Re Agr paper: improved historiography
Papers showing the variety of agricultural experiences in the Maritimes – prosperous and poor farms.....
Tradition of a poor place for agriculture: recognition that agriculture nonetheless played a large place in the 19th c economy. The single largest occupational groups.
Impact of limited resources on agricultural development.
Some good land: therefore people with good land could have prosperous farms
good land was limited, therefore settlement was limited
Settlement did extend to poorer lands: hard to earn a living.
Where the lands were good, devote selves to farms
Where the lands were poor, occupational pluralism
Not unique to Maritimes.
Poor land does not necessarily mean low incomes. Restrict extent of settlements to lands which can provide an adequate income. Possible for incomes to be the same:
Less farming not worse farming.
However, pop growth, difficulty migrating to best lands (Highland Scots) might push settlement onto land that yields a poor income. Bitterman’s backlanders.
The retreat of the staples thesis as an explanatory device in economic history has changed the place of the Maritime economy in Canadian economic history. Easterbrook and Aitken discuss the fishery, the lumber industry, the influence of British policy on commercial development, and the failure of the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to develop their agriculture. The latter problem is attributed to the attractive power of the lumber trade in New Brunswick. In Nova Scotia the incompetence of Highland Scots in pioneer farming and the unwillingness of the Irish to turn to the land, the scattered population, poor roads, poor farming practices, merchant neglect of internal trade and the absence of protective tariffs on agricultural produce are blamed for the failures.[1] No mention is made of limitations of climates or soils, although the text’s rather off-handed observation that no more land was cultivated in the 1950’s than in 1860 might have led the authors to wonder why limited agricultural development was so persistent.[2] Yet the authors’ overall assessment of the economy before 1867 is positive:
The period before 1867 has often been called the golden age of the Maritimes, an age when the present was prosperous and the future bright. The gales of industrialism did not hit their economies with full force until after confederation. p. 251
Easterbrook and Aitken
Lower’s assessment
Note designation of a barter economy rather than recognition of a credit economy. Ability of merchants to finance local development, not just the import of goods. Site Hiram Capron.
Basic reality of the ability to produce lying at the root of economic development. Rests partly on resources. Production of many mfg goods and services are independent of resources; density of settlement, clustering of mfg firms was often important.
Other confusion: subsistence farming – assumed when not producing for export, or at least when not supplying food to export sectors. See Hornsby, who allows that sub. production is directed towards local markets.
Hornsby continues staples tradition, but high quality work.
Winson retains demand driven analysis derived by staples thesis. Not good results.
Much revision.
MacNeil – Stereotypes.
Previous literature has
Recognized limitations of resources and the
Diversity of resources and experience of farmers on different lands.
Importance of agriculture to the Maritime economy.
Tendency of settlement to exceed ability of the land to support farming.
Purpose of this article:
- More objective delineation of the nature and the limitations of the resources in the Maritimes
- Comparison of agricultural resources in Ontario and the Maritimes.
- Defining the normal relationship between resources and agricultural development thereby facilitating identification of deviations from the norm.
- Indicating the importance of agricultural resources to the peopling of different regions on the assumption that population density, and therefore income per square mile was important to future development of the region.
Provide
[1] Easterbrook and Aitken, p. 239.
[2] Easterbrook and Aitken, p. 241.