What was the involvement of Jersey mariners in the Canadian cod-fisheries and the Transatlantic carrying trade?

The merchant network operated with ownership and management in Jersey, producing of codfish in Canada and markets in the Caribbean, South America, Mediterranean and the Baltic. 

1497 Newfoundland discovered

1792 Former Wool merchant, Philip Nicolle, enters the Newfoundland trade in cod. In 1821 he owned fishing posts and 5 ships; in 1828 he owned 18 ships and added banking to his interests. The effect on trade of the American Civil War was said to have caused this firm to withdraw in 1863 from banking and from most of their fisheries.

1766-1842 Jersey profited by the British conquests in Canada. It almost transformed the Gaspé coast between these years into a Jersey colony.

1950s Clement and Company becomes the last Jersey company trading in Newfoundland cod.

Channel Island fishermen were among this and by the 1750s they had set up lucrative trade routes between Canada, Europe and America, establishing bases on the Gaspé Coast where they could salt and prepare the cod. 

For some early settlers, life in Canada was a move to prosperity and business success – an escape from problems back home to a new land of opportunity. 

But for others, life in Gaspé in the 17th and 18th century was one of debt and eventually  bankruptcy in a harsh climate thousands of miles from home. 

The Jersey communities fitted in well in Gaspé, and despite the fact they were a minority, speaking Jersey-French in their communities and businesses, they were the economic giants of the area. 

One of the biggest companies on the Gaspé coast was operated by Charles Robin, a Jersey merchant, who set up a fishing post at Paspebiac in 1767 after Canada passed to the English.

Although Robin was forced back to Jersey at the onset of the American Revolution, he returned in 1783 and took advantage of the lack of competition to set up a fishing monopoly. 

In 1802, Robin retired to Jersey, where he died in 1824, but he had trained his nephews Philip and James to take over the company. 

Which ports did Jersey ships sail to and trade with?

Jersey has been an island for approximately 8,000 years: therefore, apart from the last 60 years, the only way for people to come to or leave the island has been by sea. Over the centuries the way in which boats have been powered has changed – muscle power, wind power, steam power and now diesel power.

During the Roman period there was an established trade route between Alet (St Servan) and Hengistbury Head in Dorset. Guernsey was the favoured stop off point, because of the natural deep water harbour at St Peter Port, although these boats undoubtedly called in to Jersey as well.

What type of goods did Jersey merchants exchange for cod-fish?

Jersey cod-merchants exported cod-fish to British colonies in the West Indies and later Brazil too in exchange for plantation goods, such as sugar, molasses, rum, cotton, coffee and tobacco which it brought to markets in America, Europe and the UK (Inc. Jersey).

To what extend, has the island of Jersey benefitted from its constitutional relationship with Britain and the legacies of colonialism based on a slave plantation economy during the first Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)?

 By the 1770s there may have been up to 70 Jersey ships and 2,000 Jerseymen engaged in the cod trade. By the 1840s it is estimated that the industry directly employed 4,000 people. Also, many others were engaged in manufacturing goods to be exported to the Canadian settlements.

However, Jersey was not without internal troubles notwithstanding increased prosperity. Both war and poor harvests led to increases in corn prices of such magnitudes that the poor were unable to feed themselves. Matters reached a head in 1769 when wealthy mill owners tried selling the little corn there was at very high prices to France, causing some local people to riot. The rioters went on to demand changes to the Island government which resulted in the Code of 1771, giving more power to the States Assembly.

What was the link with Jersey cod and the slave trade?

Jersey as an island made a fortune from the Newfoundland Cod Fisheries throughout the slave trade with cod being salted and dried then shipped to the Caribbean and used to feed enslaved people.

Was the Jersey Channel Islands involved in the slave trade?

“While Jersey was not a major centre of slave trading, such as Bristol or Liverpool, the Island was part of a global network of trade in slave-produced goods, such as sugar, coffee, cotton, tobacco and, most significantly, mahogany.

Cod and North America

The Channel Island fishing industry took to the opportunities offered with the opening up of the Grand Banks fisheries. Cod was valuable and from 1763 when Quebec was ceded to the British, colonies were founded by both Jersey and Guernsey in Newfoundland. The people in each colony undertook the fishing and drying, waiting for the company ship to arrive with trade goods they could exchange for the fish. Barrels of dried cod, 1,000-2,000 quintals a year, each weighing roughly 50 kg, being exported by ship to the Caribbean or western Europe. Sometimes there was a three-way trade with ships returning to the Channel Islands where the ship chandlers and merchants benefited.

The American war of independence saw the Guernsey fishing colony fade away as more profitable opportunities opened up, privateering. Jersey continued with the cod trade, in 1840 the Chamber of Commerce estimated the Island had 4,000 people and 8,000 tons of shipping employed in the industry.

The industry continued often using a triangle of fish to Spain, goods from Spain to the Islands and more goods to Newfoundland or cod to Brazil, coffee to Amsterdam and goods back to Canada. The cod monopoly ceased and died as a trade by 1886.