However, the fur trade is more than just an example of metropolitanism. It is also the first example in Canada of another theme -- the staple theory. Harold Innes wrote about this theory as the foundation of Canada's emerging role in the world economy as meeting the demands for raw materials or "staple" goods internationally. To a great extent, the staple theory holds true for Canada's economy today when you consider that our top exports are still agricultural products, oil, natural gas, fish, lumber and the like.
The Role of the Fur Trade in the early development of European Canada
http://www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk/back/issue13/fur.htm
Exploration, the Fur Trade and the Hudson's Bay Company
http://www.canadiana.ca/hbc/education/intro_e.html
Given the fact that Britain had outlasted France and Spain in the rush to colonize the New World, and the fur trade was declining due to the fall in the demand for fashionable products made from fur, "Quebec" as New France was now known, would move to a settlement culture. In the interests of growing the colony profitably, the British relied on the template of the Thirteen Colonies to the south, expecting that Montreal and Quebec would become centers of commerce and manufacturing. However, the capacity to do this was woefully weak given the fact that the French population that remained had no interest or skills in becoming merchants like the ones in Boston. They preferred to keep to themselves and continue farming along the banks of the St. Lawrence. British immigration to Quebec in the 1760's was limited and so the development Britain hoped for would not materialize. Ultimately, the real catalyst for economic change would depend on an influx of enterprising, industrious, and business-minded people -- namely, the United Empire Loyalists. But that would take until the time of the American Revolution; a long way off.
With the decline of the fur trade, the British were determined to moderize Quebec and make it as profitable as its American cousins to the south. The Royal Proclamation Act of 1763 was Britain's roadmap to this profitability. The act made the move from a staple society of the fur trade to the setttlement society of the future. First, it changed the borders of Quebec and limited the colony to a thin strip of land along the St. Lawrence. The hinterland of the Great Lakes was no longer part of Quebec. With no fur trade, it would not be needed and was more suitable for American colonial expansion. Secondly, it set the standard for property rights in Canada by officially recognizing two important principles:
- the land belonged to those who were occupying it (native peoples)
- purchase of property required fair compensation
These new conditions followed years later by the transfer of the western frontier from the Hudson's Bay Company to the Canadian government would culminate in the conflict which led to the Red River and Northwest rebellions.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/royal-proclamation-of-1763
In the meantime, the majority French population were frustrated by having a significant part of their livelihood (i.e. the fur trade) legislated away from them by the British in the interests of "modernization". As a consequence there was no enthusiasm for enterprise and the merchant trade. Combined with the relatively small numbers coming in from Britain, Quebec stumbled economically. The growing difficulties with the Thirteen Colonies and the unmistakable dominance of the French Catholic population, convinced those charged with administering Quebec on behalf of
Britain that something would have to be done to keep the French happy, otherwise they might join the American Revolution.
The solution to this problem was the Quebec Act. See the link below. It served to secure French Canadian support, but it also greatly offended the American colonists and is widely viewed as being one of the Intolerable Acts which pushed the colonists over the edge and started the War of Independence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Act
