Understanding Work Historically: A Reflection Prompted by Two Recent Studies of the Fur Trade

Abstract

THE FUR TRADE long occupied pride of place in the writing of Canadian history. For a generation Harold Innis's assertion, that the fur trade explains why Canada exists as a country, stood largely unquestioned. In the mid-1970s, this began to change as support grew for Stanley Ryerson's conflicting argument that industrialization preceded Confederation. Then, for more than a decade, labour, social, and women's history flourished as historians focused on the transformation of Canada in the 19th century. No new disciplinary consensus emerged, however, and in recent years the gap between historians interested in these newer approaches and those who defend the liberal values of an older, largely political, historical narrative has developed into an open rift. So, in their radically different readings of the fur trade, these two new books do not represent a renewed interest in an older field as much as they symbolize the politically contested terrain that is Canadian history. Edith Burley's path-breaking study merits the Macdonafd Prize. Servants of the Honourable Company is a stimulating and richly textured application of lessons learned in two decades of labour history. Her subject is the people who worked under contract as long-term employees of the Hudson's Bay Company when it actively exploited the interior of Rupert's Land. Her historical argument is that changes in the Company's operations can be explained largely in terms of repeated attempts to resolve the twin problems of labour recruitment and work discipline.