From Outpost to Outport: A Structural Analysis of the Jersey-Gaspé Cod Fishery, 1767-1886

Olaf Uwe Janzen is a history professor at the Memorial University of
Newfoundland.

This is a scholarly but extremely readable study of a trans-Atlantic
staple industry that peaked between the mid-eighteenth and
mid-nineteenth centuries. It will be of greatest interest to
staple-theory economic historians; historical geographers; scholars
specializing in the North Atlantic fisheries; and specialists in the
history of Newfoundland, the Maritimes, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Ommer sets out to answer the question “How did the cod fishery,
functioning as a commodity trade, shape the economic development of the
metropole that managed it and the colony that produced it?” Her
analysis emphasizes two apexes of the merchant triangle: Jersey, one of
England’s Channel Islands, which functioned as the home or management
base; and the Gaspé coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which served as
the production base. The marketing arena in Southern Europe, the
Caribbean, and Brazil is touched upon, but is not developed to the same
degree as the others except in examining the business strategies of the
Jersey merchants. By focusing on the operations of one family of
merchants (Charles Robin and Company), Ommer is able to explore in great
detail how and why the Jersey fish trade developed as and when it did,
the difficulty of organizing the trade profitably, and the interplay
between Jersey and Gaspé. In so doing, she also tests the reputation of
the fishing industry and trade for its poor performance stimulating
economic development, a reputation that “has not been so much tested
as merely affirmed.” Ommer concludes that the reputation is justified
insofar as Gaspé is concerned, although she cautions against simplistic
conclusions. At the same time, she demonstrates that the fishery was a
contributing factor in Jersey’s economic development during the
nineteenth century. While economic and political developments associated
with the Industrial Revolution in England and France eventually caused
the merchant triangle to collapse, Jersey merchants were able to
diversify the local economy in time to avoid profound hardship. In the
end, Ommer succeeds in developing an expanded concept of “staple,”
one with social as well as economic significance.