Canada

Canada
How its development began:
Before the arrival of Europeans, the First Nations of what would become Canada had a large and vibrant trade network. Furs, tools, decorative items, and other goods were often transported thousands of kilometers, mostly by canoe throughout the many rivers and lakes of the region.
The early European history of the Canadian economy is usually studied through thestaples thesis which argues the Canadian economy developed through the exploitation of a series of staples that would be exported to Europe.
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Atlantic fisheries
The earliest European settlements in Canada were the fisheries of the East Coast, especially the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. Boats from France, Portugal, Spain, and Great Britain wouldtraverse the Atlantic fish for a summer and then return laden with fish. The trade was originally dominated by fishers from southern Europe. In Catholic countries, demand for fish was much greater. It was from the northern nations of Britain and France that the first settlers came, however. Spain, Portugal and the south of France had abundant supplies of salt because in the warm climes it was asimple matter to evaporate seawater. They would thus bring barrels of salt with them to the fishing grounds, salt the fish aboard ship, and return to Europe never having touched land. In the colder and wetter climate of the British Isles and northern France, salt was in scarce supply. To preserve the fish, they were dried by hanging them on large fish racks on the coast of Newfoundland and NovaScotia. These drying stations were active for months of the year, and eventually permanent settlements grew up around them. These small settlements totalled only a few thousand people, but they were many of the first European arrivals in North America
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Mercantilism and corporatism
Canada's economic development in colonial times was based on thephilosophy of mercantilism. This economic idea sought to derive the maximum material benefit from the colony, for the homeland, with a minimum of imperial investment in the colony itself. The ideology was embodied in New France through the establishment under Royal Charter of a number of corporate trading monopolies including La Compagnie des Marchands, which operated from 1613 to 1621 and theCompagnie de Montmorency, from that date until 1627. It was in turn replaced by La Compagnie des Cent-Associés created in 1627, by the King of France, Louis XIII and the Communauté des habitants in 1643. These were the first corporations to operate in what is now Canada.
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Fur trade
The fur trade was key to the development of the Canadian interior. In Europe, hats from beaver pelts had become especially fashionable and valuable, and the forests of North America were home to many of the creatures.
"Coureur de bois" - A woodcut by Arthur Heming
This trade closely involved the Native peoples who would hunt the beavers and other animals andthen sell their pelts to Europeans in exchange for guns, textiles, and luxury items like mirrors and beads. Those who traded with the Native were the voyageurs, woodsmen who travelled the length of North America to bring pelts to the ports of Montreal and Quebec City.
The French dominated the trade through the New France, the Ohio Valley, and west into what would be Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In anattempt to break the French monopoly the English began trading through Hudson Bay and the Hudson's Bay Company built an elaborate network of trading posts and forts.
There was fierce rivalry between the French and English and their respective Native allies. Even when the two nations were at peace fierce fighting would occur in the interior.
The great disadvantage of the fur trade for the...