From Traps to Draggers by Peter R. Sinclair (review)

418 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW the capacity of the governmentto financeand accused the commission of exceeding its mandate.Lastof the essays to be recommended is that of AlexanderDowon thehistoryof metalmining.This essay sets outthebroad themesfor historicalinquiry in the historyof this importantbut much neglected industry.It shouldbereadin conjunction withDow'sdeeperstudy of financialand foreign controlin the basemetal mining industrywhich appearedin a recentvolumeof the Economic History Review. The otheressays in thisvolumearenotrecommended. Toomanyof them areglaringlysuperficial, inadequate in techniques of analysis, andtoopoorly writtentobeof anyinterest. Oneessay offersa veryout-of-date andshallow appreciationof the famous Chambers-Gordonpaper of •966 and the subsequent 'debate'aboutmodellingstapleeconomies. It misses mostof the relevant literature and then states a conclusion which is so obvious that one wonderswhy the essay waswritten. Another paper is centredon a wholly garbledeconometric modelof migrationinto Canadafrom Great Britain covering various periods in theyears•8•6 to •874,complete withdatawhich areknowntolackrobustness. Anessay of thisnaturewasclearly notreviewed byascholar of competence inthesubject. Yetanotherpaper,ontheconserver society, isalistofwhataredescribed asshifts inthinking- eachiteminthelistis amplified byafewsentences. It isatrulysaddocument. 'Onesmall planet. The viewofEarthfromspace haschanged theworld-view ofmany,fromacowboy, empty-frontier mentalityto a space-ship mentality'(3• •) isoneentry. Apartfromthefewpositive contributions notedabove, thisbookaddslittle to Canadianeconomichistory.It speaksto the inward-lookingand lacks standards; it cannot be recommended. DONALD C.•'ATERSON University ofBritish Columbia FromTrapstoDraggers. PETER R. SINCLAIR. StJohn's:Instituteof Socialand Economic Research, MemorialUniversityof Newfoundland•985.Pp.x, •67 Drawingon the historyof the inshorefisherybasedin Portau Choix,the largest fishingcentreon Newfoundland's northwest coast, PeterSinclair sets outto examinetwodistinctviewsof theroleof primary producers in mature capitalist economies. The first view,the differentiationhypothesis, suggests thatcompetitive forces willinevitably drivealargenumberof fishermen outof their boats,leaving a minority to expand into small capitalistforms of production. The secondview, the integrationistapproach, argues that domestic commodityproducerssuchasfishermenwill survivebecause the existingrelation among producers,manufacturers,distributers,and consumers is functional. Sinclair'sevidence isbasedon archival research, data collection, interviews, andobservation. Theanalysis emphasizes technical change inthefishery, from smaller boatsusingimmobilegearsuchascodtraps,to longliners whichuse REVIEWS 419 mobilegill nets,and morerecentlyto draggers,nearshore vessels generally between fiftyandsixty-five feetlong.Sinclairoffersaninvaluable description of the effects of this transition on the work lives and families of the men and womeninvolvedin the industry.The influences of the stateand the recent growth ofunions arealso discussed. Theconclusions areambiguous. Contrary tothedifferentiation hypothesis, thenumberof fishermen hasdoubled in the lasttwenty-five years; butcontrary totheintegrationist approach, thisincrease masks growingeconomic and social distinctions amongdraggerskippers, a localelite,andthe majorityof fishermen. Thesefindings arerelatedin parttoSinclair's manipulation ofdata.In the tables presented, thevalueofgearandthevalueoflandings from •956tothe present are not deflated,eventhoughsomeof thisperiodwitnessed rapid inflation.Oncecorrected, Sinclair's findingswouldappearmorepessimistic. Similarly,the author frequentlyrefers to a transitionto capital-intensive technologies, but thiscannotbe determinedfrom the datapresented. For example, Sinclair observes thatcodtrappingisrelatively morecapital intensive than someearlier formsof technology, but he notesthat it requireslarger amountsof labouraswell (4ø- •). Sinclairis also lesssuccessful in combininghistoryand a consistent theoretical framework.In theearlierperiod,fishermen aredescribed asrisk aversein their economicdecisions (48), but more recentlythey haveinvestmentsof over $4oo ooo in one boat (75). It is unclear from Sinclair's presentation if state interference, among otherfactors, hasalteredfishermen's behaviour, or whetherthestateneededtooffer fishermen generous financial conditions because they are risk averse.To giveanotherexample,Sinclair expends someenergyin describing pricingdecisions in the industry.His findingthatfishermen arepricetakers iscertainly notnovel,andmighthave beenmoreusefulasan assumption of histheory. In the end, Sinclair dismisses the two theories and others he hasexamined because theyaretoo'general.' Since inhisviewtheroleoftheoryistoexplain particular cases satisfactorily, it is not surprising that he findsall theories 'inadequate' (•8). It isplausible, however, thattheproblems Sinclair raises are notrelated totheapplication oftheoryitself,therawdatacollected, oreventhe theories he setsout to examine.The centralproblemisthe absence of any formulation toaccept or rejecthypotheses. MICHAEL Ht•BERMAN TrentUniversity TheCollectors: A Historyof CanadianCustoms and Excise. DAVEMCINTOSH. Toronto:NewCanadaPublications •984. Pp.4•4, illus. Customs andexcise taxesplayan importantpartin Canadian history.While Canada's nativepopulations taxedsome trade,wholesale collection ofcustoms dutiesbeganwith the Europeankings,who,recognizing a goodsource of ...