The Canadian Commercial Revolution, 1845-1851 9780773595064

Table of contents :
Cover
The Carleton Library
Title
Copyright
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION TO THE CARLETON LIBRARY EDITION
PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION
1: The Improvement of the Waterways
2: Montreal versus New York
3: The Public Finances
4: Tariffs
5: The Navigation Laws, and the Opening of the St. Lawrence
6: Reciprocity
7: The Famine Migration of 1847
8: Montreal in 1849 , and the Annexation Movement
9: Conclusion
Notes
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
INDEX
MAP
NOTE ON THE AUTHOR

Citation preview

TH E

C A N \r : ' N kEVOLUTION 1845-1851

THE

CARLETON

LIBRARY

A series of C anadian reprints and new collections o f source m aterial relating to Canada, issued under the editorial supervision of the Institute o f C anadian Studies of C arleton University, O ttawa.

G E N E R A L E D IT O R

R o b ert L. M cD ougall

E D IT O R IA L B O A R D

D avid M . L . F a rr ( H istory ) Pauline Jew ett ( Political Science ) H. E dw ard English ( Econom ics ) M uni F ru m h artz ( Sociology ) G ordon C. M errill ( Geography ) W ilfrid Eggleston ( Journalism )

G ILB E R T

N O R M A N

TU CK ER

THE CANADIAN COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION 1845-1851 E D IT E D A N D W IT H A N IN T R O D U C T IO N BY

H U G H G . J. A IT K E N

T he Carleton Library N o . 19 / M cC lelland and Stewart L im ited

Copyright © McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1964

The Canadian Commercial Revolution, 1845-1851, by Gilbert N. Tucker, was first published by the Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1936 in series entitled Yale Historical Publications.

The Canadian Publishers McClelland and Stewart Limited 25 Hollinger Road, Toronto 16

P R I N T E D AND B O UN D I N CANADA BY T . H . B EST P R I N T I N G C O M P A N Y L I M I T E D

C ontents

IN T R O D U C T IO N TO T H E C A R L ET O N LIBRARY E D IT IO N , v i i PR E F A C E TO T H E ORIG IN A L E D IT IO N , X v iii

1: T h e Im provem ent of the W aterw ays, 19 2:

M ontreal versus N ew Y ork, 33

3: T h e Public Finances, 46 4: Tariffs, 63 5: T h e N avigation Laws, and the O pening o f the St. Law rence, 83 6: Reciprocity, 99 7:

T h e F am ine M igration o f

8:

M ontreal in

9:

Conclusion, 148

1849,

1 8 4 7 , 113

and the A nnexation M ovem ent, 129

N otes, 167 SU G G ESTIO N S FO R F U R T H E R R EA D IN G , IN D E X , M AP,

182

188

N O T E O N T H E A U TH O R ,

190

181

Introduction to the Carleton Library Edition G ilbert T ucker’s The Canadian C om m ercial R evolution 1845-1851 is one of the m inor classics of C anadian history. It is, in some ways, an old-fashioned book, for few modern authors would tackle the subject in quite the way T ucker did, and there has been some advance in ou r knowledge of C anadian history since he w rote. But from another point of view it will never be out o f fashion, fo r it is a w ork o f solid scholarship and no contem porary student of C anadian developm ent can afford to ignore w hat it has to say. M any w orks of historical scholarship - though not the one th a t follows this Introduction - read as if they had been w ritten by m achines instead o f hum an beings. T he au th o r’s desire to appear objective and im partial leads him to suppress as m uch of his own personality as he can. O ne consequence is th at the book which results tends to be dull. A m ore im portant conse­ quence, however, is th at it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to discern w hat the author thought he was trying to do. T his is extrem ely unfortunate, because if we w ant to de­ rive full benefit from any w ork o f scholarship it is essential to u nderstand the au th o r’s purpose. This m eans that we m ust try to see the problem as he saw it; otherw ise we shall fail to grasp his assum ptions and his m ethods. Let us, therefore, try to state very briefly w hat G ilbert T u ck er saw as the problem to be explained when he began the research and w riting th at resulted in this book. H e took as the focus of his inquiry the political and econom ic changes th at occurred in central C anada (th a t is, roughly the present provinces of O ntario and Q uebec) during a relatively short period: the six years from 1845 to 1851. A s a professional historian, he interpreted his prim ary responsibility to be th at of presenting as accurate a description as possible of these changes. But he was also interested in the analysis o f a problem : stated very simply, this problem was the interaction o f the political and econom ic events that he described. Seen in this light, the problem T ucker faced was a particu­ lar case o f a general m ethodological and even philosophical problem that has bedevilled historians, and particularly eco­ nom ic historians, fo r m any years. W hat is the relationship between political and econom ic change? A re we to follow the

