Web.
Chute, J. E., “Economic life”, Multicultural Canada, n.d. Web.
Deal, M., “An archaeological survey of Scots Bay mills and shipyards”, 2004. Web.
DNS, “Destination: Nova Scotia- Lighthouse Route”, n.d. Web.
ECN, “Nova Scotia: history and people”, Education Canada Network, 2008. Web.
LT, “Lumber trade”, n.d. Web.
MCE, “The Maritimes in the Canal era”, n.d. Web.
MacKay, D., “Agriculture Trading History”, Nova Scotia Canada, 2007. Web.
TCE, “Nova Scotia-Economy”, The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2008. Web.
Wallace, W. S, “Economic History”, The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. 3, 1948, 396p, pp. 153-167.