Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/860

Rh 778 CANADA interdiction of the American export trade to the West Indies. This was reduced from 500,000 in 1826 to less than 500 in 1830. While the results were such to the United States, we find the trade of the St Lawrence in 1830 not only fairly recovered from the effects of the Imperial Acts of 1822, but far surpassing its position at any former period. The arrivals at Quebec in 1830 were 967 vessels, having a tonnage of 238,153 tons. In 1831 the trade of the colony was still further favoured by the action of the Home Government. The forest and agricultural products of the United States were admitted into Canada free of duty, and could be exported by the St Lawrence, as Canadian produce, to all countries except the United Kingdom. A differential duty was also at the same time imposed upon foreign timber entering the West Indian and South American possessions, greatly to the benefit of the colony, which also profited by the scarcity of food existing in Britain at this time. The arrivals at Quebec during this favoured and prosperous year, were 1016 vessels, with a tonnage of 261,218 tons; and the exports of flour and wheat by the St Lawrence were about 400,000 barrels, chiefly to Britain. Between 1831 and 1836 we find a complete reversal of the order of trade between the colony and the mother country. The crops in England during that period being unusually abundant, and a scarcity of bread-stuffs existing in the United States, wheat was, in 1833, shipped from Britain to Quebec. A supply also came fr-om Archangel. These imports from Europe to the St Lawrence amounted in 1 835 and 1 836 to about 800,000 bushels. The relaxation by the mother country of her protective policy in 1842 was viewed with alarm by the colonists as fraught with disas trous consequences to their interests. Up to 1842 Baltic timber had paid an English import duty of 55s. per load, while Canadian timber entered England upon pay ment of 10s. per load. The duty on foreign timber was now reduced to 30s. and Canadian to Is. per load. At the same time the free importation of United States flour into the colony was stopped, and the West Indies were allowed, on the payment of a duty of 2s. per barrel, to import their flour direct from the Americans. These serious blows to the trade of the St Lawrence fell upon the colony at the period of a commercial crisis, and were therefore felt more severely. The number of vessels that entered the St Lawrence in 1842, from the sea, was 377 less than during the previous year. In 1843, Canada was allowed to import American wheat under a comparatively nominal duty, and to export it through the St Lawrence as native produce to the British market. This measure, which may be viewed as having been the first indirect blow at the English corn-laws, amounted to a virtual premium of about 6s. sterling per quarter upon American exports to Britain through the St Lawrence. The British ports were thus at once in a great measure thrown open to all the great wheat-growing coun tries of North America. Canadian exports were rapidly swelled in consequence; and in 1846 half a million of barrels, and as many bushels of wheat and flour, were shipped by the St Lawrence. The timber trade of the colony, which was also seriously threatened in 1842 by the large reduction of the duty on Baltic timber imported into England, witnessed likewise in J845 and 1846, not merely a revival, but a very material increase. The number of vessels that entered the St Lawrence rose to 1699 during each of these years, with an aggregate burden of over 620,000 tons, this being a much larger amouut of ship ping than had ever in any previous year ^Ifcred the St Lawrence. The history of Canadian trade enters upon a new stage from 1846, when the commercial policy of England at length relaxed the old restrictive navigation laws in refer ence to her colonial possessions. One of the most practical evidences of its beneficial influence on Canadian trade is shown in the increase of its traffic with the United States, at the very time that its trade relations with the mother country were being annually augmented in a corresponding ratio. From 1821 to 1832, the aggregate annual traffic between the United States and Canada averaged no more than $3,257,153. From 1833 to 1845 the average in creased, with the growing population, industry, and wealth of both countries, to $6,313,780 per annum. But under the influence of the more liberal policy inaugurated by Great Britain in 1846, the traffic rose between that year and 1853 so rapidly that its annual average amounted to $14,230,763. But the concessions made by the mother country in favour of the timber and corn trade of Canada were still only partial. The exportation of colonial produce from the St Lawrence could only be carried on in British vessels ; and thus there grew up a class of vessels specially appro priated to this trade, which made only two voyages in the year to Quebec or Montreal ; and these having a monopoly of the whole exports of the St Lawrence at privileged rates, the colony was virtually subjected to a heavy tax both on its exports and imports. Tea, coffee, sugar, and all the manufactured articles still required to be obtained from abroad were thus only obtainable through English ships ; and hence the Canadian merchant was greatly restricted in the choice of the best and cheapest market. In return, however, the colonists had certain privileges accorded to them, foremost amongst which were those already referred to in connection with the import of wheat from the United States, and its export from the St Lawrence as native produce, the Canadian merchants having an advantage thereby over their competitors in New York and other American ports. The abolition of the British corn laws deprived Canada of the privileges thus accorded to her in the export of bread-stuffs, and seemed to threaten the trade of the St Lawrence with grievous discouragement at the very time when the transactions of the colony with the United States were in a great measure interdicted by a hostile tariff. The changed and more enlightened views, however, which entered into imperial legislation materially assisted the growing energies and intelligence of the colonists. The Imperial Government formally abandoned in 1847 all control over the customs of the colony, which immediately set itself to the task of regulating its own trade. One of the first measures of the colonial legislature was to abolish in a great degree the differential and prohibitory duties on colonial imports along the United States frontier ; and the Americans upon the other side of the St Lawrence were by this measure placed, as, regards matters of trade, upon an equal footing with England. The beneficial effects of this measure showed itself at once in increased commercial activity and prosperity over the whole of Canada. On the 1st of January 1850, England completed her free trade measures by relieving the colonies from the injurious effects of the British navigation laws. The value of the more enlightened views which thus entered into both imperial and colonial legislation has since been most satisfactorily tested in the growing wealth and prosperity which have attended the progress of the colony. The same year is memorable for other events affeoting Canadian pro gress. It was in 1850 that gold was first discovered in British Columbia, and coal at Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island ; and so the steps were accelerated which led to the organization of the first province of the Dominion on the Pacific. The same year was marked by the organization of the opposition to ecclesiastical endowments, as well as to