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M arxist school and hold th at all the political and social changes th at occur in a com m unity are fundam entally caused by eco­ nom ic changes; th at these econom ic changes follow their own inherent historical logic and are not themselves caused by changes in the political and social sphere; th a t a society’s poli­ tics - and, indeed, its whole way of life - are nothing b u t a superstructure erected upon foundations determ ined by its technology o f production? O r should we adopt a less rigidly determ inistic point o f view and adm it - as have som e later M arxists - the possibility of interaction and reciprocal causa­ tion between the econom ic and the non-econom ic aspects of society? T hese are indeed profound and com plex problem s, and the read er o f this book should w atch carefully to see how T ucker handled them . I t is hardly necessary to say that he did not p erm it them to occupy the centre of the stage. His spotlights w ere focused on personalities — statesm en, politicians, and businessm en — and on th e acts of legislatures and executive departm ents of governm ent; he seldom perm itted problem s of theory o r m ethod to disturb the sm ooth flow o f narrative. In doing so, of course, he was following a respectable tradition of historiography w hich attaches no less im portance to literary elegance than it does to analytical ingenuity. But the awkward problem s of m ethod and philosophy are there all the same, lurking in the shadows, and they cannot be ignored. T u cker assum ed w ithout explicit argum ent th at political and econom ic events interact w ith and influence each other. H is whole book is, in fact, a dem onstration, in fine-grained detail, of how this interaction between politics and economics shaped the developm ent o f central C anada in the m iddle years of the nineteenth century. A s he w rote in his preface, his p u r­ pose was to exam ine the “econom ic background” o f political change. N ote the em phasis th at this statem ent implies. T ucker w as w riting political history; he exam ined econom ic events because he believed them to be relevant to the understanding of political developm ent. T hus his book is not econom ic history as th at term is strictly defined today. It uses very little econom ic analysis, and the econom ic principles th at it does use are rela­ tively simple. T his is not to say, of course, th at it does not contain a great deal o f econom ic inform ation; it certainly does, and in some respects - as fo r instance in his description o f the com petition betw een M ontreal and N ew Y ork —T ucker’s w ork has n ot been im proved on since he wrote. But we should be

I N T R O D U C T I O N - ix

clear about w hat he was trying to do: his central purpose was the elucidation of econom ic events as they influenced political development. It is probably true th at in m ost cases too m uch significance should not be attached to the title an auth o r chooses for his book. T u ck er’s title, however, does tell us som ething about his point of view and the interpretation he placed on the events he described. In identifying the six years from 1845 to 1851 as the period of a C anadian “com m ercial revolution,” he clearly m eant to imply that in this period there occurred certain abru p t and irreversible changes in the econom ic situation o f the colonies of central C anada. T he phrase was intended to rem ind the reader o f the earlier and better-know n “ industrial revolution” th at had occurred in G re at Britain in the closing decades of the eighteenth century and the early decades o f the nineteenth. This notion - w hich has proved a doubtful blessing to historians ever since it was first invented - was originally intended to suggest a resem blance between the rapid econom ic changes occurring in Britain in this period and the equally rapid and drastic political changes occurring in France. T he whole of the nineteenth century - so the theory ran - is the story of the gradual spread and elaboration of the political ideas o f the F rench Revolution and the technological ideas of the Industrial Revolution. T ucker, in this book, called attention to yet another “revolution” - one m uch less im portant in the broad sweep of history but nevertheless, for C anada and the British E m pire, of great significance. T his was the C anadian “com m ercial revolu­ tion” o f 1845-51. W hen a w riter uses the term “revolution” he is deliberately suggesting th at the changes he is describing were very rapid and far-reaching, and furtherm ore th at they represented a definite break with w hat had gone before. D iscontinuity with the past is em phasized. R ecent reinterpretations o f the industrial revolu­ tion in Britain have throw n doubt on this point o f view; the tendency has been to stress the pre-conditions for industrializa­ tion and the continuity between the pre-industrial period and the phase of rapid industrialization. Similarly intellectual and political historians, w ithout denying the abruptness o f the poli­ tical changes during the F rench Revolution, are now inclined to em phasize the gradual build-up of tensions that finally cul­ m inated in revolution and the long history of the intellectual ideas that inspired the revolutionary leaders. H istorians, in short, have tended to return to the point o f view preferred by

x - T H E C A N A D IA N C O M M E R C IA L REV O LU TIO N

the econom ist A lfred M arshall, w ho inscribed on the title page of his Principles the m otto, “ N ature makes no jum ps.” M arshall, however, was w rong, as a generation fam iliar w ith nuclear physics should quickly realize. A nd, in historical studies, the scholar’s professional inclination to em phasize continuity should not be allowed to obscure the plain fact that som e changes do happen very quickly and, when they have happened, leave a situation that is essentially different from w hat it was before. In particular this is true o f certain types of change that impinge upon an econom ic system from the o u t­ side, altering its param eters and recasting the fram ew ork of possibilities w ithin which it operates. Technological changes are often of this type; so are som e political acts, such as the repeal of a protective tariff o r a declaration o f w ar; and so are som e population m ovem ents, such as a wave of im m igration caused by fam ine in another country. Changes of this type are to be contrasted with the m ore gradual and increm ental changes by which an econom y adjusts to everyday variations in con­ sum ption tastes and the relative prices of factors of production. F o r one thing, they are m uch less predictable. F o r another, they typically lead to discontinuities in developm ent, com pelling large-scale readjustm ents in econom ic structure and policy. W hen a num ber o f such external shocks impinge upon an econom y within a relatively short span o f years, the internal readjustm ents required are likely to be extensive and disturbing, and it is highly probable that they will have im portant reper­ cussions in the political sphere. T he historian who tries to describe and analyse the flux of events in such a period may well be pardoned for falling back on the m etaphor of revolu­ tion - an overturning of the fam iliar and traditional in favour of the new and strange. T he w ord itself explains nothing, but the associations it carries with it are not misleading. It was in these term s that T ucker saw the period between 1845 and 1851 in C anadian history. T he winds of change that buffeted the C anadain econom y in these years are sum m ed up in his chapter headings. T he reader’s attention is called first to the construction o f the C anadian canal system and to the com ­ petition between N ew Y ork and M ontreal for the trade of the interior. This introduces a discussion o f the overseas m arkets for C anadian and A m erican exports, particularly of w heat and flour, and of the disappearance o f the old system of imperial preferences, represented by the C orn Laws and the N avigation Acts. C anada’s attem pt to adjust to these discontinuous changes

