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'Rich by Nature, Poor by Policy': the Premature

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'Rich by Nature, Poor by Policy': the Premature ‘Rich by Nature, Poor by Policy’: The premature birth and quick death of commercial brewing in Canada, 1667-1675 Matthew J Bellamy Introduction Canadian landscape. The question that this article seeks to explore is: why? In March 1667, the energetic Intendant of the colony of New France, Jean Talon, There is an enduring debate in Canadian wrote to his superiors in Paris, France. historiography over the effects of State As Intendant of New France, Talon was in activism in the economic life of the control of the colony's entire civil admin- nation. For many, state intervention has istration and charged with stimulating been beneficial to development. Some the economic development of the belea- have even gone so far as to argue that guered colony. To that end, he proposed State activism defines the spirit of building the colony's first commercial Canadian capitalism and ultimately has brewery. ‘The conditions here are ideal,’ shaped the Canadian identity.1 ‘[W]e Jean Talon optimistically wrote, ‘for the have experimented in another method of production of the weaker drink.’ By the providing public services,’ the historian ‘weaker drink,’ Talon meant beer. And Frank Underhill stated in 1929, ‘than that under his mercantilist watch, commercial of trusting to the private capitalist in brewing was induced into existence. search of profit’.2 A similar sentiment was echoed approximately fifty years Every advantage was given to this first later. ‘The Canadian dialectic never child of Canadian commercial brewing. allowed for the dynamic of free enter- Fully state-owned and controlled, the prise culture,’ the public thinker Herschel Brasserie du Roy operated in a protected Hardin trumpeted, ‘to take hold at the environment devoid of competition and centre of the country's life’.3 Without the with unlimited access to raw materials, state's activist impulse, the nation's capital and markets. Yet in less than a canals, railroads and airlines would not decade commercial brewing came, and have come into existence; the Canadian then just as quickly vanished from the West would not have been settled; man- ufacturing would not have emerged as early as it did; and certain industries would not have existed at all. Instead, * This article has undergone peer review. Canada would have remained an eco- Brewery History Number 137 19 nomic hinterland on the periphery of the ‘Rich By Nature’: A land of barley, Empire; a nation exploited, dependent hops and fresh water and underdeveloped. Indeed, according to the most nationalistic of this school of With perfect prose and penmanship, thought, Canada might not exist today as Jean Baptiste Colbert, the French a sovereign transcontinental geo-politi- Minister of Marine and the foremost cal entity if it wasn't for state activism mercantilist of his era, responded to many decades ago.4 Talon's letter of April 1667. While this perspective is contentious, I share in your confidence that all the few deny the claim that government necessary ingredients for making that drink has played a more active role in shaping are to be found abundantly in the area and the economy in Canada than it has that soon the colonists will find their elsewhere, specifically in the United commodity to be beer…5 States. Fewer still dispute the fact that Canada is a nation ‘rich by nature.’ On a Colbert's statement demonstrated the per capita basis, Canada has more natu- emerging faith in Canada as a territory ral resource wealth than almost any which was ‘rich by nature’. other nation on the face of the globe. What is debated, however, is the effect While it was the quest for an elusive of government intervention on the eco- North-West passage to the Orient that nomic life of the nation. Opinion vocifer- first brought European adventurers to ously differs as to the consequence of Canada's shores in the 16th century, it was the economic acts of past Canadian the abundance of natural resources that governments; since the Second World kept them coming back. When the French War Canada's public policy has yawed explorer Samuel de Champlain entered from dirigisme to neo-conservatism on the mouth of the St. Lawrence in 1603, he the issue of the state's place in the econ- was initially optimistic that he had found a omy. route to the Far East. But the rapids at Lachine quickly dashed his hopes. Awe- What follows enters into this ongoing struck by the natural beauty of the area debate by looking at the state's role in and the potential fortune to be made from the birth of commercial brewing in the exploitation of natural resources, he Canada during the Ancien Regime. The returned in 1608 to found Quebec City. Over paper argues that Jean Talon's rigid the next 150 years, the French battled it adherence to the monopolistic dictates of out with their European rivals for control of mercantilism produced a stillborn child, the vast natural wealth of North America. one insensitive to local tastes and lack- ing any intuition of the working of a diver- At the same time, the English were mak- sified, sui generis economy. ing their presence felt on the continent. 