The complexity of the merchant-fisher relationship : revising the merchant domination thesis

Adams, Gordon (2001) The complexity of the merchant-fisher relationship : revising the merchant domination thesis. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The academic perception of the historical role of merchants and the system of credit that they employed in the Newfoundland state has been changing in recent years, particularly among scholars here in Newfoundland. In the past merchants have borne much of the blame for both the social and economic problems that were prevalent in this region prior to 1950. Poverty, the absence of significant community development, the cleavage of social ties within communities, and even the collapse of the Newfoundland state in the 1930s have been attributed largely to the self-interested economic activities of the merchant class. Gerald Sider's work has been cited as a good example of this perspective. Some scholars have now begun to consider other contributing factors to these problems, however, such as the role of technological change, the inherent complexity of the credit or 'truck’ system, and the necessity of credit to the proper functioning of the informal economy. An important aspect of this recent work is that it has begun to suggest that merchants were also operating under constraint. Consequently, their ability to re-invest in communities or alter their mode of business to remedy Newfoundland's social and economic ills may have been quite limited.

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