I N T R O D U C T I O N - xi

in dem and and supply is described in term s of the agitation for annexation to the U nited States, the early and abortive attem pts to secure reciprocal free trade with th at country, and the em ergence o f the idea of C anadian confederation. T he story of the fam ine m igration from Ireland in 1847 highlights the strains to which the C anadian econom y was exposed in these years. A nd the interaction between these econom ic events and the achievem ent o f responsible governm ent and tariff autonom y in C anada is described in detail. It has been noted above th at T ucker m ade little explicit use of econom ic analysis and relied on relatively sim ple econom ic principles. It should also be noted, however, that his analysis of the determ inants of C anadian econom ic developm ent in this period places him squarely in the cam p o f the “staple theorists” whose writings have provided us with the traditional and con­ ventional interpretation o f C anadian econom ic history. T ucker seems to have arrived at this interpretation independently. He expresses his indebtedness to A dam Shortt and A. G . D oughty, two o f the founders of C anadian historical scholarship. He quotes with approval the A m erican historian, G . S. C allender, whose analysis o f the colonial period in A m erican history is believed to have provided some o f the seminal ideas th at later inspired C anadian authors.1 A nd he cites the path-breaking article bv W. A. M ackintosh th at first explicitly applied the staples approach to the interpretation of C anadian econom ic developm ent.- But in general, w riting as he was in E ngland in the middle 1930’s, he seems to have arrived at his views quite apart from the scholars in C anada who, a t approxim ately the sam e tim e, were ham m ering out the first large interpretive synthesis of C anadian econom ic history. T he analytical pow er o f the staples approach - the degree to which it makes possible a m eaningful interpretation of C anadian econom ic developm ent - has in recent years been seriously questioned.'1 T he doubts that have been raised, how­ ever, relate m ore to later periods in C anadian history, and p articularly the late nineteenth and the tw entieth centuries, than they do to the period w ith which T ucker was dealing. A nd, concerned as he was to understand how people of that tim e in C anada thought o f their problem s, he could hardly do otherw ise than cast his econom ic analysis in term s of the p ro ­ duction, transportation, and m arketing of C anada’s staple ex­ ports. T he staple trades, particularly w heat, flour, and timber, w ere the heart of the problem as fa r as C anadian businessmen

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and politicians of the m id-nineteenth century w ere concerned. T h e whole purpose and rationale o f the canal system which they had constructed at such great expense was to im prove the com petitive position o f the St. Law rence route as an artery by which the staple products o f the m id-continent could reach the ocean. Econom ically, the value of the old im perial system for them lay in the preferential m arkets it provided fo r the raw m aterials o f C anada’s forests and farm s. A nd it was prim arily the hope o f obtaining alternative preferential m arkets that, w hen the British preferences were abolished, led C anadian businessmen and politicians to tu rn to the goal of reciprocal free trade in natural products w ith the U nited States. H istorians v/riting at a later date may question the sufficiency of a “staples theory” o f econom ic growth, but there can be little doubt that this was the theory to w hich the business and political leaders of central C anada in T ucker’s period adhered. T h e w ider im portance of the period that T ucker selected fo r intensive study lies sim ply in the fact th at these were the years in which som e of the basic choices were m ade that determ ined the strategy of C anada’s econom ic developm ent until well into the tw entieth century. T o call them “choices” suggests a freedom o f action th at Canadians in th at period may or m ay n ot have possessed. Certainly m any o f the policies that w ere adopted had a sem blance of inevitability about them : there was little else that C anadians could do - or so at least they thought. Surely it was obvious that the St. Law rence was intended by nature to be the chief com m ercial artery between the A tlantic and the hinterland? Surely Canadians had no alternative b ut to develop and improve th at w aterw ay as rapidly as they could, particularly w hen faced w ith the challenge of N ew Y o rk’s E rie Canal? Surely it was proper and appropriate for them to borrow the capital required for this task from Britain, fo r the burden of the debt w ould be sm all com pared w ith the benefits in prospect? Surely Canadians had a right to expect th at Britain, the m other o f colonies, w ould guarantee them rem unerative m arkets for their produce, even if this did entail some trifling burden on the British consum er? A nd surely, if this support failed them , there was little Canadians could do b ut tu rn to the republic to the south, perhaps for the lim ited goal of reciprocal free trade, perhaps for the larger objective of union? W hat elem ent of choice was there in all this? W hat else could have been done? I t is the great m erit of T u ck er’s book th at it enables the

