The Staples: Cod, Timber and Wheat

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat
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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• Cod, wheat and timber important as early
  (pre-Confederation) staples
• Cod did not require settlers
• Timber in particular required large vessels
• Wheat required farmers

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• Cod was the earliest staple
• The large number of religious restrictions on
  eating meat, and the state of husbandry as well
  as the relative price ensured a high and steady
  demand in Europe
• Competing sources were the North Sea and the
  Icelandic coast.
• In terms of North America, cod was caught off the
  coast of Newfoundland Labrador as well as Nova
  Scotia.

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• The period in question, or when cod was the
  dominant economic activity, is roughly from 1500
  to 1575.
• Initially, France and Spain were most involved in
  trade largely because they both had plentiful
  supplies of salt.
• At first, cod caught and cured according to the
  green or wet cure method.

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• With green cure, cod is caught, gutted then
  salted in the holds of the fishing vessels
• Cod is caught offshore, on the banks (e.g., Grand
  Bank, Georges Bank)
• Crew only came ashore when the boat needed more
  water or fuel for the stove (wood)

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• The dry cure method was introduced by the British
  who did not have a plentiful and inexpensive
  source of salt
• The fish was caught and gutted, then split and
  dried onshore
• This activity meant some seasonal settlement in
  Newfoundland but permanent settlement was slow
  for a variety of reasons, some valid, some
  perhaps less so

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• Fit with Staples thesis
• High and steady demand
• Medium value/bulk
• Relatively low entry costs
• Little manufacture required

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• Biological characteristics
• High rate of reproduction
• Total stock large relative to harvest levels
• Property rights
• Almost common property relatively low entry
  costs, hence a relatively competitive industry

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• As wheat and timber became more important, there
  was suddenly a need for settlement to produce the
  staple commodities
• In addition, after the American revolution,
  desire to have a population to defend land
  against possible American incursions

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• Timber trade key from about 1780 to 1860s
• Note that wood was still structural building
  material
• Timber most important in New Brunswick which had
  a better endowment of both timber and rivers on
  which to ship it than did Nova Scotia
• Initial trade in masts and spars (Broad Arrow
  policy)

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• Important to Britain to secure source of supply
  outside of Europe as a result of both resource
  depletion and need to avoid disruption during war
• Protective tariffs established by Britain which
  favoured British North American over Baltic wheat
  
• Initially export of square timber

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• Gradually progressed to more value added product
  as more skill acquired
• Examples are deals and dimension lumber
• Remains more a lumber than a wood products export
  industry
• Local value added industries such as sash and
  door and furniture manufacture do develop

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• Timber used as an input in shipbuilding
  shipbuilding tied naturally into a domestic
  shipping industry
• All three of these industries remain key until
  significant technological change in the 3rd
  quarter of the 19th Century
• Removal of the tariffs in 1850s caused only
  temporary disruption as the American market was
  growing

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• Complementarity between wheat/agriculture and
  timber given peak labour demand seasons offset
• Significant debate as to how much complementarity
  there actually was seems to vary with regional
  endowments

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The Staples Cod, Timber and Wheat

• Wheat (corn) grown in Maritimes but more of an
  export for Upper and Lower Canada
• Upper Canada more successfultiming and
  endowments
• Corn Laws also critical key rate changes
  coincident with emergence of the Upper Canadian
  economy