National dreamers, the national policy and the sugar trade

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the process of the industrialization in the Maritimes through an analysis of the sugar refining industry. It looks at three periods in which Maritime entrepreneurs were faced with dramatic economic transformation and observes which strategies they chose to adapt to those events. The first, at which we only look at fleetingly, was the period during the 1830's in which Maritime entrepreneurs expanded their mercantilist methods into markets as far away as the Pacific. The second was the choice of Maritime elites to shore up their traditional trading practises with new industrial technologies and attitudes towards governments. Finally, when faced with economic collapse, Maritime elites attempted to exert controls over the market place through federal policies and monopolies.

Another principal aspect in this thesis was the role that economic factors and particularly the sugar refining industry played in the Confederation debate and the subsequent acceptance of the new nation on the part of Nova Scotians. Confederation, in short, was seen as a way to preserve and enhance the Maritimers traditional trade patterns. The notion of a tariff coupled with a captive market allowed Maritime entrepreneurs to anticipate and invigorate economic prosperity. However, industrial prosperity hoped for did not materialize. The new industries faced a chaotic market place the populous of the region turned against Confederation. For those in the new refining industry, however, the only choice available to them was a further embracement of the Canadian market in an attempt to control it. We can say then that the sugar refining industry was the first "Canadian" industry and it played an instrumental role in the "Canadianization" of the region.