However, although it was the wartime timber shortage that sparked the trade, it was the subsequent action of the British government that was to sustain it for the next thirty years: in response to lobbying by timber importers and ship- owners in Britain, reluctant to risk investment in a short-term war—induced trade, in 1810 the British government raised the import duties on Baltic ton timber from 20 shillings per load to 27s 4d, and then in 1811 to 54s 6d, compared with 4s on North American timber, a differential in favour of colonial timber which greatly exceeded the added cost of the transatlantic voyage.608 The tariff was further increased in 1813, and then lowered in 1820 to 55 shillings a load (compared with 10 on colonial timber), a tariff structure that was to remain in force until 1842. In the period from 1821 to 1842, colonial ton timber had an advantage in the British market of from 20 to 30 shillings per load, after the cost of freighting, over that from the Baltic. It was this advantageous tariff structure, in place from 1811, that enabled the island’s timber resources to be sold profitably in the British market, and between 1811 and 1820 the amount of pine ton timber recorded as exported each year from the island to the United Kingdom ranged between 4,867 and 23,776

tons“).

The rapid development of this trade is amply demonstrated in the comments of contemporary writers. In the 1818 addition to his pamphlet John Cambridge observed:

the trade of the Island has much increased [since 7805]. From forty to fifty sail of shipping have been annually loaded with timber for Great Britain these some years past; this occasions a considerable demand and employment for industrious labourers, in loading the timber ships, etc. and more especially for those who

can use the axe — an art which is very soon acquired.610

1806, O’Hara Papers, National University of Ireland, Dublin.]; and in 1809 the son of Lieutenant-Governor DesBarres wrote: "the Farmers are all turn‘d Timber Merchants, every Boy that can hold an axe is sent to the woods", adding that “the pay given to those people is immense, much more than the first familys have to support them in appearance &c.” [J. M. DesBarres to Sir William Dolben, DesBarres Papers, PAC, Vol. 14]. The Cambridge Letter Books [PARO 3659/1] (relating to the business of John Cambridge) are also a largely unexplored source for the early boom years of the timber trade.

605 Similar tariffs were also placed on sawn deals and other wood (see Wynn 1981, pp. 30-31).

509 De Jong & Moore (1994) (p. 26).

6‘” [Cambridge] 1818. The number of ships that Cambridge mentions is similar to that of Anon. (1818), the anonymous author

of an article in the British New Monthly Magazine, who noted that

91

And, although John Hill (1819) in his Information for Emigrants omits to make a general comment on the increase in the export of timber from the island, he provides some useful details on the parts of the island where ’the timber trade’ was carried on, at the same time naming some of the entrepreneurs: Murray Harbour (’Lemuel and Artemas Cambridge’), Three Rivers (‘Mr. Andrew MacDonald’); Cascumpec (’Mr. Hill’ — i.e. himself); Bedeque (‘Mr. Campbell’), and Richmond Bays“. He also mentions the presence of sawmills at Murray Harbour, Cascumpec, Rustico, and New London, which presumably may have produced some 'deals’ for the trade.“2 These early timber merchants, seemingly already resident on the island when the trade began to develop, were soon to be joined by new entrepreneurs coming out from England to partake in the business: the Burnard and Chanter enterprise at Bideford on Lot 12 began in 1818, the Pope brothers arrived at Bedeque in 1819, and James Peake at Charlottetown in 1823.613

To follow any further the extent and significance of the timber trade for the island requires a detailed study of the customs records of wood exports from the island in the nineteenth century, and of whatever business records of the above enterprises survive in archival collections, a task

“more than forty sail of ships are employed in the timber trade to Europe, some ofthem six hundred tons burthen, and all built upon the island“ — unlike many of his other statements this seems entirely plausible.

6” Murray Harbour: “Messrs. Lemuel and Artemas Cambridge have a sawmill and their principal business lays in the timber trade, which they have carried on to a considerable extent“; Three

Rivers: “many large ships have laden timber... the chief person carrying on business there is Mr. Andrew McDonald. who is also

engaged in the trade of timber”; Cascumpec Bay: “Mr. Hill is the sole proprietor'; “Holland Harbour [i.e. Cascumpec Bay] is the most convenient part in the island for loading timber, where there is a very large quantity, also a sawmill for cutting plank and board”; Bedeque: “the principal person is a Mr. Campbell, who has carried on a successful trade in timber”. Malpec Bay: “vessels usually complete their loading about a mile inside Fishery Island [i.e. Fish Island], but rafts of timber frequently break adrift in blowing weather”. Nine years later, John MacGregor (1828) also mentions four of these places (Murray Harbour, the Three Rivers area, Bedeque Bay and Richmond Bay) as centres for the export of the island’s timber,

612 See footnote 554 for the definition of deals.

5‘3 For the timber enterprise of Thomas Burnard and his nephew Thomas Chanter of Bideford, England, see Greenhill 8. Giffard (1967) (Chapters 2 and 3); for the Pope brothers see Greenhill & Giffard (1967) (p, 51), and Holman (1990); and for James Peake, see Fischer & Sager (1979).