Volumes Not Values: Canadian Sailing Ships and World Trades

Alexander, David and Ommer, Rosemary (1979) Volumes Not Values: Canadian Sailing Ships and World Trades. In: Proceedings of the Third Conference of the Atlantic Canada Shipping Project, April 19-April 21, 1979.

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Abstract

This is the third volume of papers from the annual workshops of the Atlantic Canada Shipping Project. The first dealt with shipbuilding and the composition of merchant fleets in the North Atlantic in the nineteenth century. The second focussed on the Atlantic Provinces of Canada and whether the region's general economic performance and the rise and fall of its shipping industry could be linked to the changing perceptions and capacities of its entrepreneurs. This third volume, which centres on the great nineteenth century bulk trades, once again places Canadian issues within an international context. Capie opens with a wide ranging survey of issues surrounding the growth of world trade and British Empire trade. On a smaller canvas many of the same issues arise in Ommer's study of the trade relations between Jersey and the Gulf of St. Lawrence region. Alexander, Sager and Fischer provide quantitative descriptions of participation by Canadian vessels in the deep sea trades with some preliminary measures of productivity. Greenhill and Matthews examine the trading opportunities for shipowners in South America and the U.S.A., which were of major importance for the Canadian fleet. Fairlie, Craig, Williams and Palmer write on commodities which were major employers of shipping in the century, and the particular problems for shipping which each entailed. From these papers and the discussions surrounding them many themes emerged, although one was dominant- the necessity for the maritime historian to concentrate on the volume of trade rather than its value. It is, of course, this theme which provides the main title for the volume.

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