I N T R O D U C T I O N - xiii

read er to see th e problem s o f th at tim e as the participants themselves saw them. But he pays a price fo r this achievem ent, and this price is the fatal facility with which the reader falls into the trap o f assuming th at events had to happen in the way they did, th at there were no real alternatives, no real choices to be m ade. But if the study o f history has any practical utility, it lies in m aking us aw are of options of which the participants in the dram a of history were not aw are. T he contem porary reader o f T u ck er’s book, and particularly the contem porary C anadian student, should scrutinize with suspicion the assum ptions that seem ed self-evident to Canadians of the m id-nineteenth century, and this for two reasons. F irst, because it was these implicit, taken-for-granted assum ptions, quite as m uch as any assertions of public or private debate, th at determ ined the shape of the C anada to come. A nd second, because not a few of the p ro b ­ lems of contem porary C anada bear a fam ily resem blance to the problem s encountered m ore than a century ago. L et us be specific. It is not self-evident th at Canadians w ould have been w orse off if they had postponed the construc­ tion o f the St. Law rence and W elland canals for several decades —perhaps even into the tw entieth century. It is not self-evident (though the question takes us beyond T u ck er’s period) that, once the canals w ere built, C anadians w ere well advised to plunge directly into a policy o f subsidized railroad-building. It is not self-evident th at the advocates o f annexation were wrong in claim ing th at union w ith the U nited States was economically desirable. It is not self-evident th a t reciprocity and confedera­ tion were the only tw o alternatives left, once the British tariffs and navigation laws had been dism em bered. Finally, if we take the long view, it is not self-evident th at the statesm en of G reat Britain followed the best course in dism antling as quickly as they did the structure o f im perial econom ic unity. Some of these propositions m ay well be true. If they are, it requires proof. N one o f them is intuitively obvious. Canadians have inherited from their own past certain econom ic traditions w hich are venerated largely because they are seldom explicitly questioned. A m ong these are the protec­ tive tariff, the indispensability of all-Canadian transportation routes, and the key role of staple exports in m aintaining pros­ perity. A nother, w hich it is still alm ost heretical to question, is the belief that C anada can retain some m easure o f political independence only by resisting tendencies tow ard econom ic integration w ith the U nited States. N o t least am ong those

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responsible for the perpetuation of these pieces of traditional w isdom have been C anadian historians. C ritical reappraisal is long overdue. It would be idle to pretend th at such a critical revision has been undertaken in the years since T ucker wrote. In fact, it is now barely beginning. T he advances th at have been m ade since 1936, the date of the original publication o f this book, have involved no radical reinterpretations. R ather they have involved the filling-in o f detail and the elaboration of them es th at were already well understood in the 1930’s. W e now know rath er m ore of the facts o f C anadian history than T ucker did; but the m eaning we see in these facts w ould not have seemed strange o r novel to him. This generalization the reader can and should check for himself. A t the end o f this volume is a list o f sugges­ tions for further reading, com posed m ostly of works published since the appearance of T u ck er’s book. M any o f these are of very high quality; few of them , how ever, represent significant departures from the interpretations he suggested. In general, therefore, T u ck er’s w ork has not been sup­ planted. In certain m atters o f detail, however, the progress of research has called his findings into question. He was probably in error, for exam ple, in considering M ontreal’s struggle for the trade of the hinterland solely in the context o f the com petition between M ontreal and N ew Y ork. From the C anadian point of view this was undoubtedly the m ost im m ediately apparent aspect o f the com petitive struggle, but the fact of the m atter was that this was a com m ercial rivalry in which all the cities of the eastern seaboard were engaged. T he Mississippi River route, with its seaport of New O rleans, was also a serious contender. Similarly, although T ucker’s analysis of the com m ercial advan­ tages of the N ew Y ork route is extrem ely valuable, particularly because it warns us against attributing overw helm ing im por­ tance to inland freight costs, he underestim ated the significance o f the credit system based on N ew Y ork which bound inland m erchants and grain dealers to the Erie C anal-H udson River ro u te despite the occasionally low er direct costs of shipping via M ontreal. These routes, furtherm ore, w ere not merely means of shipping western produce to an ocean port, which is the aspect T ucker stressed; they were also m eans o f shipping im ­ ported goods —and im m igrants —inland. N ew Y ork was a much larger im porting centre than M ontreal and received a much greater volum e of im m igration. Its com petitive superiority was based partly on the econom ies of scale which stem m ed from

