Economic Life

Through the role they played and the influence they exercised in economic activities, Basques made a contribution to the establishment and development of a new society in Canada that was out of proportion to their numbers. They were attracted to North America by the fur trade, whaling, and especially cod fishing. Their involvement in the fishery was a major factor in their settlement and in the growth of the fishing industry in Canada, and through the qualities they brought to it they became important agents of development.

Basques practised both offshore and inshore fishing. The offshore catch was sold as a heavy-salt wet product, while the catch from the inshore fishery was dried and lightly salted. In both cases, the fishers returned home after only a few months. Eventually, the cost of installations created favourable conditions for the development of a sedentary fishery, producing dried and salted cod. People from the Basque country were among those who taught the Canadiens this method of preparation, which spread more or less by osmosis when they shared the same shore spaces. This commodity helped the Gaspé and the Maritimes prosper in the eighteenth century, and Gaspé Cure, dried and salted cod prepared in the traditional manner, still provides income to the Canadian fishing industry.

Once they had settled in North America, most Basques maintained their traditional practices. Surveys show that 62 percent of the people whose occupation is known were involved in trades that were closely related to the sea. The largest number of these new settlers identified themselves at some time or other as fishers, followed in order by navigators, ship’s carpenters, captains, and sailors. The only activity that took significant numbers of Basques away from the fishery was trade, which was the reported occupation of about 15 percent.

Overall, people from the Basque country integrated smoothly into the Canadian environment, although there were some sources of friction. The fur trade and the sedentary fishery, which involved close contact with aboriginal peoples, were among the more contentious activities, and dealings with the Inuit of Labrador were sometimes difficult. For forty years, between 1718 and 1758, a Canadien of Basque origin held the position of King’s commander for the Labrador coast, and every year he reported clashes between aboriginal people and whites that were very harmful to fishing operations.

Nor did belonging to the same culture automatically guarantee harmonious relations among crews from Euskarie. Documents show that French-Basque and Spanish-Basque sailors came to blows in the waters off Labrador. Tension also sometimes arose between Basque sailors and colonial authorities. In 1690 an uprising that originated in the Basque community endangered the existence of Newfoundland’s Plaisance settlement.

In other circumstances, trade or job competition threatened the smooth operation of the fishery. Again at Plaisance, settlers were in the habit of recruiting labourers from among crews that came over from Europe. This did not please the shipowners who had borne the cost of the crossing. Later, after the settlement had moved to Louisbourg, authorities had to pass legislation to limit this practice, which was damaging to European entrepreneurs.

The line between the French legal system in use in New France and emerging colonial jurisprudence was not yet clear, and disputes arose in the Gaspé as a result. A controversy over allocation of shore space at Percé in 1686 was so intense that the intendant, Jacques de Meulles, had to develop Canada’s first labour code for the fishery.

Basques’ skill as fishers has always been universally acknowledged. In the early 1680s, François-Marie Perrot, later governor of Acadia, envisaged settling fishers along the Atlantic coast. He proposed that “1,000 young people be brought from France, of whom 200 would be able to teach fishing to the others; these we would take from Bayonne.” At the same time, authorities in New France wanted to lay the foundations for a fishing industry in the St Lawrence valley. The skill of the Canadiens, however, was not yet in itself sufficient to form the basis for such an industry. The king encouraged Denis Riverin, a merchant and high official, to invest in this sector of the economy, and he agreed to provide Riverin with Basque instructors.

There were Basque fishers along the Gaspé coast throughout the eighteenth century. Basque skill was of particular benefit to the fishing operation developed at Mont-Louis in the 1750s by the king’s commissary, Joseph Cadet, and helped make it the richest fishing venture in Canada during the French regime.