Newfoundland in International Context 1758 – 1895 An Economic History Reader Collected, Transcribed and Annotated by Christopher Willmore Victoria, British Columbia April 2020 Table of Contents WAYS OF LIFE AND WORK .................................................................................................................. 4 Fog and Foundering (1754) ............................................................................................................................ 4 Hostile Waters (1761) .................................................................................................................................... 4 Imports of Salt (1819) .................................................................................................................................... 5 The Great Fire of St. John’s (1846) ................................................................................................................. 5 Visiting Newfoundland’s Fisheries in 1849 (1849) .......................................................................................... 9 The Newfoundland Seal Hunt (1871) ........................................................................................................... 15 The Inuit Seal Hunt (1889) ........................................................................................................................... 19 The Truck, or Credit, System (1871) ............................................................................................................. 20 The Preparation of Salt Cod (1871) .............................................................................................................. 21 The Norwegian Method (1892) .................................................................................................................... 23 Women at Work (1879) ............................................................................................................................... 24 More Details of the Truck System (1880) ..................................................................................................... 24 A Visit to St. John’s (1887) ........................................................................................................................... 26 An unusual Currency reform (1888) ............................................................................................................. 29 Cod and Lobster Hatcheries (1891) .............................................................................................................. 30 An Epidemic of Diphtheria (1889) ................................................................................................................ 32 The Ravages of Diptheria, 1888-1891 (1892) ................................................................................................ 33 The Great Fire of 1892 (1892) ...................................................................................................................... 34 Hungry and Dying (1893) ............................................................................................................................. 37 An Abandoned Newfoundland Whaler (1893) .............................................................................................. 38 “Without banks, without currency, without credit” (1895) ........................................................................... 42 Silver Linings (1895)..................................................................................................................................... 44 A Hopeless Country (1895) .......................................................................................................................... 45 The Diet of a Newfoundland Fisher (1899) ................................................................................................... 46 MIGRATION ...................................................................................................................................... 48 Pressing Irish Sailors (1777) ......................................................................................................................... 48 Irish Sailors and the Newfoundland Cod Fishery (1786) ................................................................................ 48 From Ireland to the United States, via Newfoundland (1817) ....................................................................... 49 Migrant Sailors, Settlement and Religious Conflict (1838) ............................................................................ 50 An Island of Women (1884) ......................................................................................................................... 51 From Newfoundland to the United States (1893) ......................................................................................... 53 THE END OF THE BEOTHUK WORLD .................................................................................................. 54 The Beothuk of Newfoundland (1888) ......................................................................................................... 54 “The interesting stranger” (1819) ................................................................................................................ 66 A British Sailor’s Impression of Demasduit (1819) ........................................................................................ 68 The death of Demasduit (1820) ................................................................................................................... 69 The Death of Shawnawdithit, last of the Beothuk (1829) .............................................................................. 70 In Search of the Beothuk (1829) .................................................................................................................. 70 CONFLICT WITH THE FRENCH ............................................................................................................ 76 The Early Cod Fishery (1791) ....................................................................................................................... 76 “Our most dangerous rivals” (1759) ............................................................................................................. 76 France and Newfoundland, after Napoleon (1814)....................................................................................... 77 The Evolution of the Cod Fishery to 1831 (1839) .......................................................................................... 78 A Brief Legal History of France’s Newfoundland Fisheries (1857) .................................................................. 78 A longer legal history of the French at Newfoundland (1890) ....................................................................... 79 The French Shore Question as of 1890, in verse (1890) ................................................................................ 83 “An illicit traffic” in Bait (1844) .................................................................................................................... 85 The Bait Act Disallowed (1887) .................................................................................................................... 86 2 Reaction to the Disallowance (1887) ............................................................................................................ 86 Enforcing the Bait Act (1888) ....................................................................................................................... 87 Details of the French Cod Subsidy (1890) ..................................................................................................... 89 “Bounty versus Bait” (1890)......................................................................................................................... 90 “The value of the Bait act” (1891) ................................................................................................................ 90 The end of the Bait act (1893) ..................................................................................................................... 91 CONFLICT WITH THE UNITED STATES ................................................................................................ 92 United States fishing rights in Newfoundland (1814) .................................................................................... 92 Competition and the Convention of 1818 (1819) ......................................................................................... 95 A Subsidy for Newfoundland Fish (1819)...................................................................................................... 98 The “Newfoundland Outrage” (1878) .......................................................................................................... 98 Another Account of the Attack (1878) ......................................................................................................... 99 American Ships and the Bait Act (1888) ..................................................................................................... 100 “A question of bait” (1890) ........................................................................................................................ 101 The Bait Act Weakened (1890) .................................................................................................................. 102 CONFLICT WITH CANADA...............................................................................................................