Excessive Expectations: Maritime Commerce and the Economic Development of Nova Scotia, 1740-1870

Olaf Uwe Janzen is an associate professor of history at Memorial
University, reviews editor of The Northern Mariner, and editor of
Northern Seas.

Julian Gwyn takes issue with the view, articulated in 1965 by W.S.
MacNutt, that the Maritime Provinces generally, and Nova Scotia in
particular, enjoyed an “already high level of prosperity” during the
first half of the 19th century, a prosperity that was enhanced after
1853 by reciprocity with the United States but that withered under the
coincidental effects of the abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty in 1865
and confederation with Canada in 1867. Instead, Gwyn sees “little
evidence of an economic golden age for most Nova Scotians.”

The argument is not completely new. Over the past 20 years, a number of
historians, including Gwyn, have been suggesting as much in both
articles and monographs on particular aspects of Maritime economic
history. Gwyn, however, is the first to synthesize the material into a
single articulate and convincing argument.

In the first half of the book, he examines three eras: 1740 to 1815,
when British military and imperial spending together with migration out
of the region (the Acadian Expulsion) and into the region (the
Loyalists) were the key factors in shoring up the economy; 1815 to 1853,
a period of economic stress when a weak agricultural base failed to
support Nova Scotia’s commercial ambitions in the North Atlantic; and
1853 to 1870, when the promise of economic vitalization through
reciprocity failed to deliver.

In the second half of the book, Gwyn examines four factors that shaped
Nova Scotia’s economic history: regionalism, by which Gwyn means the
way in which Nova Scotia lacked economic coherence but was instead
fragmented into several small, often competing regional economies; the
standard of living; the impact of reciprocity with the United States;
and Nova Scotia’s balance of payments. In the end, low wages, high
taxes, inadequate communications and transportation systems, inefficient
or restrained manufacturing, and inadequate exchange systems inhibited
consumer demand and therefore economic growth.

Gwyn’s analysis is certain to provoke debate. For that reason alone,
this is an important book. That his discussion explains the
characteristics and dynamics of a colonial economy in language that
should be clear and accessible to undergraduates is a welcome bonus.