Early Manufacturing

The traditional emphasis on staples is perhaps partly to blame for the lack of attention paid by early students of British North American economic history. Since the 1960s, however, a great deal of work has been done to remedy this neglect, some of it inspired by a controversy which developed over a radical body of thought associated with the left-nationalist movement of that and the succeeding decade. A group of young critics of the status quo advanced the thesis that Canada lacked viability as an independent nation and had become a satellite of the United States by virtue of its failure to develop its own capitalist class and to take control of its own economic destiny. Part of this argument hinged on the contention that in the 19th Century, Canadian business had become comfortably preoccupied with trading and other commercial activities that required only short-term, low risk investments instead of riskier, long-term undertakings of the kind required, for example, to develop large-scale manufacturing facilities. As a result, the latter came to be provided by outside investors, first British, and later American. If nothing else, this contention helped encourage more careful study of the 19th Century beginnings of Canadian industrial development, the findins of which to date fail to support what is often referred to in the literature as the "Naylor hypothesis".

Even in the earliest days of European settlement there was some local production of manufactured goods to supplement imports. What determined the types of goods which would be produced in a new land where skilled labour and capital were relatively scarce and more expensive than in Europe? The availability and cost of transportation was obviously critical. Certain commodities simply did not travel easily or well, because of weight, bulk, fragility, or perishability. Thus it is not surprising to find early production of such things as processed foodstuffs, pottery, iron products, furniture and farm equipment in the North American colonies.
Initially such production was organized on a household basis. Animal products were widely produced in the farmhouse kitchen: cured meats, lard, and leather in excess of immediate family requirements could be sold to neighbours or in nearby towns. So could milk, eggs, butter and cheese. Cereal grains were custom ground at mills located where water power was available. Honey, maple syrup, beer and distilled spirits were produced for both home use and for sale.

Iron products were costly to transport because of their weight and so again it is not surprising to find local production of iron goods, especially of larger items such as ploughshares, iron stoves and furnaces. Pottery provides another interesting example of early manufacturing competing with imports. British pottery production was booming in the mid-18th century and exports of lead-glazed earthenware went from British factories all over the world. Most of the tableware and fine ceramics used in British North America came from Britain, much of it designed and decorated to appeal to local tastes. Although the basic ingredients required to make ceramic wares were available, few potteries in the colonies could compete with these imports. Instead they concentrated on producing the coarser, utilitarian pots and other containers needed for preparing and storing foodstuffs. In the more remote regions, particularly in parts of Upper Canada where goods had to be transported over the very rough roads of the time, local potteries had more of a natural advantage and produced a wider range of products. Such production was easy to organize. The necessary capital equipment could be locally manufactured. Human muscle power sufficed for the throwing and casting of pots while kilns were easily built of the same raw materials needed for the production process. Fuel wood could be obtained nearby. Salt and other chemicals for glazing was also easily come by.

Much the same could be said about the early manufacturing of farm equipment, wagons, furniture, and building materials. All of these items could be and were imported, but they could also be produced locally. Most of these activities were carried out on a small scale by local balcksmiths using inputs obtained from local sources.

Although 19th century manufacturing often relied on hand work and human muscle power, many kinds of machines were also employed, often driven by water power. Along with the forges used in refining iron, and the kilns used by pottery makers, various kinds of mills were built to grind grain, saw wood, process rags to make paper, turn and shape wood and metal, or make cloth. Before steam engines were developed for use in factory applications, nearly all these "mill industries" were concentrated along the rivers and streams which supplied the motive power to drive their mechanisms. Most of the technology employed in early British North American manufacturing was imported directly from Europe or the American northeast. Technologies used to mill grain into flour, for example, were imported directly from Europe, as were those needed for sawing lumber. Throughout central Canada and the Maritimes water power sites were plentiful and both grist and saw mills driven by water wheels or turbines were common by the early 1800’s. Sometimes the imported technologies were modified to suit North American conditions, particularly the rigorous winter weather.

Some early manufacturing industries developed in the colonies because access to raw materials offset the disadvantages of labour and capital scarcity. Wooden shipbuilding is perhaps the best example. Various kinds of vessels were built in Acadia and New France early in the 17th century. In the 18th century shipyards in New France produced ocean-going merchant ships and naval vessels for the French government and a number of vessels designed to operate on the Great Lakes. The industry expanded after the British conquest, particularly during the early 19th century when demand for ships in the Great Lakes region was stimulated by the War of 1812. Shipyards were also active in the Maritimes, most of them engaged in building fishing boats of various kinds, but some constructed large ocean-going vessels as well. By the middle of the 19th century British North American shipyards had the capacity to supply all types of ships required locally and also to compete in terms of price and quality in world markets. Unfortunately, by the 1850’s a technological revolution in shipbuilding was underway. For reasons which are not yet well-understood, British North American producers had difficulty adapting to the new era of iron-hulled steam ships.

Farm machinery provides another illustration of the complex relationships between local demand, import substitution, and the role of technical change in the development of early manufacturing. The farm machinery used in the colonies was initially identical to that used in Europe, although the European designs were often ill-suited to North American conditions. Horse-drawn mowers, developed in the US, were imported early in the 19th century. Threshing grain, one of the most labour-intensive tasks in early 19th century farming, changed little until the 1850’s. The old methods used for centuries in Europe persisted, with grain being cut by means of the scythe (improved somewhat by the addition of a cradle attachment) and threshed on the barn floor by flail or by trampling with horses, then cleaned by winnowing or passing it through a fanning mill. The first horse-drawn mechanical reapers and threshing machines were developed in the US and Britain in the early 1800’s and a few progressive farmers in British North America began importing and using the new equipment shortly thereafter. In the 1840’s the design of the more successful American machines was copied by Canadian firms, such as the Massey Manufacturing Company, which began producing them for local markets. Most of the early Canadian farm machinery makers were located in the area around the western end of Lake Ontario, close to supplies of materials and to the markets created by the expansion of farming in southwestern Ontario.

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