What was the involvement of Jersey mariners in the Canadian cod-fisheries and the Transatlantic carrying trade?
By the 1750s the fishermen of Channel Island had set up lucrative trade routes between Canada, Europe and America where they established bases on the Gaspé coast where they could prepare the salted cod.
A jersey merchant, Charles Robin ,operated one of the biggest companies on the Gaspé coast where he set up the fishing post at Paspebiac in 1767 right after Canada passed to the English.
This included Jerseys lieutenant-governor sir George Carteret, who was the founder member of the royal Africa company which traded ivory, golf and enslaved people in the early 17th century.
People like Captain François Messervy of Jersey who was murdered in 1722 during an uprising on board his slave ship off in the coast of Africa and the Jersey trader Josué Mauger who in 1752 advertised enslaved people for sale in Nova Scotia, Canada, where his business was based were involved in the enslavement of slaves.
Which ports did Jersey ships sail to and trade with?
The earliest harbours known in the island were areas such as Havre des Pas, St Brelade, St Aubin and La Rocque were used as ‘mini’ harbours. There was mention of an apparent Spanish ship taking on a cargo of wheat “in the harbour of St Obin”.
As ships became increasingly larger, Gorey, which is first mentioned as a port in 1274, began to grow its importance and on the year of 1685 Dumaresq map appeared a small pier was shown although a survey, Dumaresq describes as it being decayed. On the map it also appears a simple stone pier at St Brelade. However there were no type of facilities in St Helier at this time.
Effort to actually build a harbour was actually acted on, in the late 17th century, when work began on building a pier on the islet on which St Aubin’s fort stands. Then, during the 18th century, the St Aubin’s harbour was constructed and then the construction of the St Helier port, although the capital had to wait until the 19th century before it really began to develop as an actual port.
St Helier was the main harbour that was used for ships to sail and trade with
What type of goods did Jersey merchants exchange for cod-fish?
Jersey had loads of ships which in peacetime held on two separate types of trade. The largest would go to the Newfoundland or the thereabouts in early spring or summer for cod, and returning in autumn, which was usually via mediterranean or Spanish ports.
The goods the Jersey merchants exchanged for codfish were things like tobacco, sugar, spices, ivory and many more
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)?
Due to the cod trade and related shipping industry, the spawn of shipbuilding industry with a significant number of shipyards on the south and east coasts of jersey. Initially, fishing vessels for the jersey fleet had been built in the outposts in Canada. This activity then shifted to jersey, with the large scale commercial shipyard starting operation in 1815. In that year, 69 vessels with the total tonnage of 7,519 were registered in jersey and by 1865, these figures had increased to 422 and 48,629, about 80% of the tonnage having been built locally. It is estimated that in the 1860s about 6% of the total tonnage of wooden fishing fleets built in the British Isles had been built in the Channel Islands, mainly Jersey
The best indication of the growth of the economy in the first half of the 19th century was the doubling of the size in population from 28,600 in 1821 to 57,020 in 1851.
This rapid immigration led to significant changes in the composition of the jersey population however after the Napoleonic wars, there was an influx of English speaking British army officers retired on half pay who found life in Jersey cheap due to this a demand in housing that was met largely by the expansion of St Helier.
Then, additional English speaking immigrant labourers, which many were Irish, came to work on the major building schemes such as the Esplanade, fort regent, St Catherines harbour project and the harbour development. The unskilled workers were underpaid and exploited which meant they lived in the poorest parts of town where they were exposed to cholera epidemics of 1832 and 1849. Other nationalities began their print on Jersey due to the work opportunities.