Reading a different story

Bad news!

There really wasn't any economic golden age in our province's history.

Confederation with Canada didn't demolish our economy as many - myself included - would like to think. There was damned little to wreck.

So says historian Julian Gwyn in his book, Excessive Expectations: Maritime Commerce and the Economic Development of Nova Scotia, 1740-1870.

The book first came out in 1997 and is still available. It has much plausible information: there was no economic golden age any time prior to confederation. There were highpoints in long-range cargo shipping and coal, but the fishery and agriculture were long-time losers. Farming was in a slump, especially after the expulsion of the Acadians destroyed agriculture in the province for at least a generation. Fishing was a non-starter because of the divide between fishermen and the business interests that dealt with their catches.

Wolf depressions, such as the one in the 1840s - which coincided with the potato blight and the reduction of imperial protective tariffs, made things worse.

Reciprocity with the United States, 1854-66, had its high moments, especially with the Civil War.

Historically, from my study, the golden age of which many may speak was in the 18th Century, when the province got a lot of attention and saw a lot of action - most of it unpleasant.

New England and British troops took Port Royal in 1710. New Englanders took Louisbourg in 1745; it went so well, the British did it again in 1758.

During the mid-1740s, French troops and their First Nations allies would array before the gates of Annapolis Royal with less than love in their hearts.

The same love was missing when the French and First Nations forces attacked New England troops at Grand Pre in 1747.

And, the gold was less than glittering when the New Englanders expelled the Acadians in 1755.

Getting and retaining people has been a problem for Nova Scotia, Gwyn notes.

At one point, 1870, some 52,000 Nova Scotians were tallied as being in the United States. Between 3,000 and 4,000 more Nova Scotians a year were fleeing the province than immigrants were arriving.

Our economic golden age never really was. We join post-bellum Southerners who claim their families owned huge plantations before the Civil War, and Palestinians who claim they had a mansion in Jerusalem before 1948.

Not every Nova Scotian family had a coal mine and/ or a cargo vessel before confederation came and wrecked everything. Damned few Nova Scotians did.

Where does that leave us, besides stuck with real estate, a bad economic history and wasted opportunities?

I personally don't put much store in the fading promise of natural gas wealth: it is to me, well, so much natural gas.

I do believe in our location - in the middle of everything. After all, the Royal Navy agreed for decades, floating our economy.

If we can get the critical mass of population with the proper organization and foresight, things could well look up. If not, well, more of the same.

I hope Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn't get his mitts on a copy of Excessive Expectations. Then again, maybe he already has.