I N T R O D U C T I O N - xv

th e larger absolute volume o f business it handled. It m ay be surm ised, too, that the greater capital resources available to N ew Y ork businessmen reinforced the advantages of their inland transport route and enabled them to build a stronger and more aggressive credit and m erchandising system in the interior. N ew Y ork businessmen, after all, reaped m ost of the profits of the cotton trade and, with Boston, of the A siatic tea trade also. M ontreal had no staple trades other than the w heat, flour, potash, and tim ber o f its own hinterland, and this hinterland, particularly west of N iagara, was continually subject to en­ croachm ents from N ew Y ork. These are m atters o f detail a t which it would be unfair to cavil. Some o f the lim itations o f T ucker’s w ork are lim itations o f the research data available to him. By anti large, the book was w ritten from the Colonial Office records, supplem ented by colonial newspapers and a few secondary works. N o collections o f business papers were used except the Baring papers and the papers of W. H. M erritt. In a w ork in which business interests and business strategies play a m ajor role, this is unfortunate, but the explanation is sim ple: very few collections of C anadian business records are available to historians and very few biogra­ phies o f C anadian businessmen have been w ritten.1 If this was a lim itation w hen T ucker w rote, it rem ains so today. O ne could wish that one-tenth of the energies that have been lavished on the arcane details o f the C anadian fur trade had been diverted to other sectors of the econom y. W here, for example, is our history o f trade and shipping on the G re at Lakes? W here are o u r studies o f nineteenth-century C anadian governm ent fi­ nance?5 T he history o f the C anadian canal system is still to be w ritten; the beginnings o f secondary m anufacturing in C anada are shrouded in obscurity; ou r ideas of the nineteenth-century C anadian business cycle rem ain vague and impressionistic; and o u r statistics of price and output m ovem ents are spotty and unreliable. C anadian econom ic historians have won a high reputation in E urope and N orth America;'* not least rem arkable am ong their achievem ents has been the erection of an imposing edifice o f generalizations on decidedly inadequate foundations. T h e best introduction, it has been said, is the shortest, and certainly there is no need to extend these com m ents fu rth er by justifying at length the reprinting o f T ucker’s w ork in the C arleton L ibrary series. Like all works of serious scholarship, it both dem ands and repays critical reading. But, afte r all has been said that needs to be said by way of critical appraisal, it

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rem ains a fine piece o f work. It has been out of print for several years; scholars and students, particularly of the younger genera­ tion, have been dependent on library copies, and these are now growing scarce and dilapidated. R epublication at this tim e is certainly appropriate. If this Introduction has helped the reader to think of the book, not as a com pendium o f eternal verities, b ut as the w ork of a particular m an w riting at a particular time, it will have served its purpose. C hapter 1 of the original edition, presenting a descriptive survey of U pper and Low er C anada in the 1830‘s and 1840’s, has been om itted. T he m aterial covered by this survey is avail­ able in other sources, and its inclusion in the present reprint did not therefore seem to justify the extra pages w hich it would have added to the book. T he rem aining chapters have been renum bered accordingly. Also om itted are the Bibliographical N ote and four Appendices, containing the address of the provincial legislative council and assembly asking for repeal o f the N avigation Laws; the A nnexation M anifesto; a table of population; and a table of tonnage and tolls on the E rie, St. Law rence, and W elland canals. H U G H G . J . A IT K E N

U niversity o f California, Riverside Septem ber 1964

REFERENCES

1. Melville H. Watkins, “A Staple Theory of Economic Grow th,” C anadian Jo urnal o f E co n o m ics a n d P olitical Science, XXIX (May 1963), pp. 141-58. 2. W. A. Mackintosh, “Fundam ental Factors in Canadian Economic History,” Canadian H istorical R eview , IV (M arch 1923), pp. 1225. See also W. A. M ackintosh, T h e E co n o m ic B a ckg ro u n d o f D om inion-P rovincial R elations, in the Carleton Library, no. 13, with an excellent introduction by John H. Dales. 3. Kenneth Buckley, “The Role o f Staple Industries in Canada’s Economic Development,” Journal o f E co n o m ic H istory, XV III (December 1958), pp. 439-50. 4. Among the best are M. Denison, T h e Barley a n d the Stream : T he M o lso n S to ry (Toronto, 1955) and D. D. Calvin, Saga o f the St. L aw rence (Toronto, 1945). 5. See, however, J. H. Perry, Taxes, Tariffs a n d Subsidies (Toronto, 2 vols., 1955). 6. C f. Charles R. Fay, “The T oronto School o f Economic History,” E co n o m ic H isto ry (supplement to T h e E co n o m ic Journal), III (January 1934), pp. 168-71; for the more recent period, see W. T. Easterbrook, “Recent Contributions to Economic History: C ana­ da,” Jo u rn a l o f E co n o m ic H istory, XX IX (M arch 1959), pp. 76-102.

Preface to the Original Edition T his is a study in the field of British colonial history. T he period from 1845 to 1851 is an interesting and critical one, both in the history o f the British Em pire and in th at of C anada as a colony within it. It was during those years that the distinc­ tive political and econom ic design o f the self-governing p art of th at em pire was stam ped upon it. In m any ways the Province of C anada during those years was the m ost notable of the colonies of settlem ent, and much careful study has been devoted to the political events which occurred there. N o less im portant, how­ ever, though perhaps less visible and certainly not equally well know n, are the econom ic conditions and problem s of the time. T h e present w ork, which in an earlier form was accepted as a doctoral dissertation by the U niversity of Cam bridge, is an attem pt to exam ine this econom ic background. T he chapter on the fam ine m igration, in an earlier form , has appeared in the A m erican Historical Review . Sincerely and very gratefully I thank each one of the host o f kind friends who have helped me in season and out o f season, enduring boredom unspeakable for friendship’s sake. I regret that space forbids me to m ention them all by nam e; but a very few I m ust so mention. I owe especially abundant thanks to P rofessor H. W. V. Tem perley, for his interest and invaluable advice. T o Professors A. P. N ew ton and Lillian Penson I am also exceedingly grateful for their generous assistance. I m ust acknowledge the great kindness o f the late D octors Adam Shortt and A. G. Doughty. Last but not least I thank my col­ league P rofessor Leonard W. Labaree, the editor of this series, lo r expert help unstintingly given. G. N . T .

B ranford College, Yale University, January 1936.

