Economics in History Throughout history, people have always had an economic system The main purpose of an economic system is to answer 3 questions What.

Chapter 2Economics in History

Throughout history, people have always had an economic system

The main purpose of an economic system is to answer 3 questions

What goods and services do people need and want?

How can we make these goods and services?

How will we distribute them?

The term commodities refers to the goods and services that are distributed in an economic system

These commodities are either shared, traded or bought and sold depending on the type of economy

An industrial economy is an economy which depends on manufacturing technologies to make the goods that they sell

The 1st industrial economies started during the industrial revolution in Europe in the late 1700's

Now most regions of the world use this type of economy

First Nations and Inuit Economies

Needs and Wants

These people had a traditional economy based on the natural resources available in that region

The three needs of a people, including aboriginals, are food, clothing and shelter

Inuit tupik – summer residence made of caribou skin that was easily transported

Their homes were built on the materials around them.

Inuit winter home made of rock and sod

Overall, the First Nations and Inuit peoples needed and wanted land and natural resources

Aboriginal means living in a land from earliest times. There are 3 groups of aboriginal people in Canada

Handout 1

Handout 1Inuit

The First Peoples of northern Canada above the tree line

First NationsThe First Peoples of the rest of Canada

MetisThese are the children of either Inuit or First Nations people and the early European fur traders

ProductionAboriginal peoples produced goods by hand, mostly using bone and stone tools.

Nothing was wasted.Example : Innu used

caribou meat for food, its bones for tools, and its hide was used for clothing, shelter or footwear.

Aboriginal people believed the land and natural resources must be used wisely. They only killed animals that they needed

They gave thanks for the resources they used.

Example : Innu have a special meal called the Mukushan after a successful hunt to honour the spirit of the caribou.

The First Nations and Inuit peoples shared equally in what was produced and everyone helped produce it

Handout 2

Handout 2Maritimes refers to the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. These area had an abundance of resources year round.

Atlantic Canada included the Maritimes plus the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The land and water were sources of life so they were very important to these peoples

Very, Very Important ConceptFirst Nations and Inuit had no notion of private ownership (the idea that one person has complete control over an area of land)

Newcomers

Needs and Wants

Europeans first came to North America for economic, cultural and political empowerment

Europeans such as the Puritans in England came to America for religious freedom

Some Europeans were politically disempowered in their home countries. They were not allowed to vote

Handout 3

Handout 3Europeans came to North America for a variety of reasons

Wanted to own more land

Wanted to spread Christianity (cultural empowerment)

Looking for economic opportunities (economic empowerment)

natural resources such as lumber, furs, fish & minerals that they could sell back home in Europe.

Very, very important concept # 2Land ownership was very important for Europeans who had no hope of owning land in their former countries.

People were forced to either rent the land from the nobility (rich, upper classes) or work for the nobility in order to have a place to live.

*Irish potato famine*Scottish Land

Clearances

3 main resources Europeans wanted were

Fish

Furs

Lumber

Fish was a very valuable food source resource as cheap protein and for religious reasons since many days were decreed meatless days by the church

Many European countries were involved in the migratory fishery off the coast of Newfoundland but the English were the most successful.

Migratory fisheryCountries would fish during the spring and summer, preserve it, and return home to Europe during the fall

Domestic FisheryBegan in early 1700's when settlers from Ireland and England began to permanently settle in Newfoundland.

Fur TradeWas originally developed by the French who settled the interior of North America

The beaver pelts were of high quality and were made into hats for sale in Europe

Fur traders set up a trade system with the First Nations people and traded guns, blankets, and other goods for their pelts.

LumberLumber was of great

value to the Europeans because most of the great forests of Europe had been already cut down.

Great Britain needed lumber for housing and for shipbuilding to provide ships for the navy to defend itself and the British Empire

ProductionUntil the 1700's, even though most Europeans had metal tools to make their work easier, it was still done mostly by hand.

Some goods were made by specialized workers such as a blacksmith or a baker or shoemaker.

People could buy these goods in cities but most people had to make their own things

DistributionIn Europe, the economic system was based on the fact that if you owned land or a resource, then you had the right to make as much profit as you wanted from it.

The most common way to distribute goods and services was through markets

Early settlers brought goods with them, made them themselves, or traded for them. There were few markets in America.

The Impact of Contact

The term contact refers to the time when Europeans first came to North America.

Early Contact in the Maritimes

Early Europeans desperately needed the help of the First Nations people to survive the winters in the New World.

Likewise, the First Nations people were curious about the newcomers

Both sides saw an economic advantage by working together. The Europeans wanted furs and the First Nations wanted trade goods to make their way of life easier.

Treaties

A treaty is an agreement between two or more nations

The British wanted treaties with the First Nations to avoid conflicts and to prevent them from allying with the French

Likewise, the First Nations felt that Britain would protect their rights to land and their natural resources

Between 1717 and 1779, the British and First Nations signed a number of treaties called the “Covenant Chain of Treaties”

Each treaty was different but they all shared a common theme :First Nations agreed to act peacefully towards the British and the British agreed to respect First Nations rights

Effects of Fur Trade First Nations traditional way of life changed when they became trappers and they became more dependent on European trade goods to meet their needs

As a result, the First Nations economies were almost completely destroyed because of contact

First Nations began to meet some of their basic needs by trading furs for European goods

After a while, the furs ran out and the European traders moved on

First Nations could no longer meet their basic needs by trading

In the meantime, settlers had arrived and taken over the land which made it harder for First Nations people to hunt and fish in traditional ways

Eventually, First Nations found it very hard to meet their needs because they could not follow their traditional economies and were not able to take part in the new economy that was developing

Beothuk Handout

Beothuk - HandoutThe Beothuk were the First Nations people of Newfoundland.

They fished along the coastline for parts of the year and then moved inland to hunt the caribou and other animals during the winter.

Because the English participated in a migratory style of fishery, the Beothuk had no need to make contact with them

At first, the Beothuk kept their distance from the European fishermen who visited the island to fish. The Beothuks would collect articles left behind by the fishermen that were useful to them.

As settlers began arriving and settling the coastlines of Newfoundland, the Beothuks found it difficult to get to their food sources. This forced them to move inland.

When Europeans moved inland to trap furs, conflicts arose between them and the Beothuks. Many Beothuks were killed and they lost the ability to meet their basic needs.

Eventually, the Beothuk died out and became extinct as a people in 1829 when the last known Beothuk, Shanawdithit, died of tuberculosis.