Economy of cod: trade, connection, and cultural resilience in the French Atlantic

Abstract

The fall of Nouvelle-France (1763) is intrinsically linked with the reorganisation of European powers in the Atlantic World. It ushered in an era of political instability as nations fought over the rights to exploit economic drivers such as sugar and cod. France was not immune to the power struggle as they fought to continue participating in the Atlantic economy and sought to establish or maintain overseas territories. However, the efforts to maintain Caribbean colonies eclipsed the crucial role of cod fishing in the Northwestern Atlantic in the shaping and maintaining of the French Atlantic World. In the period following the collapse of Nouvelle-France, the reorganization of the French Atlantic created a mobile constellational network that distributed cod to support the sugar trade and connected colonies across the Atlantic. This generated an interdependency that, when studied from an agency and actor-network perspective, was key to the continuation of the French commercial network despite war, violence, and political uncertainty. Further, this network created lasting cultural exchange between colonies that continues to today. By framing the French Atlantic as an intercolonial constellational network, the French reorganization and the distribution of goods creating an interdependency between colonies and people was at the core of the French success.