Grain, Warfare, and the Persistence of the British Atlantic Economy, 1765-1815
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The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fogler Library Summer 8-23-2019 Feeding the Empire: Grain, Warfare, and the Persistence of the British Atlantic Economy, 1765-1815 Patrick Callaway University of Maine, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd Recommended Citation Callaway, Patrick, "Feeding the Empire: Grain, Warfare, and the Persistence of the British Atlantic Economy, 1765-1815" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3092. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/3092 This Open-Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FEEDING THE EMPIRE: GRAIN, WARFARE, AND THE PERSISTENCE OF THE BRITISH ATLANTIC ECONOMY, 1765-1815 By Patrick Callaway B.A. University of Montana-Western, 2004 B.S. University of Montana-Western, 2005 M.A. Montana State University, 2008 A DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in History) The Graduate School The University of Maine August 2019 Advisory Committee: Liam Riordan, Professor of History, Advisor Jacques Ferland, Associate Professor of History Stephen Hornsby, Professor of Geography and Canadian Studies Stephen Miller, Professor of History Scott See, Professor of History Copyright 2019, Patrick Callaway All Rights Reserved ii FEEDING THE EMPIRE: GRAIN, WARFARE, AND THE PERSISTANCE OF THE BRITISH ATALNTIC ECONOMY, 1765-1815 By Patrick Callaway Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Liam Riordan An Abstract of the Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History August 2019 The importance of staple agriculture in the development of the modern world can hardly be overstated. The connotations surrounding the word “bread” and the phrase “staff of life” bear witness to the close association between the availability of grain and the overall well-being of western societies. It is not a coincidence that bread is both an important religious symbol and a causal force in the maintenance or collapse of entire societies. This dissertation aspires to provide a clearer understanding of the leading place of overseas trade in the American economy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by showing how European war restored colonial trade relationships and reintegrated the US into trans-Atlantic and international economic exchanges led by grain exports. By challenging the assumption that the rupture of the American Revolution led naturally to economic separation, this project argues that material forces and long-standing cultural ties were more powerful than politics in shaping the contours of the British Atlantic world in the nineteenth century. Assessing the political economy of the grain trade deepens our understanding of the late colonial and early republican US. Grain was also vital to the British Atlantic and British North American economy of this era. The inherent difficulties of overcoming national, imperial, and war-divided historiographies conceals grain from our easy gaze. Mistaken ideas of periodization and politically inspired limitations to historical assessments ultimately hide connections that were fundamental at the time. The availability of surplus grain, particularly from the mid-Atlantic colonies in what would become the United States, were essential to the viability of societies around the British Atlantic. Simply stated, without food society ceases to function. Ideology falls to the wayside, plantations cease production, populations collapse, and long-distance warfare becomes impossible. Examining the availability of food products, the laws enabling or limiting trade, and the extraordinary (and sometimes illegal) steps taken to ensure that the staff of life was available to fuel social development was crucial to the rise of Anglo-American power in a tumultuous Age of Atlantic Revolutions whose political drama should not completely eclipse its economic foundations. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A project of this size and length creates a number of debts for the author. First, I would like to thank my committee members for their work over the past several years. In particular, I would like to thank my adviser Dr. Liam Riordan. Without his keen insight this project would not have been possible. I would also like to thank a number of supporters over the past several years. Particular thanks is owed to the Canadian American Centre at the University of Maine, the University of Maine History Department, the Program in Early American Economy and Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the David Library of the American Revolution, the Institute for Humane Studies, and the Graduate School of the University of Maine for supporting this research. I would also like to thank Fulbright Canada, and the History Department at Dalhousie University for their support in completing this project. In particular, I wish to thank Dr. Jerry Bannister for hosting me during my Fulbright award. I also thank the Provincial Archives of Nova Scotia, the Library and Archives of Canada, the Library Company of Philadelphia, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the David Library of the American Revolution. Without the help of dedicated archivists, this project would not be possible. At a personal level I also owe many debts from the past several years of this degree. Special thanks to Brittany and Chris Goetting for the friendship and support over the years. Thank you also to my colleagues in the University of Maine history program during this long journey. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................1 2. THE GRAIN TRADE IN THE THIRTEEN COLONIES, 1768-1793: THE STAFF OF LIFE AND PERSISTANCE OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND ........................................................34 3. BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN AGRICULTURE, THE GRAIN TRADE, AND THE NEW EMPIRE TO 1794 ...............................................................................................................73 Nova Scotia, 1749-1768........................................................................................................73 New France and Quebec, 1749-1768 ....................................................................................77 Quebec and Nova Scotia: The CO 16 Records (1768-1772) ...............................................83 The War For American Independence and Economic Reformulation ..................................88 Upper and Lower Canadian Agriculture, 1783-1793 ...........................................................94 Nova Scotia Agriculture, 1783-1793 ....................................................................................98 4. THE OPPROTUNITIES AND COSTS OF NEUTRALITY, 1793-1809 ...........................109 5. BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, 1794-1809 ........................................................................149 The Canadas, 1794-1807 .................................................................................................149 Nova Scotia, 1794-1807....................................................................................................154 The Embargo, Enforcement, and Smuggling to the Canadas ...........................................157 Smuggling to the Maritime Provinces by Sea...................................................................163 iv 6. THE UNITED STATES AND THE PENINSULAR WAR................................................171 7. SMUGGLING, WAR, AND THE UNUSUAL (BUT FAMILIAR) SOLUTION TO HUNGER, 1809-1815…………………......................................................................................217 The War of 1812: Trade During the War Years ................................................................227 1812-13: Halifax and the Maritime Trade ........................................................................ 232 1812-13: The Canadas and Cross-border Trade ................................................................241 1813: Halifax and the Maritime Trade ...............................................................................250 1814: Halifax and the Maritime Trade ...............................................................................255 1814: The Canadas and Cross-Border Trade .....................................................................257 1814: Halifax and Maritime Trade (Part 2) .......................................................................262 1815: Peace, and a Return to Normalcy.............................................................................266 8. CONCLUSIONS.................................................................................................................269 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................274 BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR ..............................................................................................293