ECONOMY & DEVELOPMENT: The British Regime-Decline of Fur and Rise of Timber

Main Questions: What happened to the fur trade during the British Regime? How did timber replace fur as the main resource exported by the colony? How did the timber trade change how people did business in the colony? What new types of transportation developed during the British Regime and how were they used? What types of economic policies were installed or removed during the British Regime? How did this affect the colony?

The Fur Trade: Competition After the Quebec Act in 1774, the Province of Quebec’s territory grew all the way to the Ohio Valley In 1783 the Northwest Company was founded This was competition for the already existing Hudson Bay Company

The Fur Trade: Competition The competition forced both companies to expand their the territory in which they gathered fur  further West Both Companies opened up new trading post, employed more worked with higher salaries They tries to block each other from access to territories which yielded furs The British government had to intervene

HBC NWC

Territory change after the Treaty of Versailles 1783 After the Americans gained independence from England, the colonies in North America lost territory Province of Québec losses ½ of Great Lakes Region and Ohio Valley Loss of very important territory for fur trade

Fur trading network broken Difficulties: Loss of the O.V. and G.L. Waterway network broken  can’t get or transport furs as easily Hurts Montreal, an important fur trading city

Fur trading network broken Americans are sending furs to Philadelphia and N.Y.C The Spanish are taking furs from the south West (West of Mississippi River)

Fusion of HBC and NWC In 1821 the two companies merge together and keep the name Hudson’s Bay Company This was not enough, the fur trade was already in decline in favor of the timber trade

Decline of the fur trade in the colonies The timber trade took away hunting territory through logging Fur was in less demand in Europe The 1 company system made First Occupant people dependant on 1 supplier  which soured relations These factors lead to the decline of the fur trade

The Timber Trade in the 1800s

Timber Trade After 1812, England wanted more timber from Canada. Timber = wood / trees Even after the war of 1812 England continued to import timber from Canada This made the timber trade / industry grow within Canada

Timber Trade The timber trade had lots of effects on Canada Timber became the most exported natural resource  less and less attention was given to the fur trade People invested ($$$) lots of money in the timber trade  new companies, banks, etc. New places to work and new jobs! Sawmills, lumber yards and camps, etc. Lumberjacks, raftsmen, etc. More jobs  more people moved to Canada to work

Exported wood from the port of Quebec City to England

Timber Trade: Logging Logging means cutting down trees and moving the trees to be processed Most of the time, logging happened in the winter It was easier to cut trees down when the sap was not moving in the trees Snow on the ground made it easy to drag the tress

Timber Trade: Logging In the late fall or early winter, men would set up a camp in an area where there were enough trees to cut They would clear pathways to move the cut trees They would make sure supplies could be delivered as well The men spent several months in the camps

Timber Trade: Logging Lots of men who were in good shape were needed for logging Irish Immigrants and French Canadians made up the majority of the workforce The men used timber axes to cut the trees down and the shape the trees into squares The men also used cross-cut saws to cut trees down

Timber Trade: Logging Life in a timber camp was difficult Men moved from farms in the summer to timber camps in the winter Cold, not much food, difficult working conditions, etc.

Timber Trade: Logging Usually, the cut tress were ‘squared’ This means turning the round tree into a square shape Squared timber: large square pieces Beams / planks: thinner squared peices Oxen, horses and eventually trains were used to move the cut trees

Timber Trade: Logging Squaring timber could have been done by hand or by saw mills Saw mills were close to water  flow of water to help move the saw

Timber Trade: Technology   The timber trade used technology in different ways Sawmills, canals and railways were the most important Sawmills cut the large logs quicker that cutting them by hand Canals are man made ‘rivers’ to help move the logs quicker Railways could move timber and other goods quicker than water and could connect cities Banks were also important  they helped pay for sawmills, canals and railways

Sawmills Sawmills were built next to water way with fast currents They used the current to move a blade that would cut the logs into squares or into boards. There were very small sawmills that would cut logs for towns close by There were also large sawmills that would cut lots of logs to ship elsewhere Men would place logs in a harness and the waterpower would move the blade to cut the logs

Timber: Transportation Trees were put into a river or stream to be moved from the logging camp to other places Trees were put into the water in spring The water was free from ice The men used the river to move the trees.

Timber: Transportation Most of the time the tress were tied together This was called a ‘raft’ Mean would stay on the raft until it got to its destination Usually, the cut trees were put onto boats and sent to England or used to build ships / war ships

Timber: Transportation and Canals Canals are man made rivers They are used for the timber trade and for boats to travel into the continent Canals connect to natural rivers and lakes Canals were needed to make shipping faster This made the economy stronger The first canals were close to Montreal and Ottawa The Lachine Canal and Rideau Canal are still visible today.

Timber: Transportation and Canals Canals were very useful to import goods inland and to transport resources for shipment to other parts of the world (England mainly) The colony invested heavily in canals using tax money to do so People invested in logging benefitted from this greatly Cities connected to canals would become important ‘nodes’