The New England Cod Fishing Industry and Maritime Dimensions of the American Revolution

Abstract

In order to get at the linkages between the worlds of commerce and the way of war I triangulated data culled from merchant ledgers, ship's log books, customs records, shipping records, diaries, newspapers, and military service records. Drawing on these sources, the dissertation defends a two-fold argument. First, economic competition between vested interests in the British Empire, principally New England fish merchants, West Country fish merchants, and West Indian sugar planters, resulted in a series of commercial regulations and naval police actions aimed at restricting New England's economic expansion. These regulations and actions THE NEW ENGLAND COD FISHING INDUSTRY AND MARITIME DIMENSIONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Inventing the Grand Banks: A deep chart

“…Franklin's Gulf Stream charts can be contextualised by a New England–Newfoundland fishery assemblage preceding and accompanying the American Revolution. From 1768 to 1772, fish represented 35% of New England's total export revenue; by 1775, an estimated 10,000 New Englanders, or 8% of the adult male working population, laboured in the fishing industry (Magra, 2006 ). With revolutionary tensions coming to a boil in 1775, Britain, aware of economic power of its Grand Banks resource, closed the New England cod‐fishing industry.…”

The Sustainability of Empire in Global Perspective: The Role of International Trade Patterns

“…649 and 651); unsurprisingly, this was opposed by the French West Indies sugar planters, for whom the prohibition to trade with the US implied a higher price of imported foodstuff (Goebel, 1963). 30 For example, Magra (2006) argues that "...100 quintals of refuse grade dried cod could be exchanged for slightly more than 21 hundredweights of sugar in the British islands, while the same amount of cod could fetch almost 28 hundredweights in the French islands" (p. 162); at the same time, "The shrinkage of available markets made French planters very willing to sell to New England buyers, and such pressures continually drove down the price of French West Indian molasses."(p. 161).…”

“…35 Based on these was collected. 32 Lower South: Georgia and the Carolinas. Upper South: Virginia and Maryland.…”

“…Among the merchants, those who traded with the world outside of the British Empire were fervent revolutionaries, while the others much less so (Tayler, 1986). Also, a strong impetus to the revolution came from New England's fishing industry, who according to Magra (2006) had greatly benefited from an expansion of activity and foreign markets following the expulsion of the French from Canada. 40 The revolution brought sanctions which damaged trade with the British Empire, but it also brought new trade opportunities with the rest of the world.…”

“…But what kind of environment did the US South face? According to the model, a clear distinction existed between the Upper South and the Lower South,32 with the former facing a more favourable global environment for revolution than the latter. The export trade of the US South was dominated by three commodities: tobacco in the Upper South and parts of North Carolina, rice and indigo in the rest of the Lower South.…”