1: The Improvement of the Waterways Et m aintenant en la presente navigation, faicte par vostre roial commandement, en la descouverture des terres occidantalles, estantes soubz les clymatz et paralelles dc vos pays et roiaulme, non auparavant ii vous ny a nous congneues, pourrez veoirs et savoir la bonte et fcrtillite d’icelle, la innumerable cantite des peuples y habitans, la bonte et paisiblete d ’iceulx, et pareillement la fecondite du grant fleuve qui decourt et arouse le parmy d’icelles voz terres, qui est le plus grant sans conparaison, que on saiche jamais avoir veu. JACQUES CARTIER.

T h e St. Law rence River, which C artier not unnaturally described to his sovereign with great enthusiasm , is indeed a “grant fleuve” —vast in volume, although exceeded in length by m any o f the w orld’s very large rivers. It drains about 415,000 square miles above Q uebec.1 T he banks are steep, and the bed often takes the form of parallel grooves, resulting in long, narrow sandbanks or islands o f which A nticosti is the largest. T hese grooves provide excellent channels for navigation, and another F rench pioneer described it as: “ le Fleuve le plus naviguable de l’U nivers.” T he average discharge over a sixtyyear period has been 247,000 cubic feet per second. T he flow is unusually uniform , the ratio o f m axim um to m inim um dis­ charges being less than two to one. A rep o rt on the flow o f the river states th at: “T he discharge of the St. Law rence, even w ithout any artificial regulation, is so steady, and the fluctu­ ations in level day in and day out are so slight, that so far as the flow in the open-w ater m onths are [sic] concerned, the con­ ditions for constructing o r operating a pow er plant o r naviga­ tion canal are unequalled, and may be fairly characterized as alm ost ideal.”2 It is the com m on lot o f im m ature colonies to suffer m ore o r less from lack of adequate transportation facilities. The settlem ents in the St. Law rence Valley and north of the G reat Lakes were rem ote from the sea; yet they lay in the depression w orn down during the ages by the great river, and this afforded them a rare and valuable advantage - the means of com m unica­ tion with each other and with the sea. It is only a slight exag­ geration to say that w hat the N ile has been to Egypt and the Sudan, th at the St. Law rence system was to the C anadas. It enabled the settler to reach his destination. It then afforded him

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facilities for exporting and im porting goods, a way by w hich to reach his neighbours, and protection in tim e of w ar. T he whole history of C anada from the tim e o f C artier until the building of the railways was based on and conditioned by the St. Law rence and its tributary w aterw ays.3 Y et the St. Law rence was not an entirely perfect m eans of com m unicating with the ocean. Before the conquest the F rench colonists w ere faced w ith the fact that they had rivals whose contact w ith the sea, being m ore direct, was superior to their own. In 1750 their G overnor the M arquis de la G allissoniere w rote that: Q uoique ces colonies puissent fournir a VEurope et aux Isles de VAm erique, les inem es m archandises que la nouvelle angleterre, il ne fa u t pas se flatter qu’ils puissent jamais le faire a aussi bon marche, surtout celles d ’un grand encom brem ent, qui fo n t d ’ordinaire le principal et le plus sure objet du com m erce, diffe­ rence qui vient de la difficulte de la navigation des deux fleuves, de la longeur des traversees, et de ce qu'on ne peut aller en Canada, qu’en une certaine saison de Vannee, ce qui en rendant la navigation plus longue, plus dispendieuse, plus difficile, et exposee a plus de danger, rehausse en m em e tem s le prix des assurances This is no m ere statem ent of a tem porary condition: on the contrary, a great p a rt of the perennial C anadian w aterw ay problem is here set forth. T he shipping facilities o f the St. L aw rence ports, relative to those o f the harbours on the no rth ­ eastern seaboard of the U nited States, w ere to rem ain a constant and im portant factor in the econom ic history o f the settlements th at lay beside the great river. N o r was this all, for another serious difficulty rem ained to be faced. O n O ctober 3, 1535, as C artier and his com panions stood on M ount Royal on the Island o f M ontreal, they saw “ ung sault d’eaue, le plus im petueulx qu’il soit possible de veoir, lequel ne nous fu t possible de passer.” Indeed there w ere rapids im possible fo r any type of cra ft to ascend, at intervals all the way between M ontreal and L ake O ntario, and as in course of tim e the canoe gave place to the bateau and the latter to the ship as the principal m eans of transportation, the problem created by these rapids becam e a very serious one. T he engineer’s answer to a rapid is a canal. T he process of circum venting the St. Law rence rapids by m eans of canals was first begun in a sm all way about the year 1779, and by 1800

