Albion, R.G., Forests and Sea Power: The Timber Problem of the Royal Navy, 1652-1862, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1926.
Gillis, S.J., The Timber Trade in the Ottawa Valley 1806-54, Parks Canada, National Historic Parks and Sites Branch, Manuscript Report Number 83.
Gray, J.A., The Trees Behind the Shore (History and Current Status of Forest Industry in Newfoundland), Ottawa, Economic Council of Canada, 1980.
Hughson, J.W. and C.C.J. Bond, Hurling Down the Pine, Old Chelsea, Quebec, Historical Society of Gatineau, 1964.
Innis, H.A., "Unused Capacity as a Factor in Canadian Economic History," in M.Q. Innis, ed., Essays in Canadian Economic History, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1956, 141-55. Innis writes that, "The disappearance of the fur trade in the St. Lawrence was followed by exploitation of softwood (white pine) timber. As a bulky commodity with low specific gravity it could be floated down the long continental rivers, and with the manufacture of ships provided its own means of transportation to Great Britain. With a heavy return cargo and empty space on the outbound voyage, its effects were the reverse of the fur trade, and large numbers of settlers were brought out in preference to ballast. Rapid increase of settlement, particularly after 1820, was followed by rapid expansion of agriculture, especially in Upper Canada." p.146.
Lower, A.R.M., Great Britain's Woodyard: British North America and the Timber Trade, Kingston and Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1974.
Lower, A.R.M., Settlement and the Forest Frontier in Eastern Canada (published together with H.A. Innis, Settlement and the Mining Frontier), Toronto, Ryerson, 1936.
Lower, A.R.M., The North American Assault on the Canadian Forest: A History of the Lumber Trade between Canada and the United States, Toronto, Ryerson Press, 1938.
McCalla, D., "Forest Products and Upper Canadian Development, 1815-46," Canadian Historical Review, 68, 1987, 159-98. A good example of modern scholarship in the field, this paper suggests that the Napoleonic timber duties were not essential for Upper Canadian development although they may have led to earlier development and different product mixes than would have been the case in their absence. Also questions importance of the "developmental role of timber ships as emigrant carriers."
Wynn, G., "Industrialism, Entrepreneurship and Opportunity in the New Brunswick Timber Trade," in L.R. Fischer and I.W. Sager, eds., The Enterprising Canadians: Entrepreneurs and Economic Development in Eastern Canada: 1820-1914, St. John's, Memorial University Press, 1979, 5-22. Between 1805 and 1825 New Brunswick's annual export of wood increased forty-fold, transforming "a relatively unimportant and sparsely settled backwater of empire into a commercial colony of almost 200,000 people by 1851." p.7. This paper examines the commercial components of the trade and shows how entrepreneurship was a key factor in its development. Those who handled lumber in New Brunswick were merchant-wholesalers who engaged in a variety of enterprises including importing and exporting, wholesaling and retailing, insuring and shipping.
Wynn, G., Timber Colony: A Historical Geography of Early Nineteenth Century New Brunswick, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1981.
RETURN to previous page.