Source: French to English Tester Published on: 2026-06-18
Source: The Conversation – in French– By Allan Greer, Professor Emeritus of History, McGill University
At the time when young peopledrink less than ever, it is interesting to look at a time when Canadians were heavy consumers of alcohol.
According to my estimates, the average consumption of spirits in the 18th centuryeThe century was about 15 times higher than current figures. From 1720 to 1830, the colonies that would become Canada were steeped in rum. New France is an exception to this trend: there they drank brandy, and in smaller quantities. It was during the British conquest of 1759 that Quebec joined the rum empire.
As I explain in my latest book,Canada in the Age of Rum, this drink was deeply rooted in the economic life of old Canada.
Inexpensive rum flowed in from New England and the Caribbean, supplemented by local production from the distilleries of Halifax, Quebec, and Montreal. It held an important place in the fishing, fur, and forestry industries, whose workers were generally heavy drinkers.
(McGill-Queen’s University Press)
Rum, labor, and survival of fishing
In the 18th centuryeIn the century, alcohol was considered a drinkthat warms and is good for health, perfect for people who worked outside in a cold climate. But that is not the main reason why rum flowed into Canada in such large quantities.
Rum helped to resolve the chronic labor shortage faced by export industries. Every spring, theNewfoundland fishing patternshad to hire four or five men to catch, clean, and salt the codfish for shipment abroad. The pool of qualified fishermen being limited, and the competition to obtain their services very keen, they were offered generous wages. The problem was that payment was deferred until the end of the season.
Bottom of the form
In the meantime, the boss offered them free lodging and meals, as well as all the rum they wanted. The latter was charged to them on their pay, at a price up to four times higher than the retail price.
Consequently, when the time came to settle accounts in the autumn, many fishermen found that they had squandered their wages on alcohol. Some had even accumulated a negative balance and had to commit to the following season in order to repay their debts.
Suffering from a lack of capital and indebted to their suppliers, the fishing boat owners would have gone bankrupt if they had had to pay the full wages of their crews. But alcohol gave them the magical power to recover part of the wages and retain their employees for the next season.
Drinking while working
Far from forbidding the consumption of alcohol at work, employers actively encouraged it, because the more the men drank, the smaller their pay was.
The same logic prevailed in the fur trade. Every year, theNorth West Companyshipped hundreds of thousands of liters of rum from Montreal to destinations as far away as the Mackenzie River and the Pacific coast.
Part of this alcohol was intended for the indigenous clientele, but a significant portion was consumed by theFrench-Canadian travelerswho maneuvered the company’s canoes and manned its trading posts. In this sector as well, skilled labor was scarce and nominal wages were high, their total amount exceeding what the company could pay.
Merchants likeSir Alexander Mackenzieestablished a policy of having their teams drink during periods of inactivity, with the aim of reducing costs and retaining their employees. This strategy proved to be very effective. A register from 1805 indicates that 83% of Northern travelers were indebted to the company and that many of them had committed to an additional three years in order to repay the overvalued rum they had already consumed.
Alcohol and the fur trade
Moreover, the traders considered rum an indispensable element of their relations with the indigenous peoples who supplied them with furs.
The fur trade was rarely conducted through direct barter. For merchants, it was more a matter of exchanges facilitated by credit.
Every autumn, they supplied hunters with the necessary equipment for winter hunting, such as blankets, ammunition, and pots. They kept a record of the debts contracted and expected hunters to return the following spring with skins of equivalent value.
From a capitalist point of view, this was the most basic logic: an exchange of value for value, according to an implicit contract.
Indigenous peoples saw things differently. For them, the exchange of goods was part of a mutual aid relationship: thegifts allowed developing friendships, just like hospitality, advice, protection, and participation in ceremonies.
If, for any reason, a hunter failed to deliver as many pelts as planned, it was considered a breach of contract for the merchant. But the Indigenous person believed that everyone did what they could in a spirit of alliance, without calculated figures or strict deadlines.
Alcohol was useful for bridging the gap between these divergent economic worlds. After introducing alcohol during initial contacts, the merchants offered a drink of rum watered down when the hunters accepted goods “on credit.” Another drink was offered to them when they returned to pay their “debts.”
Moreover, a merchant could distribute drinks to encourage hunters to be more productive. Alcohol was rarely considered a commodity intended for sale. Despite someracist stereotypes still conveyed, Indigenous peoples consumed less alcohol than non-Indigenous peoples.
The hidden costs of an economy fueled by rum
Alcohol played an essential role in the proper functioning of eighteenth-century Canadian capitalismeA century ago.
It served to encourage indigenous peoples to adapt to the mechanisms of the global market and to ensure a supply of cheap labor at a time when workers were scarce.
It is the colossal quantities of cheap rum that made all this possible, despite the social costs, including ageneralized drunkenness, fatal accidents, violence, and domestic abuse.
Today’s capitalism feeds on other dependencies, particularly consumerism, fueled by digital media, while the empire of alcohol seems to be in decline.
Allan Greer does not work for, advise, hold shares in, or receive funds from any organization that could benefit from this article, and has declared no other affiliation than his research institution.
–ref. How rum played an essential role in the proper functioning of 18th-century Canadian capitalism –https://theconversation.com/how-rum-played-a-key-role-in-the-proper-functioning-of-18th-century-canadian-capitalism-279054