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there were locks a t C oteau du Lac, Split R ock, Mill R apid, and the Cascades. T he locks w ere small, and being only a partial success soon fell into disrepair.5 A t the turn of the century the question attracted the atten­ tion o f Sir A lexander M ackenzie. In a m em orandum dated D ecem ber 1801, the great explorer unburdened him self on the subject. T he m em orandum is entitled: “C oncerning a Canal projected by the A m erican States from A lbany to Lake O ntario, and a C anal between Lake O ntario and M ontreal, by w hich the fo rm er would be rendered fruitless.”0 H e w rote: T he People o f the State o f N e w Y o rk have long had, and still have in contem plation, to open a Canal com m unication fro m the N o rth R iver at A lbany to Shinactady [sic] along the M ohaw ke river, and thence to W ood creek and W aters em ptying into L a ke Ontario; in order to m ake A lbany what M ontreal is intended by N ature to be, the E m porium o f all the Trade and C om m erce o f the im m ense Territory and im proving C ountry, round the great L akes o f Canada, so as to counteract by art the very great and m any advantages which the latter has over the fo rm er by m eans o f the Navigation o f the St. Lawrence. . . . H e expressed a desire to deter English capitalists from helping to finance the A m erican canal, and enlarged upon the natural advantages o f the St. Law rence. H e considered th at the New Y o rk route would have the single advantage of two m onths m ore o f open season in the year. M ackenzie also suggested ways and means o f improving the St. Law rence by constructing canals, and added: T h u s w ould the N atural advantages w hich the Canadas are possessed o f . . . be em ployed not only in their own C om m erce but in that o f all the citizens o f the A m erican States bordering on and Inhabiting the V icinity o f the R ivers com m unicating with or falling into the L a k e s .. . . It has already been stated th at the St. Law rence river sys­ tem w as capable o f affording to the inhabitants o f the colony, not only valuable econom ic advantages, but a considerable degree o f m ilitary security also. In the Indian wars of the seven­ teenth century the river had often enabled the colonists to escape from their relentless enemies, o r to concentrate and m ove against them . In the m iddle of the eighteenth century, English control of the river had led to the conquest o f New F rance. A fter 1762 C anada was to be the colony o f the country

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which wielded the trident and could at all times bring decisive fo rce to bear at any point to w hich w arships could com e un­ obstructed from the ocean. W ith a w aterw ay navigable fo r sm all w ar and supply vessels up to the G reat Lakes, C anada would be com paratively easy to protect. O therw ise the task was a very difficult one. D uring the W ar of 1812 the lesson was driven home. T he lake fleets depended very largely on the resources of the lake ports, and the A m ericans won th at p art of the war. A t th at tim e also the im portance o f superiority on the lakes as a prerequisite to a successful land w ar was enunciated by no less an authority than the D uke of W ellington. “I be­ lieve,” he w rote, “ th at the defence of C anada, and th e co­ operation of the Indians, depends upon the navigation of the lakes. . . . A ny offensive operation founded upon C anada m ust be preceded by the establishm ent o f a naval superiority on the lakes.”7 N or, needless to say, w ere the m ilitary authorities re ­ sponsible for the defence of the colony unaw are of the problem . T ow ard the end o f the w ar the Com m issary G eneral addressed the following w arning to the G overnor and Com m ander-inChief, Sir G eorge Prevost. T he difficulties experienced in the transport o f Stores and Provi­ sions during the last Season fo r the construction, arm am ent, and equipm ent o f H is M ajesty’s Ships on L ake Ontario, and fo r the Supply o f the Troops in Upper Canada im periously dem and that m eans be p rom ptly devised fo r a m ore certain conveyance o f the innum erable A rticles necessary fo r m ain­ taining in that Province the great, and increasing, N aval and M ilitary Force requisite fo r its defence. H e added that “the practicability of m aking a Canal between M ontreal and La C hine should be im m ediately ascertained.”8 T h e construction o f canals along the St. Law rence itself betw een M ontreal and Lake O ntario was the m ost obvious solution o f the problem ; but the line of the St. Law rence was practically incapable o f defence in time of w ar. It seemed fea­ sible however to construct a m uch less vulnerable w aterw ay between the sam e two points by way of the O ttaw a and Rideau Rivers, and the m ilitary authorities now began to consider this alternative scheme. T he O ttaw a-R ideau route was being exam ­ ined as early as 1815; but the difficulties connected with it were thought at first to be alm ost insuperable, and fo r a num ber of years nothing fu rth er was done. M eanw hile the A m ericans were n ot idle, and in the year 1825 the Erie C anal was com pleted,

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running from Buffalo to A lbany on the H udson, and designed to provide w ater com m unication between Lake E rie and the city of N ew York. T he governm ent of U pper C anada in the year 1824 caused an estim ate to be m ade o f the cost of constructing a canal on the Rideau. Two years later the hom e governm ent, seeing the necessity of such a canal in the event of w ar w ith the U nited States, sent L ieutenant-Colonel John By, R .E., to the colony. In the sam e year, 1826, Colonel By m ade a survey and reported to his superior officer.0 He stated that steam boat navigation from the St. Law rence to the lakes would deprive the A m ericans of the m eans of attacking C anada, and w ould give G reat Britain control o f the trade o f the whole G reat Lakes area, even in spite of the expensive A m erican canals. H e feared that the •existing plans for the im provem ent of the C anadian waterways visualized canals which would prove to be too small. Both for com m ercial and m ilitary purposes he thought that these ought to be capable of accom m odating good-sized steam boats - ves­ sels from a hundred and ten to a hundred and thirty feet long with a forty- o r fifty-foot beam , draw ing eight feet o f w ater when loaded, and capable of being arm ed should the need arise. M ore specifically and very strongly he urged that the W elland, Rideau, and G renville canals be constructed on the necessary scale. This, with one o r two m inor im provem ents would be “ the means o f making the River St. Law rence the great out-let for all the produce o f th at vast tract of land connected w ith the Lakes” ; and this notw ithstanding strong efforts on the p art of the A m ericans to draw it their way by constructing various canals. T he St. Law rence was to be im proved on the north side o f the Island o f M ontreal, and Colonel By thought that T hree Rivers, “ being the finest roadstay in the St. Law rence,” would eventually becom e the general rendezvous for shipping. H e was confident that canal tolls would not only defray interest charges, b ut w ould in a few years repay the capital investments also. H is estim ate of the cost w as: W elland Canal, £.400,000 ster­ ling; Rideau, £ 4 0 0 ,0 0 0 ; G renville, £ 1 0 0 ,0 0 0 ; im provem ent of navigation north of the Island of M ontreal, £ 150,000. T he im perial governm ent decided to undertake the construction of the O ttaw a and Rideau canals. Colonel By was put in charge of the latter, and the w ork was expected to occupy about four years. T he task proved to be a form idable one, and the actual cost o f construction greatly exceeded the estimates. Colonel By de­

