David Lawson (agent and business partner of James Montgomery, the proprietor of Lot 34) was allowing others to cut timber on the township, some of which was intended for exports”. It should be noted that none of these early efforts to exploit the island’s timber resource seems to have been successful in financial termssoo, and all of them were disrupted by the American Revolution which broke out in 1776 and lasted seven years.601 During this early period there is also evidence for the large—scale cutting of timber for use on the island: Philips Callbeck, the acting governor, cut pine and spruce from areas along the Hillsborough River in Lot 34, and probably also from elsewhere, some of the wood going into military barracks to house the large numbers of soldiers present because of the war.602

By the turn of the eighteenth century various comments indicate that the timber trade to Great Britain had resumed after the ending of the American war: John Cambridge (0. 1796) included ’lumber’ as one of a number of items that were exported to England from the island, as did the visitor Edward Walsh in 1803.603 We get an indication, however, that the level of this trade was not very great from the comment of another visitor two months later: Lord Selkirk (1803) recorded that ”the lumber exported has been trifling and irregular”, while John Stewart (1806). long resident on the island, noted that ”our articles

(1775-1818) (1775 to 1778) for details on some of the timbering and lumbering work done at New London.

599 We know of David Lawson's involvement in the exploitation of the pine and spruce along the Hillsborough River section of Lot 34 from a letter that Chief Justice Peter Stewart (1783) sent to the proprietor concerning the matter, though in fact the ship that was supposed to take some ofthe timber “never came”.

60° Governor Patterson (1774), in a letter to the Secretary of State in London, noting that “there hath been some timber sent home", added however that “the principals who have been concerned in [the trade] have hitherto been loosers".

601

See Bumsted (1987) (Chapters 3 and 4).

502 Stewart 1783. See also Bumsted 1987, p. 75. 603 Also, I note from the Hooper Letters (PARO: Acc. 2652: pp. 17, 18) that in August and September 1787 William Patterson, seemingly a brother of the then ex-governor Walter Patterson, was attempting to acquire wood in the Bedeque Bay area for loading onto “a fine ship [from England] belonging to my Bros. in the Harbor wanting a Cargo of Lumber‘. This may be a reference to either or both of his brothers Walter and John Patterson, who were the co-proprietors of Lot 18 in the area. By August 1787 Walter Patterson, though apparently still present on the island “protecting his interests as a landowner and engaging in trade“ (Baglole 1979), had been displaced by Governor Fanning. (For the genealogy of the Patterson family see: wwwl/islandregistercom/patterson1 .)

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of export now consist of some timber to Newfoundland, and occasionally a few cargoes of squared timber to Great Britain”. This is supported by the custom records that indicate that between 1802 and 1806 a total of only eight timber ships cleared island ports bound for Great Britain.604 For, all of these early efforts to develop a timber trade from the island to Britain, were operating under a major disadvantage, namely the cost of freighting it across the Atlantic in comparison with the cost of importing wood to Britain from the Baltic Sea area, which from the Middle Ages onward, had been the principal supplier of timber and wood to the British Isles. This however was all to change as a result of the actions of a certain man from Corsica.

The timber trade to Britain in the nineteenth century — As a result of his defeat of Prussia in 1806 followed by a peace treaty with Russia in 1807, Napoleon was able to close most of the Baltic Sea ports to British shipping. As a result, Britain’s timber imports from the area dropped dramatically. Demand for wood quickly exceeded supply and timber prices rose sharply in the British market. In direct response British wood importers turned to British North America, and as a result the colonial timber trade was born.605 The few entrepreneurs on Prince Edward Island were as quick as any in getting in on the action: in 1806 only 375 tons of pine timber were exported to the United Kingdom from the island; in 1807 this rose to 2,120 tons; in 1808, to 9,084; and in 1809, to 18.268606. 607

6°“ In an examination of the custom records between 1802 and

1808 I found 42 ships that cleared customs bound for British ports, all carrying wood: 1802 — no ships; 1803 - 2; 1804 - 1; 1805 - 2; 1806 - 2; 1807 - 8; 1808 - 27 [PAROI R.G. 9: Collector of Customs. Shipping outwards, all points,1802-1827]. (Two of these numbers differ from those recorded by De Jong & Moore (1994) (p. 386) who list 3 vessels in 1803, and 39 in 1808; I also note that Holman

(1987) says that in 1808 41 timber ships loaded on the island for Britain.)

6“ See Wynn (1981) (pp. 28-33) for a summary history of the British timber trade and tariffs. A more extended coverage is to be found in Lower (1973).

606 These figures are from the P.E.|. Customs Records, as compiled by De Jong & Moore (1994) (p. 26). A ‘ton' is 40 cubic feet. Compare the rise in timber exports for the whole of British North America, as given by Lower (1973) (p. 54): in 1807: 27,000 loads were exported to Britain; 1808: 57,000 loads; 1809: 90,000 loads (a ‘load' is 50 cubic feet).

607 The sudden boom in the timber trade from 1806 led to a flurry of activity that drew contemporary comment: Bumsted (1982) quotes the Chief Justice of the island as writing: "from noon until night you hear nothing but lumber nor do I believe there can be two [or] three persons on the Island who is not more or less engaged in that distinction" [Caesar Colclough to Charles O'Hara, 23 May