Economic and social relations of production on the Northeast-Coast of Newfoundland, with special reference to Conception Bay, 1785-1855
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1991. History Bibliography: leaves [424]-440 This thesis examines aspects of northeast-coast Newfoundland society and economy from 1785 to 1855, giving particular attention to Conception Bay as the longest settled and most economically developed p...
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ftmemorialunivdc:oai:collections.mun.ca:theses3/9179 2023-05-15T17:23:32+02:00 Economic and social relations of production on the Northeast-Coast of Newfoundland, with special reference to Conception Bay, 1785-1855 Cadigan, Sean T.(Sean Thomas), 1962- Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dept. of History Canada--Newfoundland and Labrador 1991 viii, 454 leaves : maps Image/jpeg; Application/pdf http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/theses3/id/9179 eng eng Electronic Theses and Dissertations (143.55 MB) -- http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/theses/Cadigan_SeanThomas.pdf 76099293 http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/theses3/id/9179 The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Paper copy kept in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial University Libraries Fish trade--Newfoundland and Labrador--History Fisheries--Economic aspects--Newfoundland and Labrador Text Electronic thesis or dissertation 1991 ftmemorialunivdc 2015-08-06T19:17:40Z Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1991. History Bibliography: leaves [424]-440 This thesis examines aspects of northeast-coast Newfoundland society and economy from 1785 to 1855, giving particular attention to Conception Bay as the longest settled and most economically developed part of the coast. While a well-established Newfoundland historiography suggests that it is no longer acceptable to see fish merchants as responsible for Newfoundland underdevelopment, this view has still found a home in some recent Marxist writing. This study departs from the view that fish merchants alone caused the colony's underdevelopment, finding instead a dynamic class relationship based on accommodation between fish merchants and fishing families. Relations between these two groups unfolded within a society and economy shaped not only by a limited resource endowment, but also by the political and legal infrastructure of a region and of a fishing industry often marked by antagonistic capitalist, colonial and imperial interests. -- Fishing families, unable to see any way of producing a significant amount of subsistence or capital goods, had no choice but to rely on merchant credit and purchase imported goods. Merchants were able to manipulate prices to insulate themselves from cyclical variations in prices and catches, in exchange for accepting the risk of extending credit in both good years and bad. Merchants did not thwart agricultural or industrial alternatives to the fishery because local commodity producers could find no resource base from which successfully to begin such activity. The overhead costs of credit, in addition to the fishery's labour requirements and legal infrastructure, ensured that fish producers continued to rely on family labour. Only with the advent of the Reform and Liberal struggles for constitutional reform in the 1820s would merchants be cast as the class antagonists of fishing families, stifling the latter's every attempt to break the merchants' hold over their livelihoods. Thesis Newfoundland studies University of Newfoundland Memorial University of Newfoundland: Digital Archives Initiative (DAI) Canada Newfoundland |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Memorial University of Newfoundland: Digital Archives Initiative (DAI) |
op_collection_id |
ftmemorialunivdc |
language |
English |
topic |
Fish trade--Newfoundland and Labrador--History Fisheries--Economic aspects--Newfoundland and Labrador |
spellingShingle |
Fish trade--Newfoundland and Labrador--History Fisheries--Economic aspects--Newfoundland and Labrador Cadigan, Sean T.(Sean Thomas), 1962- Economic and social relations of production on the Northeast-Coast of Newfoundland, with special reference to Conception Bay, 1785-1855 |
topic_facet |
Fish trade--Newfoundland and Labrador--History Fisheries--Economic aspects--Newfoundland and Labrador |
description |
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1991. History Bibliography: leaves [424]-440 This thesis examines aspects of northeast-coast Newfoundland society and economy from 1785 to 1855, giving particular attention to Conception Bay as the longest settled and most economically developed part of the coast. While a well-established Newfoundland historiography suggests that it is no longer acceptable to see fish merchants as responsible for Newfoundland underdevelopment, this view has still found a home in some recent Marxist writing. This study departs from the view that fish merchants alone caused the colony's underdevelopment, finding instead a dynamic class relationship based on accommodation between fish merchants and fishing families. Relations between these two groups unfolded within a society and economy shaped not only by a limited resource endowment, but also by the political and legal infrastructure of a region and of a fishing industry often marked by antagonistic capitalist, colonial and imperial interests. -- Fishing families, unable to see any way of producing a significant amount of subsistence or capital goods, had no choice but to rely on merchant credit and purchase imported goods. Merchants were able to manipulate prices to insulate themselves from cyclical variations in prices and catches, in exchange for accepting the risk of extending credit in both good years and bad. Merchants did not thwart agricultural or industrial alternatives to the fishery because local commodity producers could find no resource base from which successfully to begin such activity. The overhead costs of credit, in addition to the fishery's labour requirements and legal infrastructure, ensured that fish producers continued to rely on family labour. Only with the advent of the Reform and Liberal struggles for constitutional reform in the 1820s would merchants be cast as the class antagonists of fishing families, stifling the latter's every attempt to break the merchants' hold over their livelihoods. |
author2 |
Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dept. of History |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Cadigan, Sean T.(Sean Thomas), 1962- |
author_facet |
Cadigan, Sean T.(Sean Thomas), 1962- |
author_sort |
Cadigan, Sean T.(Sean Thomas), 1962- |
title |
Economic and social relations of production on the Northeast-Coast of Newfoundland, with special reference to Conception Bay, 1785-1855 |
title_short |
Economic and social relations of production on the Northeast-Coast of Newfoundland, with special reference to Conception Bay, 1785-1855 |
title_full |
Economic and social relations of production on the Northeast-Coast of Newfoundland, with special reference to Conception Bay, 1785-1855 |
title_fullStr |
Economic and social relations of production on the Northeast-Coast of Newfoundland, with special reference to Conception Bay, 1785-1855 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Economic and social relations of production on the Northeast-Coast of Newfoundland, with special reference to Conception Bay, 1785-1855 |
title_sort |
economic and social relations of production on the northeast-coast of newfoundland, with special reference to conception bay, 1785-1855 |
publishDate |
1991 |
url |
http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/theses3/id/9179 |
op_coverage |
Canada--Newfoundland and Labrador |
geographic |
Canada Newfoundland |
geographic_facet |
Canada Newfoundland |
genre |
Newfoundland studies University of Newfoundland |
genre_facet |
Newfoundland studies University of Newfoundland |
op_source |
Paper copy kept in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial University Libraries |
op_relation |
Electronic Theses and Dissertations (143.55 MB) -- http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/theses/Cadigan_SeanThomas.pdf 76099293 http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/theses3/id/9179 |
op_rights |
The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. |
_version_ |
1766113040067985408 |