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cided to run his canal into the O ttaw a just below the Chaudiere Falls, and Bytown cam e into existence as a construction camp. Those who owned land along the proposed route thought that the m illennium had com e at last, and Colonel By had many problem s other than engineering ones to deal with. Litigation in connection w ith land for the canal right-of-way was still going on long after the w ork had been com pleted. T he difficulties were overcom e however, and the canal was built both rapidly and well, at a cost of som ething over £ 8 0 0 ,0 0 0 . Its dimensions w ere rath er less than those w hich By had recom m ended. It provided about a hundred and fifty miles of navigable w ater between Bytown and K ingston. T h e Carillon, C hute a Blondeau, and G renville canals on the O ttaw a w ere also constructed; but less rapidly and well th an in the case of the Rideau. D ue to a change in policy after its com pletion, the G renville Canal was shallow er than the others, and the sm allest lock in a system of canals is like the w eakest link in a chain. T he Royal Engineers built the OttawaRideau canals, and the hom e governm ent paid for them. They w ere a great asset to the two colonies from the m ilitary point of view, and were com m ercially advantageous also. T hey might possibly have been able to handle the grain export trade of the G reat Lakes area had there been no E rie C anal; but with the latter they could not com pete. A good contem porary descrip­ tion of these canals, w ritten by an engineer officer o f high rank resident in the colony, is to be found in Bonnycastle’s The Canadas in 1841.10 In the m eantim e, fu rth er to the west, a w ork of great im­ p o rtan ce had been undertaken. From the head of the St. Law­ rence w here it flows from L ake O ntario, ships could sail along th at lake and through to Lakes E rie, H uro n , and Michigan, unobstructed save by the fam ous obstacle in the N iagara River. T h e W elland, perhaps the m ost im portant of all the Canadian canals, joined L ake O ntario to Lake E rie by cutting through the N iagara Peninsula. It was an essential p art of any com pre­ hensive plan for a C anadian w aterw ay to the sea, for it extended uninterrupted navigation on the St. Law rence and G reat Lakes system several hundred miles fu rth er tow ard the west. The position of the W elland was a com m anding one, as this canal form ed an integral p art of each of the three canal systems dealt w ith in this chapter - the O ttaw a-R ideau and the St. Law rence systems, and the Erie. Unlike the R ideau, the W elland C anal was originally a

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private venture. A few enterprising people in U pper C anada early foresaw how im portant the Erie C anal m ight prove to be. By and by, from the tip o f the N iagara Peninsula, the sound of the w orkers on the Erie could alm ost be heard, and ideas are no respecters o f international frontiers. As in the case o f the Rideau, the W elland C anal is associated to a considerable extent w ith the nam e of one m an. T he Colonel By of the W elland was W illiam H am ilton M erritt, and no adequate account o f C anada, political and econom ic, in the m iddle o f the last century could be w ritten w ithout m entioning his nam e in m ore than one con­ nection. M erritt cam e of U nited E m pire Loyalist stock, and was born in N ew Y ork State in the year 1793.11 W hen he was three years old his parents m oved to U pper C anada, and settled in the N iagara district. A t the age of fifteen he w ent down the river to M ontreal and Quebec, proceeding thence to H alifax and the W est Indies. H e served w ith som e distinction during the W ar of 1812, and before it was over again visited M ontreal. A fter the w ar he w ent into business. A ccording to his biogra­ pher, “ M r. M e r r itt. . . said th at riding along the N iagara River from Chippew a to the ferry, first suggested the idea o f a canal to his m ind.” In 1818 he began running surveys with a view to obtaining w ater for his m ill from the Chippew a or W elland River, and he soon began to take the lead am ong the local inhabitants in urging upon the provincial governm ent the need for a canal. In 1823 attem pts w ere m ade to interest local men and capital in the project, and in January of the following year a com pany was incorporated to build the canal. T w o great difficulties presented themselves from the start. T h e first was the choice of a route. As in the case o f the Rideau, the local inhabitants evinced m ore selfishness than public spirit o r enlightened self-interest. N early everyone seems to have insisted upon a route w hich would enhance the value o f his own p articular property or business.12 T he other problem was th at of securing capital - there was never quite enough - there seldom is. M oney was scarce in the provinces; nevertheless a certain am ount of stock was subscribed for locally. A num ber o f private individuals in E ngland took shares, am ong them the D uke of W ellington, and Huskisson. T he form er contributed