MICRO FICHE 2274. Held by CNS.
Keywords: Harbour Breton, Newfoundland, Fish trade.
Abstract
In this thesis I examine the conduct of the inshore fishery in Newfoundland during the second half of the nineteenth century. The main source of data is the business papers of a mercantile firm, Newman and Company, that operated on the south coast of Newfoundland during this period. As other contemporary merchants, Newmans did little fishing on their own account but advanced supplies to and received in payment the catches of independent fishermen - what I call (following contemporary usage) the supplying system, also known as the credit or truck system.
The supplying system has been misrepresented in previously published accounts owing to the neglect of the supplying merchants crucial productive role. The merchants have rather been seen as engaged in distributive activities and the supplying system has been depicted as a means to mercantile ends - binding labour and expropriating surplus; yet it has not been shown that the supplying systems could have had such effects, let alone that it did. In addition to their mercantile activities Newmans engaged indirectly with production because little fish could have been caught without their supplies. The supplying system replaced an earlier system of production in which merchants' ships caught fish with hired crews. During the study-period the supplying system broke down, to the detriment of the inshore fishery. The theoretical framework of this thesis is drawn from the writings of Eric Wolf, who advocates a more historical approach to anthropology than is traditional. I have, however, departed from Wolf's assumption that the purchase of labour as a commodity distinguishes between mercantile (distributive) and capitalist (productive) activities and I have also, unlike Wolf, attributed a productive role to merchants.
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