20 Journal of the Brewery History Society Without the access to New World gold of The single biggest ingredient in beer is many of their European competitors, they water, it comprises more than 90% of the exploited the natural wealth of North brew. Canada has an abundance of fresh America and traded their way to riches. water. Indeed, the expansive northern From the northern half of the continent, nation is near the top of water-rich they extracted fish, furs, timber, and countries, trailing only Brazil, Russia and wheat. China. Estimates of Canada's supply of fresh water vary from 5.5% to 20% of the Looking back on this formative period, world's total.8 historians have generally emphasized the role played by natural resources in Thus, Canada has a great deal of water the early development of Canada. The and it has facilitated the economic devel- giant of the second generation of profes- opment of the nation. The arrangement of sional economists in Canada, Harold streams and rivers flowing into Hudson Adam Innis (1894-1952), formulated a Bay and into the Mackenzie and St. ‘staple thesis’ to explain Canadian growth Lawrence Rivers, for instance, permitted and economic integration. The pattern and canoes to travel west and north across pace of early Canadian development, the length and breadth of the land that Innis and his many disciples maintained, became Canada. ‘It is no mere accident,’ was determined by the pursuit of primary Innis stated, ‘that the present Dominion products - fish, fur, timber and wheat - coincides roughly with the fur-trading and their export to foreign markets.6 areas of northern North America’.9 A According to Innis, growth and develop- few years after Innis's pronouncement, ment was best explained by the the eminent Canadian historian Donald dynamics of the staple trades. Even Creighton echoed the sentiment. those historians who have recently Speaking specifically of the river system become skeptical of the universality of that flowed below Talon's proposed brew- Innis's conclusions do not deny the basic ery at Quebec City, Creighton stated fact that Canada has been ‘rich by that the St. Lawrence ‘was a force in nature’.7 The more perplexing question is history, not merely because of its whether public policy has made the accomplishments, but because of its nation poorer than nature had intended. shining, ever-receding possibilities’.10 Certainly at the time of Talon's letter in Some of these same waters would go 1667 there was good reason to believe into making the first beers of the nation. that the region had the natural gifts nec- Later, other brewers would find their essary to produce beer. Four key natural wellspring for success in the numerous ingredients were needed to manufacture aquifers of the region (i.e. the under- the product: water, barley, hops and ground formations of permeable rock or yeast. loose material which can produce useful Brewery History Number 137 21 quantities of water when tapped by a and the Renaissance is that of beer well). Thus Canada was blessed when it replacing ale, by which the former was came to the first essential ingredient in reinforced, made more durable, and beer. But the blessings did not end there. given a deeper flavour by the introduc- When Talon sent his scouts out to scour tion of hops. This transition, while having the colony for the key components nec- roots dating back to Carolingian Europe, essary for making the ‘weaker drink’, he took place during the 14th century.12 emphasized the need to have good grain. Previously, the vast majority of brewers Grain was to beer what grapes were to had made use of a variety of bitter herbs wine. Without grain, the production of and flowers (e.g. dandelion, heather, beer was impossible. Yeast fermented marigold and burdock root) to offset the the sugars from grain to create alcohol. sweet taste of the fermented grains. But Thus if Talon was to brew beer, he had to hops proved superior to these other have grain. additives because of their preservative powers. Hops contained resins that The most popular grain used in beer helped prevent contamination of the production was and is barley. Barley is a beer by bacteria and thus helped beer basic cereal grain that is not particularly last longer and travel better. Not all good for milling into flour for making exported beer was necessarily made bread or bakery goods.
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