THE SHIPPING NEWS PROJECT
HANNE
Industrialisation in Newfoundland
For nearly four hundred years all economic activity in Newfoundland was centred on the fishery. At the peak of the traditional fishery, in the 1880s, the population had reached 200.000 people, spread along 6.000 miles of coastline, mostly in small outport settlements. In the 19th century, St. John's became the centre of commercial activity. Both the cod fishery and the seal fishery expanded greatly during the 19th century. Newfoundland's main export - dried salt cod - was exchanged for imports from Britain, the US and Canada. The fishery could not continue to expand, and by 1940, fishery products made up only 24 % of exports. However, Newfoundland had a secure position as the world's largest exporter of salt codfish. The cod fishing was pursued mainly by family enterprises until well into this century. These families were nominally independent, which meant that they could sell their fish to the highest bidder, but they were also tied to merchant companies who took their fish in exchange for equipment and supplies. They both provided employment and income for fishermen, workers in shipbuilding and other maritime trades. After Newfoundland became a part of Canada in 1949, salt fish markets declined, while the market for frozen fish products increased.
Since Newfoundland became a Canadian province, it has been characterised by the lowest per capita incomes and it has the highest rates of unemployment in the country. In the 70s, a union among the fishery workers improved the earnings and conditions for the fishermen. However, the industrialised fishery put huge pressure on fish stocks. Vessels from other countries were taking the major share of fish from the cod-rich Grand Banks. Stocks continued to decline, and in 1992 a moratorium was declared on Canada's East Coast cod fishery. There has been practically no wage work available in lots of outport communities, due to the collapse of cod fishery, and young people are leaving the province to get work elsewhere. Since there has been an increased catch of species such as crab and shrimp, the value of fishery products has remained about the same as before the moratorium. Still, hundreds of coastal communities continue to have the fisheries as their main economic base even today.
Newfoundlanders had always worked with a variety of tasks as the season changed, a practice known as occupational pluralism. Wage work in enterprises such as working in mining, on the railway, and in forestry gave steady jobs with fixed wages to the growing work force in the latter part of the 19th century. This was quite unlike the seasonality and uncertainty of the fisheries. It was not until the 19th century, however, that economic diversification became public policy. Newfoundland governments, commissions and task forces have offered proposals for diversifying the economy to reduce dependency on the fisheries and create new forms of wealth and employment. Over the years,
more or less every known approach to industrialisation and diversification has been tried in Newfoundland and Labrador. These areas have been something of a laboratory for trying out different approaches to economic diversification. There are six main approaches here:1. Opening up the interior
The main approach was to build roads and a railway to connect the interior of the island part of the province in order to discover and exploit land-based resources such as forest products and minerals.2. Small-scale manufacturing
This approach was encouraged to make fishery equipment and other resource industries and also to manufacture consumption goods that were being imported into the country/province. Recently, manufacturing for export into niche markets has enjoyed a promising revival as part of Newfoundland's diversification efforts in the new global economy.3. Industrialisation / Urbanisation
Due to J. R. Smallwood's development policies from 1949 to 1972, industrialisation took place through large-scale manufacturing and resource projects. People from hundreds of small fishing outports were resettled into larger growth centre. This was only partly successful, and the strategy was dominated by outside interests, social dislocation and charges of corruption. However, several new industrial projects were developed.
4. Resource-led growth
The focus here was on trying to gain control of the rich resources and to maximise local benefits. This was due to the Progressive Conservative governments (1972-1989). This strategy was successful when it came to the new resources such as oil and gas, but it did not achieve much for the rural areas, and most new growth opportunities were in non-resource-based business.5. Rural development
This approach had its strongest support at the local level as a reaction against the resettlement moving in the 70s. There is now also a more businesslike and professional approach to community economic development due to the Liberal governments.6. New economy opportunities
This approach is based on the premise that technological changes and the changes in the global economy have created new economical possibilities in different sectors such as adventure tourism, information industries, health products and services. Newfoundland can these days be described as having a diversified resource-based economy in many different sectors: Fisheries and agriculture, mining, forest products, hydroelectricity, oil and gas, manufacturing, construction, tourism, agriculture and secondary food processing, technical and information industries, and a host of public, professional and business services.Sources: http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/labour.html and http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/industry.html
The industrialisation of Newfoundland in connection with "The Shipping News".
When Quoyle arrives in Newfoundland, he is offered a job in a newspaper in Killick-Claw called "The Gammy Bird". The job involves covering the local car wrecks and also covering the shipping news. The newspaper editor is called Jack Buggit, and he tells Quoyle how he started "The Gammy Bird". From my point of new, this is a neat way to tell the readers about the industrialisation of Newfoundland. Buggit comes from a family of fishery workers. He said that it used to be a good living, although you had to work hard, or as Buggit puts it: "You worked your cockadoodles gut out" p. 64. He also proclaims that even though it was a hard life, it had the satisfaction. I think that he meant that they found the work meaningful, and that in a way, they had a control over their own lives.
When Newfoundland became a part of Canada in 1949, things changed. According to Jack Buggit, people were told to forget the fishery. People would be offered other kinds of jobs. This did not happen, and the fishing went down. The Canada government gave the fishing rights to other countries, and regulated the Newfoundlanders out of business. Jack Buggit also blames Greenpeace for trying to shut down the sealing. Finally he goes to the Canada Manpower at Killick-Claw to look for work. He tells them about his skills, but they are not interested in fishermen. They want to train him in a marketable skill, and this is the beginning of a lot of unsuccessful industry projects where he is involved. The author shows us through the voice of Jack Buggit that she is very critical about the experimenting with these new industrial projects. There were many failures along the way and a lot of things went wrong. Canada Manpower seems to represents the Canadian government here. Finally, Jack Buggit takes action on his own, and decides to start his own newspaper. As he puts it himself: " …I made up my mind that if they could start a glove factory with no leather or nobody that knew how to make 'em, I could start a newspaper." p. 67. He was sent off to Toronto to learn the business, and was supported financially by the government. He thinks what he learns there is worthless, and that he learns to run the newspaper by himself. He builds on his own experiences, and that he knows what people wants to read about.