Development and Diplomacy: The Lobster Controversy on Newfoundland's French Shore, 1890–1904
The matter of French claims in Newfoundland probably caused more acrimony and outcry among the professionals and businessmen who dominated the Newfoundland legislature in the later nineteenth century than any other single issue. Most historians of the ‘French Shore problem’ have followed Fred Thompson's lead in analysing the history of the French shore by focusing on high-ranking diplomats and the colonial elite. They have also tended to view the conflict as involving primarily three groups: the French and British diplomatic corps and the Newfoundland mercantile and political elite. Using a well-known late nineteenth-century dispute over the lobster fishery as a case study, this paper reconsiders the history of the French Shore by drawing on reports about conditions on the Treaty Shore and on methodological and theoretical insights that have emerged since Thompson published his pioneering work in 1961. It argues that a wider array of groups exerted significant influence in how the controversy over lobster on Newfoundland's west coast in the late nineteenth century played out. Viewing the controversy from the perspective of these groups reveals the extent to which those outside of formal policy circles influenced the shape and viability of official agreements.
The History of the Lobster
ripped from his body, cut in pieces, broiled, and given to the young men under the belief that it would increase their courage; they rank his blood, thinking it would make them more wary, and finally his body was divided limb from limb, roasted or thrown into the seething pot, and bands and feet, arms and legs, head and trunk, were all stewed into a horrid mess, and eaten amidst yells, Son1gs and dances.* Much more might be added but enough has been said for our purpose, viz: to show that cannibalism beino so common in other parts of America, there would be no improbability of its existence in Florida. We have entered more into details than we otherwise should because the subject of American cannibalism has not received the attention it deserves. Mr. Francis Parkman is almost the only one who has taken the trouble to call attention to the documentary evidence which exists bearing upon it, and I am largely indebted to his writilngs and to himself personally for references to original statements.
Bankrupt Government Policies and Belligerent Fishermen Responses: Dependency and Conflict in the Southwest Nova Scotia Small Boat Fisheries
Abstract: Despite massive federal/provincial government financial and policy interventions in the Atlantic Canadian Fisheries, relations between small boat fishermen and various levels of the state are rife with a pervasive alienation, distrust and conflict. This essay examines attributes and consequences of state intervention in the fisheries. Small boat fishermen’s increasing dependence on state-controlled resources and the non-consultative bureaucratic style of government are considered to be primary factors intensifying alienation, distrust and conflict. Two cases of conflict in Southwest Nova Scotia are described and discussed in order to illustrate the attributes and processes associated with this condition. Abstract: En dépit d’interventions financières et politiques à grande échelle de la part des gouvernements fédéral et provinciaux dans les pêches canadiennes de l’Atlantique, les relations entre les pêcheurs indépendants et plusieurs échelons de l’État sont pénétrées de désaffection, de méfiance et d’antagonisme. Les auteurs rendent compte des attributs et des conséquences de l’intervention de l’État dans les pêches et ils en concluent que la désaffection, la méfiance et l’antagonisme sont sensiblement aggravés par la dépendance toujours plus étendue de ces pêcheurs quant aux ressources que détient l’État, ainsi que par le genre de gouvernement bureaucratique et non-consultatif. Pour démontrer les attributs et les processus qui se rapportent à cette situation, ils mettent en évidence deux conflits dans le sud-ouest de la Nouvelle-Écosse.