Artisans in a Merchant Town: St.John’s, Newfoundland, 1775-1816
Artisans who specialized in the production of consumer goods in St. John's during the American Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras became neither proletarians nor industrial capitalists as historiography suggests was the fate of others in the Anglo-American world. While limited proletarianization...
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fterudit:oai:erudit.org:031058ar 2023-05-15T17:22:43+02:00 Artisans in a Merchant Town: St.John’s, Newfoundland, 1775-1816 Cadigan, Sean 1993 http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/031058ar https://doi.org/10.7202/031058ar en eng The Canadian Historical Association/La Société historique du Canada Érudit Journal of the Canadian Historical Association vol. 4 no. 1 (1993) http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/031058ar doi:10.7202/031058ar All rights reserved © The Canadian Historical Association/La Société historique du Canada, 1994 text 1993 fterudit https://doi.org/10.7202/031058ar 2021-09-18T23:22:26Z Artisans who specialized in the production of consumer goods in St. John's during the American Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras became neither proletarians nor industrial capitalists as historiography suggests was the fate of others in the Anglo-American world. While limited proletarianization was important among carpenters, and merchant credit dominated artisans in maritime trades, some producers of consumer goods made the transition from artisan to merchant. Evidence drawn from court records, newspapers and government correspondence suggests that some St. John's artisans found greater opportunities in building on the accounting and trading skills they acquired from the retail and importing aspects of their trade rather than in manufacturing as such. Mercantile activity rather than manufacture offered the best chance for capital accumulation in an economy characterized by the resource and structural impediments of monostaple production. Les artisans occupés à la production de biens de consommation à Saint-Jean, à l'époque de la révolution américain et des guerres napoléoniennes, ne devinrent ni prolétaires ni industriels capitalistes comme le suggère l'historiographie de leurs semblables, ailleurs dans le monde anglo-américain. S'il est vrai qu 'un mouvement partiel de prolétarisation advint chez les charpentiers et que le crédit marchand en vint à dominer les artisans des métier reliés à la navigation, il est aussi vrai que des producteurs de biens de consommations se convertirent en marchands plutôt qu'en manufacturiers. Les archives judicaires, les journaux et la correspondance gouvernementale suggèrent en effet que certains artisans de Saint-Jean choisirent, pour augmenter leurs activités, de miser davantage sur le savoir comptable et marchand que leur avait procuré le commerce de détail et l'importation liés à leur métier et de laisser de côté la fabrication proprement dite. L'exploitation d'une ressource unique limtant les structures et les ressources de l'économie, l'activité marchande offrait une meilleure chance d'accumulation du capital. Text Newfoundland Érudit.org (Université Montréal) Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 4 1 95 119 |
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English |
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Artisans who specialized in the production of consumer goods in St. John's during the American Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras became neither proletarians nor industrial capitalists as historiography suggests was the fate of others in the Anglo-American world. While limited proletarianization was important among carpenters, and merchant credit dominated artisans in maritime trades, some producers of consumer goods made the transition from artisan to merchant. Evidence drawn from court records, newspapers and government correspondence suggests that some St. John's artisans found greater opportunities in building on the accounting and trading skills they acquired from the retail and importing aspects of their trade rather than in manufacturing as such. Mercantile activity rather than manufacture offered the best chance for capital accumulation in an economy characterized by the resource and structural impediments of monostaple production. Les artisans occupés à la production de biens de consommation à Saint-Jean, à l'époque de la révolution américain et des guerres napoléoniennes, ne devinrent ni prolétaires ni industriels capitalistes comme le suggère l'historiographie de leurs semblables, ailleurs dans le monde anglo-américain. S'il est vrai qu 'un mouvement partiel de prolétarisation advint chez les charpentiers et que le crédit marchand en vint à dominer les artisans des métier reliés à la navigation, il est aussi vrai que des producteurs de biens de consommations se convertirent en marchands plutôt qu'en manufacturiers. Les archives judicaires, les journaux et la correspondance gouvernementale suggèrent en effet que certains artisans de Saint-Jean choisirent, pour augmenter leurs activités, de miser davantage sur le savoir comptable et marchand que leur avait procuré le commerce de détail et l'importation liés à leur métier et de laisser de côté la fabrication proprement dite. L'exploitation d'une ressource unique limtant les structures et les ressources de l'économie, l'activité marchande offrait une meilleure chance d'accumulation du capital. |
format |
Text |
author |
Cadigan, Sean |
spellingShingle |
Cadigan, Sean Artisans in a Merchant Town: St.John’s, Newfoundland, 1775-1816 |
author_facet |
Cadigan, Sean |
author_sort |
Cadigan, Sean |
title |
Artisans in a Merchant Town: St.John’s, Newfoundland, 1775-1816 |
title_short |
Artisans in a Merchant Town: St.John’s, Newfoundland, 1775-1816 |
title_full |
Artisans in a Merchant Town: St.John’s, Newfoundland, 1775-1816 |
title_fullStr |
Artisans in a Merchant Town: St.John’s, Newfoundland, 1775-1816 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Artisans in a Merchant Town: St.John’s, Newfoundland, 1775-1816 |
title_sort |
artisans in a merchant town: st.john’s, newfoundland, 1775-1816 |
publisher |
The Canadian Historical Association/La Société historique du Canada |
publishDate |
1993 |
url |
http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/031058ar https://doi.org/10.7202/031058ar |
genre |
Newfoundland |
genre_facet |
Newfoundland |
op_relation |
Journal of the Canadian Historical Association vol. 4 no. 1 (1993) http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/031058ar doi:10.7202/031058ar |
op_rights |
All rights reserved © The Canadian Historical Association/La Société historique du Canada, 1994 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7202/031058ar |
container_title |
Journal of the Canadian Historical Association |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
95 |
op_container_end_page |
119 |
_version_ |
1766109554825756672 |