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

2. 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?

3. 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

4. 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

5. HBC
NWC

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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)

10. 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

11. 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

12. The Timber Trade in the 1800s

13. 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

14. 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

15. Exported wood from the port of Quebec City to England

16. 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

17. 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

20. 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

23. 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.

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

35. 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.

36. 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

42. 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.

43. 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’