Old Trails and New Directions: Papers of the Third North American Fur Trade Conference ed. by Carol Judd, Arthur J. Ray (review)

REVIEWS 243 Old TrailsandNewDirections: Papers of theThirdNorthAmerican Fur Trade Conference. Editedbyc•,•toI• JUDD and•,•tTI-IU•t j. •t•,¾. Toronto,Universityof TorontoPress, •98o.Pp.viii,337.$3ø.oo. Thisvolumecontains eighteenarticles andanepilogue, varyinginlengthfrom 25to9 pages. Eightof thearticles run over•4 pages, ninehavefewerthan•5. Theyaregrouped intosixcategories: Maps,NativeSocieties, Social History, Personalities, Pacific Coast,Economic Aspects. The qualityof thepapers varies widely.A fewcontainmattersof substance andraisesignificant questions. Too manyofthearticles, however, areslight, containing nothingneworsignificant. Since thevolume ispriced at$3o.oo itisnotlikelythatmanyscholars interested in thefur tradewillbepersuaded topartwiththeirmoneyuntil,inevitably, the workisremaindered.This isa pity sincethe worthwhilearticlescouldeasily havebeenexpanded andpublished in scholarly journals.Asfor theeminently forgettable remainder,theyrepresenta sadwaste. The excellentpapersby Toby Morantz, 'The Fur Trade and the Cree of JamesBay,'and Arthur J. Ray's'IndiansasConsumers in the Eighteenth Century,' provide muchuseful information andnewconcepts thatruncounter to conventional wisdom.Thoseby D.W. Moodie,'Agricultureand the Fur Trade,' and Irene M. Spry, 'Innis, the Fur Trade, and Modern Economic Problems,' merelyrestate Innis's shibboleths. On page292Sprycites Innison thedestruction ofIndianculturebyEuropean technology, thencontradicts the claim in a footnote. Mr Moodie states that the fur trade 'remained the sole agentof economic growthin NewFrance...'therebyignoringthepreponderantroleof themilitaryestablishment. The twobrief paperson Indian and HudsonBayCompanymapsby G. Malcolm Lewis andRichardI. Ruggles areinteresting butalltoobrief.Sotoo arethose byJenniferBrownandSylvia Van Kirk onsocial conflicts inthetrade. JohnNicksprovides masses of statistics onOrkneymen withtheHudson's Bay Company •78o- •82•. Apartfromthose oncomparative earnings itisdifficult toseewhatusecanbemadeof them;andtobetold'thatthemajorityof the menwho soughtemploymentwith the Hudsons's BayCompanydid sofor economic reasons ...' makes one wonder. Of thethreepapers dealing withthetradeonthePacific coast thatbyJames R.Gipson ontheRussian fur tradeisauseful briefsurvey ofaneglected aspect ofthetrade.MaryCullenin'Outfitting NewCaledonia 1821 --1858'raises some highlysignificant questions thatonehopes willbedealtwithatlengthinamajor work.In thisarticle,however, aswellasseveral others, theinclusion of maps would have been desirable. As for the Epilogueby Glyndwr Williams,it would havebeen far better omitted. Finally, the'Bibliography ofPublished WorksCited'isnotcomplete. Some worksaremerelycitedinthefootnotes, forinstance note3øinthearticle byTobyMorantz cites Normandin• •7,aworknotlisted inthebibliography. It iscustomary togivetheauthor's name,fulltitleoftheworkandprovenance the 244 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW firsttimecitedinafootnote;apitythepractice wasnotfollowedinthisinstance. w.j. •.cc•.•.s University ofToronto Captain James Cook andhisTimes. EditedbyROBIN FISHER andHUCH JOHNSTON. Vancouver, Douglas andMcintyre; London,CroomHelm, •979. PP.x, 278, illus.$•6.95. Thisisnotjustanotherbiography ofJames Cook,thefamousgeographer and explorer.It is a collectionof paperspresentedat an international,interdisciplinary conference heldatSimonFraserUniversity in thespring of •978 commemorating the bicentennial of Cook'sarrivalat NootkaSoundon the west coast of Vancouver Island. This conference was one of a series of such bicentennial celebrations heldoveraten-year period,tracing Cook's voyages of discovery in the Pacificregion. Because so much of Cook's attention was directed towards the South Pacific, few Canadianscholars havemadethe famousmarinera subject of serious study.This mayexplainwhymostof the contributors to the SimonFraser symposium camefrom the Antipodes;such,for instance,as Alan Frost, Howard Fry, and Bernard Smithfrom Australia,MichaelHoare and David Mackayfrom NewZealand.Other conference participants, whose papers are printedin thiscollection, includeTerenceArmstrong, SirJamesWatt,and GlyndwrWilliamsfrom GreatBritain;RfidigerJoppienfromWestGermany, andChriston ArcherfromtheUniversity of Calgary. Of thetwoeditors, bothof whomaremembers of theDepartmentof HistoryatSimonFraserUniversity, Robin Fisherwasborn in New Zealandand graduatedfrom Auckland University.This obviousantipodeandominationof Cook scholarship is scarcely surprising. The bestknownandmostcomplete biography ofJames Cook is that written by the late John CawteBeaglehole and published posthumously in •974. His son,T.H. Beaglehole wrotein the prefacethatit wasa bookthat only a New Zealandercouldwrite, markedas it is by an understandingof and empathy for the peopleof the South Pacific.And Beaglehole, during his career,influenceda wholegenerationof younger scholars in theirthinkingaboutCook,includingseveral of thosewhooffered their papersat Vancouver. Thisisnot to implythatthe conference papersmerelyre-echoed Beaglehole 's ideasaboutCook.Asanygoodbiographer should, Beaglehole focussed the lensof hisscholarship on Cookhimself,the manand hisactivities; the contributors to the Simon Fraser conference addressed themselves to the influences exercised uponCookbyhiscontemporaries andassociates, menlike Joseph Banks andAlexander Dalrymple; theyexamined theextentandnature of Cook's contributions togeographical knowledge; theydiscussed howCook wasviewedin Russia, and how Spainreactedto hisPacificpresence; they ...